Intervention Summary
Title: Programme Partnership Arrangement with World Vision
What support will the UK provide?
The UK, through the Department for International Development (DFID), will invest in a 3 year
Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) with World Vision between 2011 and 2014. An
initial investment of £3,937,765 for 2011-12 has been agreed. Subsequent disbursements will
be performance-based; as assessed through robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
Why is support from DFID required?
Civil society plays a vital role in supporting citizens to improve their lives. Civil Society
Organisations are central to delivering services, enabling citizens to be more active in their
own development and ensuring that policies benefit ordinary people – especially the poorest.
To achieve DFID’s priorities, as set out in its Business Plan (Structural Reform Plan), a multisectoral and multi-pronged approach to delivery is required, one in which CSOs, along with
governments and the private sector, play a pivotal role in helping poor people to improve their
lives.
The PPA is one of DFID’s main support mechanisms to CSOs. In line with a commitment by
the Secretary of State to support another round of PPAs and following a robust selection
process and implementation of a Resource Allocation Model, partners have been identified for
a 3 year PPA to begin in April 2011. World Vision is one of these.
What are the expected results?
Children and communities, especially the most vulnerable and those in the poorest and/or
most fragile contexts, are accessing quality services, are cared for and protected, and enjoy
good health.
 Improved mobilisation and influence of civil society with significant actors in at least
100 communities in 10 countries (measured through community and partner
reporting, utilising the World Vision “Influence and Engagement Matrix”).
 Strengthened national systems and/or community-based mechanisms for child
protection in at least 9 countries and increased resilience of36,000 children most
vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and neglect in at least 10 countries. 27,000
children (75% of those trained) will be equipped to protect themselves (measured
through household monitoring surveys, focus groups discussions and annual reports).
 Improved maternal, newborn and child health in at least 170 communities in at least 8
countries in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia: improved operational structures to promote
maternal, newborn and child health (measured by World Vision national and/or Area
Development Programme assessments) and capacity in the prevention and treatment
of the major causes of disease in children under 5 (measured by national and/or Area
Development Programme assessments, Monitoring and Evaluation reports and other
official documents such as Ministry of Health reports).
Business Case for: Programme Partnership Arrangement with World Vision
Strategic Case
A. Context and need for DFID intervention
Civil society organisations (CSOs) are accepted as an essential part of the global
partnership to deliver the MDGs and public goods. Internationally, the role of civil society1 is
widely recognised - the Accra Agenda for Action specifically mentioned the need to ‘deepen
engagement with civil society organisations’i. In the UK, the Government has stressed the
importance of strengthening the ‘Big Society’ and developed a ‘Compact’ to shape the
relationship between government and civil society. The National Audit Office states that “Civil
society organisations can play a variety of vital roles” and are “important partners for DFID”ii.
The Public Accounts Committee praised CSOs for often performing better than developing
country governments in providing benefits for the poorestiii. Other donors also emphasise the
importance of the sector, such as the European Commission, DANIDA and SIDA.
Civil society plays a vital role in supporting citizens to improve their lives. CSOs are central
to delivering services, enabling citizens to be more active in their own development and
ensuring that policies benefit ordinary people – especially the poorest. CSOs can extend
governments’ and official donors’ reach with hard to reach groups - such as disabled people,
vulnerable children, female headed households and people living with HIV AIDS - and in
hard to reach areas or where, for example, DFID has no programmeiv.
The Review of DFID’s Support to Civil Societyv and other recent research provide additional
evidence to support the view that Civil Society is an important contributor to poverty
reduction and can demonstrate impact towards achieving the MDGs.
DFID objectives for its work with CSOs:
(i) Deliver goods and services effectively and efficiently;
(ii) Empower citizens in developing countries to be more effective in holding
governments to account and to do things for themselves;
(iii) Enable civil society to influence national, regional and international
institutions including improving aid effectiveness;
(iv) Build and maintain capacity and space for active civil society.
;
Benefits of PPA strategic funding
To achieve its objectives, DFID has a broad and flexible range of funding mechanisms for
CSOs; both centrally and through country programmes. In contrast to other donors, it does
1
Civil society includes a wide range of non state actors such as non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), faith and diaspora groups, community based organisations and others. Some are large and
well established, whilst others are small and informal with limited capacity.
not exclusively favour UK-based CSOs. These mechanisms enable DFID to balance a
longer-term commitment to civil society with instruments which allow more opportunistic,
flexible and creative approachesvi .
