The knowledge I have gained from the ICT Skills Building Program has made my work much faster as I am saving more of the time I used to take to format the reports. I have been able to apply the techniques I learnt with Excel especially the tables and charts to assist me to present data in meaningful forms which are more easily understood.
Naomi Mwangi
HR Administrator
World Vision, Africa Region
Inter-Agency Standing Team
What is it?
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Why is it useful?
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The Standing Team is a group of professionals trained to train others in accountability and impact measurement practice.
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In the field, good practice in accountability and impact measurement is quite limited, in part because field staff often lack the necessary skills and tools.
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In the area of accountability and impact measurement, the ECB agencies have used a collaborative approach to form a standing team of experienced emergency workers that are available for short-term deployments. The standing team was created to help country offices that want to work with sister NGOs on the ground to strengthen their accountability to local people and better evaluate the effects of their work.
In a typical deployment, over a two to four week period, three or four standing team members will carry out the work as defined in a terms of reference prepared for the assignment by interested country offices. Possibilities for deployments include:
• Multi-agency evaluations, led by an external consultant, of emergency programs.
• Reviews to assess and document current practice of accountability and impact measurement and then advise and assist field staff to improve such practice accordingly.
• Training, induction and/or coaching of field staff on accountability and impact measurement practices in new emergency settings.
• Support to promote the implementation of lessons learnt from previous deployments and/or evaluations.
• Documentation of field practice on accountability and impact measurement to share widely across agencies and encourage institutional change in the way agencies address program quality.
The standing team use the ‘good enough’’ principle, which is an approach that focuses on getting the basics in place so that over time, and as needs change, field practitioners can further develop these elements.
For example, shortly after the Peru earthquake of August 2007, a Standing Team member was able to deploy at the request of the CARE country office to help them in establishing an accountability system, with virtual support being provided by HAP. The resulting accountability system includes the publication of beneficiary complaints and CARE’s responses to the CARE Peru website. This learning was captured and disseminated through an interagency workshop in Peru.
Standing Team members have played an important role in the dissemination of the Good Enough Guide within agencies. For example, CARE Standing Team members hosted an e-learning session on Accountability and Impact Measurement in Emergencies, presenting the Good Enough Guide and their experiences using it to a global audience across CARE.
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