ICT4D Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development Project

Transcription

1 ICT4D Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development Project First technical progress report Centre file: Contact Karen Higgs INSPRO coordinator Association for Progressive Communications (APC) PO Box 29755, Melville 2109, South Africa Tel (South Africa) Fax

2 Table of Contents 1. Executive summary Project Activities...3 Activity 1: Exploring organisational mechanisms and models for long term sustainability...3 Activity 1.1 Assessing APC s organisational structure in the context of the action plan...3 Activity 1.2 Develop new cost sharing models...4 Activity 2: ICTs and climate change and environmental sustainability: research capacity development, research, and programme incubation...5 Activity 2.1 Understanding the issue: building research capacity and conducting research to respond to the challenges and opportunities related to ICTs and climate change and ICTs and environmental sustainability (workshop)...5 Activity 2.2 Implementation of the research strategy...7 Activity 2.3 Programme design and activity plan...8 Activity 3: Documenting APC as a global virtual organisation...9 Activity 4: Implementing resource mobilisation strategy...9 Activity 4.1 Resource mobilisation research and monitoring systems and procedures...9 Activity 4.2 Building resource mobilisation capacity...10 Activity 4.3 APC s little yellow book...10 Activity 4.4 Updating resource mobilisation strategy for the period...11 Activity 5: Initial planning for a guide to information dissemination and media relations for non-profit social change organisations...11 Activity 5.1 Communicating for influence - Networking stories: a guide for CSOs Milestones and Timeframe...12 APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 2

3 1. Executive summary This one-year project is intended to help APC consolidate the significant achievements of the 'Capacity Building for Institutional Support project (Grant Number ) supported by IDRC from and known as APC-INSPRO phase I. APC is undertaking a set of activities which will build on those achievements and respond to strategic priorities outlined by the APC membership during the 10 th council meeting held in November 2007 until They are: 1. Exploring organisational mechanisms and models for long term sustainability 2. ICTs and climate change and environmental sustainability: research capacity development, research, and programme incubation 3. Documenting APC's experience as a global virtual organisation and development of a guide for non-profit social change organisations 4. Implementation of APC's resource mobilisation strategy 5. Initial planning for a guide to information dissemination and media relations for non-profit social change organisations In the six months of the project significant progress has been made regarding our urgent need to ensure long term sustainability including implementation of our resource mobilisation strategy. Activities 1 and 4 are almost completed. We have also made significant preparation and planning for Activity 2 and built a network of eleven research partners 3 from Africa, 2 from Asia-Pacific, 2 from Latin America, 4 from Europe (3 from Eastern Europe). Activities 3 and 5 will be implemented in the second half of the project beginning September Project Activities Activity 1: Exploring organisational mechanisms and models for long term sustainability Activity 1.1 Assessing APC s organisational structure in the context of the action plan Anticipated outcomes: APC staff and board are in position to review various options and make informed plans re. staffing and structure and income generation. How they will be measured: Feedback from primary stakeholders: APC staff and board. APC worked with Eloise Burke, an independent consultant funded separately by IDRC, from February 2009 to undertake a study which examines the organisation s current structure and capacity in the context of the action plan. The review involved consultations with 25 individuals of 45 minutes to up to four hours. Those interviewed included APC managers and staff and board, five APC members who work very closely APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 3

4 with APC in projects and four representatives from strategic development partner organisations (from Sida, Hivos, and IDRC - Khaled Fourati and Sarah Earl). Eloise carried out the following activities: Reviewed existing relevant documentation including the strategic plan Carried out interviews with APC staff and board members (It was decided to limit the people interviewed to those who are very familiar with the workings of APC the organisation as opposed to APC the network) Desk survey with APC managers (which found that managers' responsibilities do not overlap) Presented a first draft of an organisational self-assessment to APC board and staff in Buenos Aires in June Led a resource mobilisation consultation at Buenos Aires. Eloise's report will be ready in early September During the first phase of APC s institutional strengthening partnership with IDRC, we worked with a resource mobilisation specialist, Ellen Sprenger. She has been consulted in the course of this review as she is already working with APC staff on how to express and convey the APC message. She will also be asked to review an updated resource mobilisation strategy developed in mid 2008 on the basis of the review facilitated by Eloise Burke. Activity 1.2 Develop new cost sharing models Anticipated outcomes: APC uses new budget templates and core costs are effectively covered through project grants. How they will be measured: Analysis of budgets and project income versus expenditure. Regular recording of staff's time on inter-departmental work. Ensuring that core costs, where possible, are covered in all new budgets. Staff consultancy rates: Management and finance staff looked at ways of making sure that APC covers overheads in an accurate and and consistent way. One of the core operational expenses that we felt needed to review was that of staff time on work, both internally and externally. For example the organisation often has staff based in one programme or project doing work for another project in order to meet the deliverables of the project. (This does not apply to the time of administration/operational or staff who are specifically employed to work on the project). We call this income from internal consulting and this work is recorded and charged for by staff reporting how much time they spent on a specific project or activity. This internal charging system undergoes the same process of approval as any other payments, whereby the manager of the budget being charged is required to approve and sign-off on the charge. The table reflects how we calculated daily rates for staff based on job categories and payments. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 4