How does DFID support Civil Societyvii:
• Unrestricted grants: 25% of total portfolio
• In-Country Funds: 53% of DFID’s total funding to CSOs
• Central Funds: 4 centrally run schemes plus humanitarian funds (47%) –
including PPAs
• Indirect funding: through joint funds such as the Common Ground Initiative
(Comic Relief) and Disability Rights Fund (AusAid)
• Pooled funds: increasing use especially in fragile countries
• Via multilaterals: £160 m through the World Bank, European Commission
and UN agencies
The Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) is one of DFID’s main support mechanisms
to CSOs. The PPAs are strategic level agreements based around mutually agreed outcomes
and individual performance frameworks against which the organisations report on an annual
basis. Critically, PPAs, subject to performance, provide the CSOs with 3-4 year funding
which enables them to better plan and deliver programmes, including in more difficult, higher
risk environments. PPAs are aimed at CSOs with a global reach and leaders in their field
who can add value to DFID’s portfolio, support realisation of its objectives, achieve real
results in terms of poverty reduction and provide good Value for Money (VfM) as
demonstrated through a competitive selection process.
In particular, PPAs contribute to the delivery of the MDGs by playing a vital role in supporting
citizens to improve their lives, delivering services to specific groups of poor people, and
holding governments, donors and others to account. The PPAs have contributed in practical
ways to: improving the lives of women and girls, helping adaptation to and mitigate climate
change, and strengthening partnerships with the private sector in development, evidence of
which can be found in the PPA Meta-Evaluationviii.
Following NAO recommendations, DFID has strengthened areas such as baseline
development and performance frameworks. An independent external evaluation manager is
contracted to oversee the development of results frameworks, robust baselines, mid term
and final evaluations. In the interest of transparency, DFID will publish all PPA reviews and
requires PPA holders to publish too, together with a management response, as a condition
of funding.
Current projections for the PPA budget allow a total allocation of £360m for 2011-2014. For
the first time, funding is performance based. Following the mid-term review, individual
allocations to PPA agencies will increase, decrease or remain the same based on their
relative performance
In line with a commitment by the Secretary of State to support another round of PPAs and
following a robust selection process and implementation of a Resource Allocation Model, 39
partners have been identified for a 3 year PPA to begin in April 2011, from 430+ initial
applications and a shortlist of 109.
World Vision is one of the selected PPA partners, and has been assigned £3,937,765 by
DFID for the first year 2011-12. Subsequent disbursements will be performance related.
B. Expected Impact and Outcome of the World Vision PPA
Impact: Progress towards the MDGs, especially MDGs 4 and 5, is accelerated in those
countries and among those groups most excluded from progress to date.
Outcome: Children and communities, especially the most vulnerable and those in the
poorest and/or most fragile contexts, are accessing quality services, are cared for and
protected, and enjoy good health.
World Vision’s geographical priorities for this PPA will include the following countries:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, DRC, Honduras, India, Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Appraisal Case
A. Feasible options
There are two options for this intervention:
1. Fund World Vision through a centrally managed PPA
2. Reject World Vision’s proposal
B. Appraisal of options
Option 1. Fund World Vision through a centrally managed PPA
Costs: DFID will invest £3,937,765 in the first year (2011-12) of the PPA with World Vision.
Funding represents 7% of World Vision’s total income and can play a key role in shaping
how World Vision uses its non-DFID resources.
Subsequent performance-based allocations are provisionally set as:


2012/13
2013/14
£3,937,765 (provisional)
£3,937,765 (provisional)
PPA round 2011-14
The new PPA round, 2011-14 and for which World Vision has been selected, challenged
CSOs to show greater effectiveness, results and value for money.
2011-14, Key criteria for selection included:
-
Niche, expertise, leadership
Strategic fit with DFID objectives and priorities and complementarity
Vision and Impact (what will be achieved)
Transparency & Accountability
Results delivery (demonstrated impact)
Value for Money
Partnership (structure and reach)
Monitoring, evaluation & learning
In addition the selection process included a Resource Allocation Model (RAM).
The 2011-14 RAM ensured that appropriate funding levels were attributed to each
selected partner. Annual income, as stated in the CSO's Annual Audited
Accounts, was selected as the starting point (base). In addition, the RAM made
full use of the PPA offer document which all applicants were asked to complete.
