Recommendations

The above general findings about the quality of the LOGO South programme lead to the following recommendations.

Maintaining existing strengths:

• Systematically check all project proposals; the contribution of strengthening local governance should be central.

• Maintaining adaptability in programme applications – in variety of activities eligible for funding

• Reconsider the main relevant themes and identify most strategic themes; they should be in line with the expertise and experience of local governments and focus on strategic themes at the country level

• Make strategic choices to ensure both critical mass and multi-level approach in chosen sectors. Be open to changes in the countries the LOGO South programme focuses on; a few countries might be reconsidered in case mass becomes too limited. Other countries where a mass does exist and which do not receive support at the moment might be interesting. As a rule of thumb, a minimum of 3 projects per country may be considered as a prerequisite for establishing a country programme.

• Not limitingtwinnings to municipalities only (especially important in building sectoral partnerships)

• Promoting combinations of stakeholders at different scale levels

• Maintain support for missions to NL and ensure ‘peers’ from whom to learn (e.g. promote exchange between CEOs of social housing institutions in Netherlands and of CMA)

• Maintain existing cooperation in regional ACB programmes with other donor organizations and LGAs

• Continue harmonization with donors but also actively search for (new) strategic partners; both locally and internationally.

Increasing strengths:

• Maximize the leverage effects of the programme:

o where possible, scaling up impact of municipal activities (e.g. in waste, housing, finance, etc) by linking them to sectoral organizations and national policy

o for local projects, make sure that they are linked to higher government levels

o selecting/promoting strategic twinning as examples for future directions to be taken by other municipalities

o utilizing LGAs as platforms for national and international exchanges – to influence policy development

o draw in politicians at an early stage into project cycle/process, to reduce delays and interference in policy implementation

o After policy formulation processes have been completed, politicians should not be allowed to intervene in implementation processes

• Strengthen learning effects in projects and programme

o draw in education/research institutions more systematically at project level

o Country-coordinator and VNG-I staff in NL should function as matchmaker to ensure a more tailor-made setting to exchange knowledge. Only if country-coordinator act as catalyst and match- maker South-South exchange will flourish

o provide facilities (country coordinator) for exchange of lessons, guidelines, manuals for implementation at the sector level for all themes/projects at the country level

o market the results of the twinning/sectoral projects to wider public to indicate improving trends in institution-building systems (e.g.: CMA) o develop a differentiated certification system for different learning

modalities in the project. Training received in Dutch higher education institutes can be co-validated by national validation organizations. Training through exchange activities and on the job training can be certified by VNG-I

o provide international exchanges only at explicit request of Southern partners

o make facilities for international and national South-South exchanges more widely known

• Involve councillors and mayors in programmes to increase political support. • Identify and select strategic LGAs for ACB programme (e.g. no ‘councillors’

clubs’)

• Increase institution-building capacity (increasing cooperation between departments in one municipality; existing strong links with other stakeholders in the city)

Overcoming weaknesses:

• Improve coherence by trying to link between MIC and ACB programmes and to focus PD&R on the core and strength of the LOGO South programme, instead of mainly starting new initiatives.

• Include making an analysis of the political context including a risk analysis for all new project proposals (VNG International could support making the analysis).

• Reserve more time at VNG International for strategically implementation. • Learning processes in the projects, which are quite strong in practice, should

be recognized and monitored systematically. For this, a model of different types of learning should be developed

• More attention should be paid to increasing capacity for effective revenue collection and cost recovery mechanisms within municipalities

• Improving VNG-I LOGO South organizational mechanisms:

o merge country and thematic coordination under responsibility of country coordinator

o increase flexibility in project processes: increase flexibility in transferring budgets to a second phase of the programme in order to increase relevance (focusing on real outcomes instead of realizing the formulated activities) as well as to increase ownership and sustainability

o Increase flexibility on focusing on more than one theme per country, especially for well functioning twinnings.

o provide one coordinator at VNG-I to support municipalities in preparing project proposals (log frames, contextual/risk analysis, etc.) o Improve knowledge exchange within VNG International in order to

improve relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the programme as a whole

o Improve efficiency of management information system at VNG International

• Distinction should be made in learning and strategic twinning relations, in which strategic relations should provide successful lessons for other municipalities to follow

• Twinning projects and country programmes with unsatisfactory results should be phased out, while securing adequate exit strategies and considering a rest category of proven successful twinnings (as examples and because of long- lasting partnerships)

• Secure sound approaches for partner selection and contextual risk analysis before starting up and/or approving of new projects/programmes

• Promote/ strengthen VNG International’s role as a catalyst between municipalities looking for support

• Reconsider twinnings of partners with mainly commercial interest.

• Monitoring can be improved by focusing on performance in the key-domain of the programme; capacity building and strengthening of local government. • Formulate exit strategies and devote more attention to the institutionalization

of knowledge generated.

• Acknowledge learning of Dutch municipalities involved. Mutual learning also positively influences public and policy support for MIC.

Directions for the future:

• Adjust VNG-I LOGO South management:

o less fragmentation (e.g. appointments for a longer term, more coordination and information sharing between LOGO South staff)

o introduction of a solid information management system

o Adjust focus of monitoring system: focus more on contents, learning and spin off effects (not on numbers)

o Simplify exaggerated and multiple auditing procedures for relatively small scale projects in LOGO South

o In formulating new funding proposals with realistic budgets, assess the real time needed for the management of the LOGO South programme o Recruitment of local, high quality MIC and ACB coordinators

o Consider a more extensive use of expert pools in addition to the collegial collaboration between twinning partners.

• Develop a more focused (less fragmented) LOGO South programme with more strategic potential, e.g. by

o phasing out of the thematic programmes

o reconsidering cross cutting themes (gender?; public participation?) o less country programmes (with more twinning projects per country)

o consider also regional programmes (e.g. Francophone West Africa, Southern Africa)

o thematic focus of country programmes should be intimately related to national policy priorities

o focus on issues that fit within the core objective of LOGO South, i.e.: the strengthening of local government (e.g. not on purely technical-operational matters)

• Address the contribution of the LOGO South programme in achieving the MDGs in future project proposals. Focus on those MDGs that are in line with the main objectives of the programme.

• Increase potential synergy in programme by developing ACB programme (but not necessarily and not only) in countries with MIC country programme

• Promote seeking connection/partnerships with knowledge centres, universities, etc. to stimulate strengthening whole sector and embedding knowledge

• Consider including the issue of climate change into the programme

• The method of working of the LOGO South programme, with existing organisations and staff, should be promoted as an efficient and effective example for other development cooperation programmes.

Annex 1 - Terms of Reference for the Evaluation LOGO South programme 2007-2010