5 APC STAFF CONSULTANCY RATES: October 2008 Daily rates in USD Type of Rate ED & Managers Project Coordinators/ Specialists Programme & administrative support staff 1 Internal External - Standard External - Special The following costs were taken into account while calculating the rates, we worked out daily rates for each staff member and then worked out averages for the three different job categories abovove: Salary; Benefits; Equipment Allowance, Office Expenses; Cost of Leave Sum of the above per month / 22 days = the cost per day 1 20% for overhead added to the above for internal rate per day 2 Cost per day + profit margin of 50% charge out for external rate per day 3 Cost per day + profit margin of 25% charge out for external special rate per day Internal rates are charged for inter-programme/project work within the organisation, while the external rates are used for work done for outside consultancies. New budget templates: Finance staff with input from managers discussed requirements for an efficient budget template that will work for us in a virtual office environment. The template that we developed factors in all aspects of APC's activities and costs. It includes a comprehensive check-list that will assist anyone developing a budget to think about and include all possible costs, whether they are budgeting for a new project, an event or a publication. The template will include some automated functions to calculate exchange rates and airfares. In the next few months we will be finalising the template and then we will begin automating it so that it can be used as an online tool. Consulting rates and the budget template were presented to Eloise Burke's business partner who confirmed that we are on the right track with both tools. Activity 2: ICTs and climate change and environmental sustainability: research capacity development, research, and programme incubation Activity 2.1 Understanding the issue: building research capacity and conducting research to respond to the challenges and opportunities related to ICTs and climate change and ICTs and environmental sustainability (workshop) 1 Anticipated outcomes: Research team working on this theme and sharing insights with the rest of the network, Research strategy, Increased understanding of the issue 1 Activity wiki All information related to activity 2 and referred in this report is available on the password protected wiki at the above URL. Accounts can be created on request. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 5

6 How they will be measured: Feedback on the research strategy and feedback from members of the network. Analysis of network activity and outputs. After considering how best to use available resources, and committed to 'putting into practice what we preach', the project team decided to use the limited resources available to develop and use an interactive online platform for the research capacity building workshop, rather than a face to face workshop. Our request to reallocate funding to manage this to IDRC was accepted in August. The online research capacity workshop will take place in October A South African consultant (Alan Finlay) was contracted in June to guide and support participants in preparation for the workshop, to design the workshop curriculum and to lead implementation of the research capacity workshop. A series of research support templates have been developed by the consultant for participants, who will submit first drafts of research frameworks by September (please see Activity 2.2 for more information). Development of online meeting platform An online meeting platform has a number of significant benefits that will contribute to strengthening APC as a virtual institution: More members can participate in the training for example, we could have only accommodated 5 members to attend a face to face meeting, whereas we are now responding to interest from some 15 members It gives us further motivation to complete, test and use the online platform we have begun developing After testing, this platform can then be used for APC online meetings, and other events such as capacity building workshops, reducing the need for air travel, reducing our organisational carbon footprint, making better use of resources and so on. The online meeting platform has been developed at chatroom.apc.org. The space will host the October research workshop and will combine synchronous and asynchronous events. The platform we have selected is a Moodle learning framework in combination with the interactive Moodle plugin Covcell (Audio/Video, chat, whiteboard) 2. We are currently dealing with some technical issues related to system's audiovisual functions. In September we will finalise testing. Workshop preparation A workshop agenda which covers following issues has been developed: General knowledge and information sharing on key environmental issues (e.g. climate change adaptation and mitigation, e-waste, production of ICTs, global and regional agreements and processes). Policy and legislation: Mapping global and regional policy spaces Mapping local policy and legislative spaces Identifying policy and legislative gaps at the regional and national levels. 2 Both applications are free and open source. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 6