Offers were scored against specific criteria. Each criterion was allocated a score,
which was used to calculate building blocks. These were added to the base to
calculate the appropriate funding level. It was agreed that in order to reduce
dependency, PPA funding should be capped at 40% of an organisation’s income.
Evidence base for the selected option (PPA with World Vision)
Benefits
The impact of this PPA will be that progress towards the MDGs, especially MDGs 4 and 5, is
accelerated in those countries and among those groups most excluded from progress to
date. To achieve this impact, the overall outcome of this PPA is that children and
communities, especially the most vulnerable and those in the poorest and/or most fragile
contexts, are accessing quality services, are cared for and protected, and enjoy good health.
The PPA will focus on 3 areas:
1. Improved moblisation and influence of civil society
World Vision will improve the mobilisation and influence of civil society with significant actors
in at least 100 communities in 10 countries (e.g. Armenia, Bolivia/Honduras, India,
Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia). This will be
measured through community and partner reporting, all utilising the World Vision “Influence
and Engagement Matrix”.
2. Increased protection of vulnerable children
World Vision will strengthen national systems and/or community-based mechanisms for child
protection in at least 9 countries and increase the resilience of 36,000 children most
vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and neglect in at least 10 countries. 36,000
children will be trained (18,000 girls and 18,000 boys including a minimum of 5% disabled
children). 27,000 children (75% of those trained) will be equipped to protect
themselves. This will be measured through household monitoring surveys, focus groups
discussions and annual reports. These surveys and discussion groups will record the
percentage of children trained who score an improvement in:


Knowledge of where to go for help in case of abuse
'identity and social skills' including capacity to plan ahead, make good choices, avoid
risky or unhealthy behaviour, resolve conflict, solve problems and general self
esteem.
World Vision reports will include brief narrative descriptions of the ways in which children
perceive they are better equipped.
3. Improved maternal, newborn and child health
World Vision will improve maternal, newborn and child health in at least 170 communities2
in at least 8 countries in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia (including Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone), which have high burdens of maternal and/or child
mortality. Specifically at least
 170 communities will have improved operational structures to promote maternal,
newborn and child health. This will be measured by World Vision national and/or
Area Development Programme assessments.
 170 communities are supported in mobilisation and capacity building activities
targeting the prevention and treatment of the major causes of disease in children
under 5. This will be measured by national and/or Area Development Programme
2
Baseline information is being collected on the size of these communities during the first 3 months of
the programme.
assessments, Monitoring and Evaluation reports and other official documents such as
Ministry of Health reports.
It should be noted that during the first three months of the PPA, World Vision will gather
more information on baselines and milestones. The business case will be updated using this
information later this year.
Geographic focus
World Vision will focus this PPA on 15 of the following countries – 12 in Africa, 6 in Asia, 2 in
Latin America and 1 in Europe, as follows
Africa
DRC
Kenya
Malawi
Mozambique
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan (South)
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Asia
Afghanistan
Armenia
Bangladesh
Cambodia
India
Pakistan
Latin America Europe
Bolivia
Albania
Honduras
Of these 21 countries, 14 are DFID priority countries3 and 7 are among the 20 most
failed states (Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, DRC, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kenya).
Strengths and capacity of World Vision to implement a PPA
World Vision UK’s (WVUK) goal is to inspire the UK to take action that transforms the lives of
the world’s poorest children. By 2015, WVUK aim to have contributed to the improved and
sustained well-being of 8 million children around the world with the help of 500,000
supporters in the UK.
WVUK’s priority work areas for 2011 to 2015 are child and maternal health, children’s
rights to care and protection, humanitarian action, and evidencing poverty and impact to
improve quality, accountability and influence. The focus is on bringing about real change for
children and communities in the poorest and most fragile countries – change for those
people and in those places most excluded from growth and development. WVUK is
contributing towards the international World Vision (WV) Partnership’s over-arching goal,
which is the sustained well-being of children within families and communities, especially the
poorest and most vulnerable.
World Vision’s theory of change is reflected within the organisation's ‘Ministry Framework’
that places children as the focus of the work. World Vision applies a holistic approach to
children’s well-being, this being understood to be dependent on children’s relationships with
others and the social, political, spiritual, physical and environmental context that they live in.
3
According to Public Service Agreement 29 (2008-11).
Contributions support the strengthening of these relationships and the different contexts that
affect children’s lives. World Vision has developed a series of core operational approaches
to change that are mutually reinforcing and draw from learning from methodologies that are
asset-based, rights-based, participative and relational. These overall approaches include:
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


Promoting just systems and structures;
Enabling caring and transformed relationships;
Assuring resilient and secure households and communities; and,
Empowering children and interdependent communities.
Positive change is therefore understood to be the result of relationships, activism,
cooperation, persistence and dedication. To build assets, strengthen resilience and address
the social, environmental and economic issues that affect children, families and communities
World Vision focuses not only on protecting children but also on ensuring that systems are in
place to provide long term protection for vulnerable children. To achieve this they undertake
mapping of national and local level child protection systems and structures, drawing on work
by agencies such as UNICEF to identify gaps and weaknesses in policy and
implementation. Priorities will be identified for policy engagement and national and local
level capacity building by World Vision and partners in order to improve the response to
grassroots child protection issues. At local level, World Vision will partner with communitybased child protection groups, local duty-bearers and other stakeholders, such as parents,
traditional and faith leaders, police, teachers and children themselves to identify
weaknesses, prioritise action and build prevention and response capacity.
Governance
World Vision UK is an equal member within the global World Vision Partnership, comprising
nearly 100 entities in a federated structure bound together by a shared vision, mission and
values and a commitment to 4 federal principles:




Empowerment;
Interdependence;
Twin Citizenship,
Accountability.
National offices across the world are governed by local Boards, which in turn elect and
constitute a representative international Board. World Vision’s global headcount is over
40,000 staff in 97 countries. 97% of staff are local and have grown up in the area or country
in which they work. As a full member of People In Aid (PIA), World Vision actively uses the
principles of the PIA Code to benchmark and improve its practices.
World Vision UK has over 200 staff organised in 4 groups: Policy & Programmes, Public
Engagement, Organisational Effectiveness, and Finance & Risk, each with a director who
reports to the Chief Executive, governed by the Board of Trustees.
No employee or job applicant is unlawfully discriminated against on the grounds of colour,
race, nationality or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, age,
religion or any other condition that cannot be justified in job-related terms. World Vision’s
whistle-blowing policy ensures that staff are confident to raise genuine concerns of
wrongdoing in relation to the conduct of our business.
Results, Monitoring and Evaluation
World Vision has robust monitoring and evaluation systems in place. Monitoring and
evaluation forms a vital part of World Vision’s comprehensive monitoring and evaluation
system (LEAP), which incorporates development standards, principles and tools (compulsory
and optional) to ensure rigorous and standardised processes. The LEAP manual has been
revised twice in the last 5 years to reflect learning and industry developments. Associated
tools and models are constantly being developed, upgraded and added to incorporate the
latest thinking and ensure standards are continually improved. A review of the LEAP system
in relation to programming specifically in fragile contexts is being conducted, which will help
us to improve monitoring and evaluation in unpredictable environments.
World Vision has also developed 15 child well-being outcomes and an associated
compendium of over 100 indicators to measure effectiveness and impact. The indicators are
divided into technical, context and summary indicators, and build on industry best practice
and sector standards. The indicators are applied when relevant and aid learning around
effectiveness as well as improved analysis of impact.
Evaluations are a key component of World Vision’s accountability and learning, and are
conducted in accordance with internal (LEAP) and external (DAC evaluation criteria)
standards and policies. They conduct project, sector and meta evaluations and hold learning
labs throughout the developing world to ensure lessons are reflected on and incorporated
into future work. For example, a meta-evaluation of Orphans and Vulnerable Children
advocacy has resulted in greater emphasis on approaches to challenging community
practices and these have been integrated in to the revised project designs.
Transparency and Accountability
World Vision have an impressive track record on transparency and accountability:
 Chair of the Sphere Project board
 Board membership of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership and the Disasters
Emergency Committee
 Membership of the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Partnership.
 Membership of the International NGO Charter of Accountability Company, serving on the
Charter Company Board, and participating in the Working Group established under the
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to develop the GRI NGO Sector Supplement.
 Open Information Disclosure policy, designed to ensure transparency of information and
to proactively share key documents.
 Community accountability systems embedded in both relief and development
programmes, with recently reviewed examples in Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar) and
Zimbabwe.
 Integrity and Risk ("whistleblower") policy and hotline, where anonymous complaints may
be filed and are independently investigated. They also have policies for conduct,
grievance, harassment and child protection.
 Ranking as the highest performing entity for ‘evaluation’ and the highest performing INGO
for ‘complaint and response’ in One World Trust’s Global Accountability Report (2006).