7 Understanding the APC research agenda National ICT statistics and environmental implications: Case examples Ways of generating general pictures of ICT impact and use on environment and illustrative forecasts of growth (eg waste quantities, carbon emissions) Local country readiness (eg e-waste recycling technology) Research priorities: Understanding national research priorities Developing the research agenda Advocacy priorities: Understanding national and regional advocacy priorities Stakeholder mapping Developing collaborative advocacy agenda (including potential partners and allies) Understanding our target audience Local level information development Network development: Way forward for the GreeningIT network Activity 2.2 Implementation of the research strategy Anticipated outcomes: APC is able to participate, and play a leading role in the process of enriching current ICT for D policy and practice with awareness of environmental sustainability and the impacts of climate change. APC s issue papers help civil society organisations in the sector to better understand, and respond to these issues. How they will be measured: Feedback from primary stakeholders and workshop participants, Review of issue papers, Usage statistics of issue papers. The implementation of the APC wide research strategy will occur in phases. Phase I: Call for expressions of interest, collection of background information and selection of research focus APC circulated a call for expression of interest in participating in the research initiative within our network which had prioritised ICTs and environment since We received an enthusiastic response and preliminary interest from many member organisations. The final list of organisations who formally committed to participation was consolidated to eleven research partners 3 from Africa, 2 from Asia-Pacific, 2 from Latin America, 4 from Europe (3 from Eastern Europe). Nine are in developing countries. The organisations 3 are: 1. apc.au (Australia) 2. ArabDev (Egypt) 3. Bluelink (Bulgaria) 4. Bytes For All (Pakistan) 5. Colnodo (Colombia) 6. Fantsuam Foundation (Nigeria) 7. LaNeta (Mexico) 8. OneWorld SEE- Platform for Southeast Europe (Bosnia- Herzegovina) 9. PROTEGE QV (Cameroon) 10. Strawberrynet (Romania) 11. Technology for Everybody (Spain) 3 All organisations are APC members except for Technology for Everyone. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 7

8 We are still discussing possible participation with: CEPES (Peru), Sulá Batsú (Costa Rica), Alternatives (Canada). Background information on partners' past and current activities with relevance to the research project has been collected 4. These activities cover a very wide spectrum and range from research into e-waste disposal to employing ICTs in improving food security in changing environments. Research framework and focus: A series of research templates have been developed by the consultant and shared with participating members to guide them through to identification of their primary research focus. 5 Major milestones of the plan are: 1. Members' individual research priorities identified and mapped (deadline September 15) 2. Policy environment scan complete (deadline September 15) 3. Ideas about a collective strategy collected (deadline September 25) 4. Online workshop (October) Phase II: Implementation of research plans and advocacy strategy Implementation of member research plans and advocacy strategy development will take place after the October workshop. Activity 2.3 Programme design and activity plan Anticipated outcomes: Coherent action plan that reflects the interests of APC members and partners and that resonates with donors. How they will be measured: Successful fundraising to support the action plan in part or in full. Status: Starting post-workshop The programme design will begin in November once the workshop has ended. However, APC developed and presented a larger research proposal 6 to build capacity in research and advocacy for ICTs and environmental sustainability to IDRC at the beginning of August 2009 to complement and build on Activity 2. By the time the workshop takes 4 elated_to_climate_change.2fgreen_computing.2c_etc The research proposes to: 1. Coordinate research to be undertaken by member organizations in two focus areas dealing with ICTs and environmental sustainability: country baseline research on official practices and policies regarding e-waste and research into the use of technology and information tools and practices in a sustainable manner 2. Build research capacity and support the research process 3. Establish a research network within the APC community that would play an ongoing role in conducting policy and action research in the field of ICTs and environmental sustainability 4. Develop practical guidelines from the above research as part of a campaign implemented by APC members around ICTs and environmental sustainability. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 8

9 place we will be in a position to make sure that the research plans emerging from the workshop are consistent with the proposal and vice versa. In addition, we can already report on significant existing and potential interest in APC's greater engagement in this area. For example, APC has been approached by Avaaz.org an online campaigning network that is working with several international NGOs on climate change related activities in the run-up to the United Nations Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change. The potential for network building, information sharing, collaboration and strengthening and diversification of the APC research network in this area looks extremely positive. Activity 3: Documenting APC as a global virtual organisation Status: Starting in September Activity 4: Implementing resource mobilisation strategy Once the review of organisational mechanisms and models is complete (Activity 1), APC s resource mobilisation strategy will be updated in the light of this review. Activity 4.1 procedures Resource mobilisation research and monitoring systems and Anticipated outcomes: More efficient fundraising. APC follows up on more opportunities and has greater success, APC secures significant support for implementation of the strategic action plan. How they will be measured: Analysis of incoming grants and commissioned projects and the number of proposals that are developed and their relative success/failure, Feedback from primary stakeholders. Progress has been made in the following areas: A staff person was appointed to coordinate resource mobilisation activity and act as an assistant to the executive director (recommended during phase one of the project). She now tracks and analyses funding opportunities on an ongoing basis. A 'resource mobilisation' key result area is included in APC's strategy to ensure that monitoring takes place A schedule of resource mobilisation activity is being maintained to help staff track progress and ensure follow up is done Every bi-monthly report prepared by management for the board covers resource mobilisation activity in each programme The board decided that in support of resource mobilisation APC should gain legal identifies in South Africa, and in the European Union (the former because of its developing country status and the latter to be able to apply to EU calls that are only open to member states) APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 9