 Support for the IATI through being the CSO representative at July’s Steering Committee
meeting, recognising its relevance for INGOs as well as for donors and recipients of ODA.
 Annual Accountability report produced in accordance with GRI standards.
Cross cutting issues
Climate Change
World Vision’s work in the context of climate change and the environment is informed and
governed by the Policy on Climate Change which identified the following priorities:



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To assist communities to increase the resilience to the impacts of climate change,
through, for example, measures and behaviour changes to improve food and water
security, child protection and disaster risk reduction and to reduce deforestation and
forest degradation.
To increase efforts to educate governments, the public and private sectors and
donors in their understandings of climate change and its effects on the poor and to
empower people to take action.
To increase the implementation of environment-enhancing development activities
such as reforestation, agro-forestry, renewable energy, and organic and conservation
farming.
To take steps towards measuring the total carbon footprint of its operations, reducing
its carbon footprint as far as possible, and offsetting the remainder.
All programmes and projects will in some way, directly or indirectly, have an impact on the
environment and are in turn themselves impacted by environmental change. By addressing
these concerns from the outset of programme design World Vision are completing due
diligence to ensure that programming activities will not have long-term consequences on the
environment. All programmes and projects within World Vision are managed using the LEAP
process, which includes cross cutting themes that must be addressed in all programming
including ensuring that work does no further harm to the environment. Before any project
takes place, the LEAP framework requires an Environmental Impact Assessment to be
carried out to screen projects for components that may have negative impacts on the
environment. This preventative approach applies to all projects, not just those that are not
directly related to the environment, but may unintentionally have negative environmental
impacts due to their design or the vulnerability of the region.
Gender equality and climate change response are mainstreamed throughout WV’s
project and programme cycle, as part of a wider vulnerability analysis that includes disability
and HIV. They tackle gender inequality including sexual and gender based violence, child
protection, child rights, particularly the rights of girls to health and education. For example,
addressing violence against girls in the Horn of Africa and through 'Gender Task Forces' in
Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, where early marriage contributes to domestic abuse, human
trafficking, and poor literacy levels.
Alternative Option 2 (no PPA for World Vision): Reject World Vision’s offer
The choice not to provide PPA funding will limit the capacity of World Vision to deliver its
poverty reduction priorities and to influence other CSO and private sector partners. The
rigorous assessment of World Vision’s proposals against the agreed commitment to fund
CSOs through PPAs makes a good case for the fit with World Vision’s objectives over other
CSO PPA applicants.
Summary - Value for Money Justification:
For the reasons summarised below, Option 1 offers good value for money and is proposed
for approval.
The overall theory of change for the PPA investment with World Vision, is that by
providing strategic support for World Vision to test and refine its most promising evidencebased development models, connect this evidence to policy-makers to influence best
practices and attract funds from other donors, and support governments and other agencies
to adopt innovative approaches where they prove relevant and effective, the PPA will
leverage the local-level impact of World Vision’s best initiatives to influence national and
international development policy and effect much wider change in the lives of poor people.
World Vision’s theory of change is a holistic approach to children’s well-being. It is
dependent on children’s relationships with others and the social, political, spiritual, physical
and environmental context that they live in. World Vision recognise the need to strengthen
these relationships. This is combined with a series of core operational approaches which
include promoting just systems and structures; enabling caring and transformed
relationships; assuring resilient and secure households and communities; and, empowering
children and interdependent communities. Positive change is therefore understood to be the
result of relationships, activism, cooperation, persistence and dedication.
More specifically, World Vision’s choices of specific programmes to support and report on
under the PPA reflect its areas of expertise well, and have been carefully assessed by World
Vision as the most promising in relation to scaling up and learning. The benefits outlined
earlier, past evaluations of World Vision’s work and its broad reach beyond the scope of
programming alone all contribute to a strong case for supporting a PPA with World Vision
and it providing good value for money.
Due diligence checks have been carried out on World Vision DFID is confident that in
addition to yielding results on the ground, World Vision has strong and efficient mechanisms
in place for monitoring and evaluating its work, focusing on results and delivery, and
ensuring good value for money and transparency in all decision making.
Through performance monitoring, DFID will assess that World Vision’s organisational
systems are used to deliver value for money of the PPA investment (see next section). DFID
will emphasise the importance of learning lessons and disseminating these more widely
through the partnership to reflect innovative programming aspects of World Vision’s
approach. World Vision’s efforts to share learning would benefit from regularly assessing
impact on its and partners’ work. DFID will encourage this through its learning and
management support to PPA partners.
Cost:



2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
£3,937,765
£3,937,765 (provisional)
£3,937,765 (provisional)
D. Measures to be used or developed to assess value for money
Value for Money
The PPA mechanism is efficient, as set out in previous sections (administratively efficient
0.2%, pooled resources on monitoring and evaluations, outreach, scaling up etc).
World Vision as an institution has its own systems in place to ensure value for money.
Actively seeking financial efficiencies
 World Vision has improved its ratio of fundraising and governance to programme costs
from 21.7% in 2007 to 16.2% in 2010, a drop of 25.3% in real terms. Costs are monitored
by senior management and the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee. Since 2008 World
Vision have reduced international travel and are making more use of technology such as
Skype and web-based conferences.
 World Vision’s global treasury function hedges currency on behalf of World Vision offices
to minimise risk and maximise favourable exchange rates. For example, in 2009 hedges
enabled World Vision to buy US$7m more than spot trades, increasing the US$ value of
remittances by 3.2% from 2008.
 World Vision has a global network of technical experts available to WV partners as
internal consultants. Partners can select an internal consultant, balancing their cost and
benefit against one locally available. This ensures demand-driven requests for technical
support with full transparency thus maximising the effectiveness of technical capacity
within the World Vision Partnership.
Allocation of funding and programme quality
World Vision allocates funds to field offices on the basis of need (e.g. according to the
multidimensional poverty index), as well as taking into account criteria including alignment of
strategic priorities, previous performance, audit results, evaluations, management capacity,
ability to contribute to impact, and economies of scale. World Vision reviews country
priorities at least every 5 years to ensure support for each country is balanced and at an
appropriate level based on weightings given to such criteria. Prior to pursuing any grant
funding for a project or programme, a feasibility assessment matrix is completed to aid
decision making. World Vision’s global design, monitoring and evaluation system (LEAP)
ensures projects and programmes are delivered to the highest standard and are closely
supported and monitored. World Vision has partnership agreements with all its funding
partners, which outline the roles and responsibilities of both parties.
Financial management, accountability and audit
 All World Vision offices prepare project and programme budgets that are approved
annually. Financial reports are produced monthly, with funding offices reviewing these as
a minimum bi-annually. Projects that are higher risk or of shorter duration or that have
significant funding, are monitored monthly or quarterly as documented and agreed at the
start of the project.
 Programme and financial data for all World Vision -supported projects is managed
through the Programmes and Resources Information System (PARIS). PARIS
incorporates sign-off procedures for project approvals and funding commitments and
interfaces with World Vision’s global financial database, which triggers release of funds to
field offices based on a further approval system. Monthly financial management reports
are automatically generated from the system to ensure compliance at the
project/programme level and at an organisational level to control costs.
 World Vision has an annual external audit. All World Vision field offices are subject to an
internal and external audit. World Vision reviews all internal audit reports at its quarterly
Risk Review Committee meetings.
Efficiencies expected to be made over this PPA period will result from factors including:
World Vision’s organisational focus on fewer priority work areas for the period 2011-15
meaning higher potential impact for investments; close monitoring of key financial ratios in
line with 5 year financial projections aimed at improving organisational performance over the
long term, coupled with readiness to implement short term cost cutting measures as needed
in line with income projections; improving risk management and contract negotiation for
services procured.
Commercial Case
Indirect procurement
A. Choice of funding mechanism that demonstrates value for money through
procurement
As part of the application process for a Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) all
applicants were asked to provide evidence to show how they ensured value for money in
their day to day operations. Using a pre-determined scoring system each applicant was
marked between 1 and 4 (with 4 being the strongest scoring) for the response they provided.
Each was asked to provide concrete examples to support the narrative provided. This score
was then added to scores allocated to other issues such as transparency and accountability
and results delivery. These scores were then added together to provide an overall score for
the applicant and a decision was taken based on the applicants overall score and the level of
funding calculated using the scores.
All of the successful applicants for PPA had to be able not only to describe how they
achieved value for money but also to say how they would achieve further value for money
savings over the lifetime of the PPA funding.
Each PPA applicant was asked to complete a Procurement Questionnaire which posed a
wide range of questions aimed at giving a detailed overview of each organisation’s
procurement practises and policies. This completed questionnaire was forwarded to KPMG
who were contracted to undertake a Due Diligence check of all successful PPA applicants.