10 Activity 4.2 Building resource mobilisation capacity Anticipated outcomes: More APC staff are involved in developing proposals and follow up with potential donors. How they will be measured: Same as above During the management meeting of March 2009 and the staff and board meetings in June 2009 the staff resource mobilisation strategy was treated as a priority and ways of improving APC's resource base were discussed (e.g. income generation from consulting). Staff participated actively in a dedicated session on resource mobilisation facilitated by Eloise Burke. Each programme manager is clearly aware that they are responsible for resource mobilisation for their programme area and they delegate follow up with existing donors and proposal development to project coordinators whenever possible. Activity 4.3 APC s little yellow book Anticipated outcomes: Improved APC messaging with staff and members feeling more confident to tell others about APC. How they will be measured: Same as above Status: In progess APC began planning of production of this pocket-guide specifically designed to help staff and members talk about APC succinctly and authoritatively, especially to prospective donors, in March. Known in the network as our 'Little Yellow Book', it describes the APC identity for people who need to represent the organisation, provides core information about APC in quick-consultation format and attempts to address typical questions about APC and ICT in language appropriate to verbal exchanges. Video interviews were carried out in June in Buenos Aires with staff and members of the board who were asked to answer key questions about the organisation in less than five minutes imagining that their interviewer was a philanthropist whom they needed to interest in APC. The videos are providing the basis of information for the booklet. Additional interviews eg to collect the story of why APC came into existence were captured in August in another face to face meeting of Latin American members. Further research is still required and will be carried out before the end of the year. The production team is examining layout options. A board member recommended a UKbased group who produce patterns for downloadable books 7. If this works for the LYB, there are interesting prospects for further collaboration across the APC network especially for those working in development. An unexpected potential output. 7 APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 10

11 Activity 4.4 Updating resource mobilisation strategy for the period Anticipated outcomes: APC staff have a clear understanding of how to approach resource mobilisation for the next 5 years. IDRC, if circumstances permit, is willing to contribute to resourcing APC in ways that are consistent with IDRC policy. How they will be measured: As above Emilar Vushe, APC's grants administrator, appointed in May 2009, has developed an updated resource mobilisation strategy that is currently under review. Anriette Esterhuysen, APC ED, met with Ellen Sprenger to review our resource moblisation strategy in the context of the now completed APC strategic framework for This process resulted in the identification of several new potential sources, as well as helped APC identify ways in which to package the APC strategic framework for in ways that make it as 'understandable' as possible. The resource mobilisation strategy, which will be finalised once the organisational assessment has been completed, addresses staff capacity development in this area as well as ways in which APC can exploit new potential sources of support. Activity 5: Initial planning for a guide to information dissemination and media relations for non-profit social change organisations Activity 5.1 CSOs Communicating for influence - Networking stories: a guide for Anticipated outcomes: By working with a network of partners to develop a detailed proposal and budget and outreach strategy for the guide APC facilitates debate and learning that informs the plan for the guide. Participants will learn from the planning process, and will look forward to participating in the production of the guide and making use of it. How they will be measured: Feedback from participants (potential case studies) and from other stakeholders, including IDRC, and project partners. Status: Starting in September Work for this activity has not yet formally begun. However APC has been collecting stories from Latin America and West and East Africa, some of which we expect to be able to integrate into the final plan. APC Institutional Strengthening, August page 11

12 3. Milestones and Timeframe The original proposal had a timeline from 10/08 to 09/09. The contract was signed with IDRC to start on March and APC stated we were continuing to review the timeframe. This is the revised timeframe. Activity plan over 12 months 03/ 09 04/09 05/09 06/09 07/09 08/09 09/09 10/09 11/09 12/09 01/10 02/ Review and recommendations: APC organisational mechanisms and models for future sustainability X X X X X X X APC internal cost sharing models X X X X Workshop that builds research capacity and develops research strategy to help APC and other ICTD actors understand and respond to ICTs and climate change and ICTs and environmental sustainability Implementation of the research strategy X X X X X X X Programme design and activity plan X X X X APC's experience as a virtual network documented X X X APC partners experience working with APC documented X X X Experiences of virtual networks documented X X X Initial plans for resources on working as a virtual network for non-profit and social change organisations Resource mobilisation research and monitoring systems X X X X X X Resource mobilisation skills and capacity building for APC's fundraising team X X X 'Little Yellow Book X X X X X Updated resource mobilisation strategy for the period X X Workplan: Communicating for influence: Networking stories a guide for CSOs X X X X X X X X X X

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