The reports which KPMG produced focused on each PPA applicant’s Internal Governance,
their Financial Management and other areas and included a substantial section entitled
‘Value for money and procurement capacity and effectiveness’. This section described each
PPA applicant’s primary measures of value for money and its baseline procurement capacity
in relation to its organisation. The section tabled the PPA applicant’s Primary Objectives,
Key performance indicators, set a baseline for performance for the start of the PPA and set
targets for improvements over the lifetime of the PPA.
Each PPA applicant, once finalised, was issued with a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) which laid out the generic terms and conditions of the PPA support but also included
any specific conditions which arose as a result of the Due Diligence checks. All of these
conditions were allocated timescales within which agreed improvements had to be made.
Only if we were confident that the PPA applicant either already had the relevant processes,
systems, staffing and practices in place to deliver value for money or had agreed to timed
conditions relating to improvements in these areas, would we agree to PPA funding.
Section B: Value for Money through Procurement
The Procurement Questionnaire and the Due Diligence check undertaken by KPMG have
shown that World Vision places significant priority in ensuring procurement procedures
follow best practice.
World Vision’s procurement procedures help leverage global reach and supplier negotiating
power through framework agreements for high spend and high volume commodities, such
as vehicles and IT equipment. For example, recent bulk procurement of medicines and
vitamins saved 40% on the market price. World Vision offices are audited against
procurement procedures to ensure strict protocols are followed to avoid corruption or poor
commercial contracts.
World Vision’s global office procurement function is in the middle of a three year plan to
improve global supply chain management across the World Vision Federation, focusing on
building procurement capacity and skills within national offices and on developing better
framework agreements for use globally.
World Vision UK has been through a process of reviewing key contracts, renegotiating or
tendering where possible and has a procurement group that discusses how to drive better
value from procurement. Several initiatives are planned for 2011, including the introduction
of a new contract review process to improve contract negotiation and risk management, and
of a new procurement module into the accounting system to strengthen control over
purchase ordering.
Financial Case
A. How much will it cost?
The overall PPA budget for the three year period beginning 1 April 2011 has been set at
£120m per financial year (April to March). Of this amount £20m has been ring-fenced for
applicants requesting support under our Humanitarian and Conflict criteria with the balance
of £120m per year available to support CSOs active in any other area of the development
arena.
Approval for this overall funding allocation was agreed at ministerial level following a
submission to Ministers on the future of strategic level unrestricted support to CSOs.
To set appropriate funding levels, the Resource Allocation Model (RAM) took account of the
size of the successful CSO (in terms of annual income) as well as the scores allocated to
produce a final breakdown of the PPA budget amongst all successful applicants.
In the case of World Vision the RAM produced a proposed PPA funding level of:



2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
£3,937,765
£3,937,765 (provisional)
£3,937,765 (provisional)
The level of funding for year one is set but the exact funding level for years two and three will
be dependant on the outcome of an independent evaluation of the World Vision PPA after 18
months and agreement on arrangements for performance based funding in future.
B. How it will be funded: capital/programme/admin
All of the funding for the PPAs will be paid from programme funds.
Over the three year period of PPAs £300m will be paid from Civil Society managed
programme funds with a further £60m paid from CHASE managed programme funds.
C. How funds will be paid out
All of the PPA holders are civil society organisations who do not, as a matter of course, hold
large reserves of funding. To address this issue DFID has secured Treasury approval to pay
CSOs in advance for up to three months. In order to receive this advance payment approval
all PPA holders will be required to, when returning their signed Memorandum of
Understanding, request that they be paid in advance and explain why an advance payment
in necessary.
All PPA holders who provide this request and justification for advance payment will be paid
quarterly (in advance) on receipt of a signed request for release of PPA support. Those not
requesting advance payment or providing no supportable justification for such a payment will
be paid quarterly in arrears.
All payments will be made by the Civil Society Department.
D. How expenditure will be monitored, reported, and accounted for
The funding provided through PPA is unrestricted. This means that when DFID transfers the
funds to the PPA holder they are free to use them for any purpose in support of their
objectives. As a result DFID does not ask them to say where the funds were actually used
nor is DFID able to trace them through accounting systems.
However, DFID asks that the PPA holder provide a copy of their certified Annual Audited
Accounts (AAA) and that they clearly show the PPA funding as a distinct line of income.
DFID holds the right, at any time, to access the PPA holder’s financial records through either
its own Internal Audit team or the National Audit Office (NAO).
The World Vision PPA will follow these same arrangements.
Management Case
A. Oversight
Before entering any formal agreement with World Vision DFID carried out a full due diligence
check to ensure that World Vision has both the systems and process and staffing at an
appropriate level to successfully manage the funding being provided.
The PPA Manager, within DFID’s Civil Society Department, retains oversight of all PPA
partnerships within DFID.
DFID contracted an external evaluation manager to work with all PPA holders to ensure
robust logical frameworks, which have achievable outcomes, realistic and measurable
milestones and sensible baselines against which progress can be measured. A logical
framework has been produced for the World Vision PPA covering the full 3 year period and
can be found with other published documents on DFID’s website.
B. Management
Within DFID, Civil Society Department (CSD) will be responsible for the day to day
management of this partnership with World Vision. More specifically it will be the
Relationship Managers within the CSD team who will have lead responsibility.
The relationship manager will work closely with World Vision, to ensure that it is given
support to achieve the agreed outcomes and to act as a broker to help foster relations
between World Vision and any relevant DFID country offices and policy teams. The
relationship manager will be responsible for ensuring the terms and conditions as laid down
in the World Vision PPA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are adhered to by both
partners.
The MOU is the official signed document which lays down the terms and conditions which
govern DFID PPA support to World Vision. The MOU covers all areas of the partnership
including details on payment processes, audit requirements, financial commitments and
fraud.
In order to maximise learning and knowledge from the PPA partners, Civil Society
Department has allocated one member of staff the role of Learning and Knowledge Adviser
for the PPA portfolio. Through this role the Adviser will work closely with all PPA partners in
order to ensure that lesson learning is shared widely amongst the PPA portfolio of partners,
wider civil society and across DFID.
C. Monitoring and Evaluation
The monitoring strategy for each PPA grantee is individually designed (underway) as a
response to their specific logical framework requirements for indicator evidence collection.
Monitoring and Evaluation will be integrated into PPA partners’ approach to managing the
funding they receive through the PPA mechanism. There is a strong onus on each PPA to
develop a Results Framework which will allow for a transparent evidence-based assessment
of the results and value for money achieved through the grant they receive. An externally
contracted Evaluation Manager has been put in place to ensure that the monitoring and
evaluation strategies adopted by the organisations are adequate for providing such
information and to allow for an overarching fund-level evaluation to take place.
A Results Framework has been designed by World Vision, including a comprehensive logical
framework, which will be assessed against the theory of change and throughout the
evaluation cycle. To date, the evaluation manager has assessed the logical framework of
World Vision. Specific technical advice and guidance has been provided to World Vision with
a view to strengthen the framework in so far as possible.
The World Vision logical framework will provide the core framework for monitoring progress
against the planned results for the grant. A baseline will be collected for each indicator
articulated in the logical framework (at the latest baseline information will be included 3
months after funding has been agreed, unless otherwise agreed). This will articulate, either
qualitatively or quantitatively, the situation at the outset in the areas in which PPA proposes
to use PPA funding. For advocacy work it is likely that the indicators and baseline
information will be qualitative and provide descriptions of current knowledge, awareness,
understand, attitudes and behaviours.
Monitoring information will be collected regularly by PPA and updated on an Annual basis; it
will also be disaggregated by gender where appropriate.
World Vision will commission independent mid-term and final evaluations of its PPA spend.
A template Terms of reference for the mid-term and final evaluations will be developed by
the Evaluation Manager for the Fund and agreed by DFID. These independent reviews will
form an evidence base for the mid-term and final evaluations of the PPA fund as a whole.
The evaluation will use the milestones and proposed outcomes within the agreed World
Vision PPA logical framework to measure success.
Indicatively the mid-term and final evaluation focus will be to undertake an overall
assessment of World Vision’s progress towards Outputs, Outcomes and Impact (where data
is available). They will also seek to make an assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency
of delivery, the Value for Money, test the theory of change and identify key lessons learnt
and applied.
D. Risk Assessment
Risks have been preliminarily assessed, and mitigation will be further addressed throughout
logical framework development. As they stand, risks to the programme appear manageable.
i
Better Aid – Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (2009) OECD, p 151
ii
Committee of Public Accounts – HC 64 – 22 March 2007
iii
ibid.
iv
REVIEW OF DFID SUPPORT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY- Paper to DFID Development Committee, London (March 2010),
Andrea Ledward, Roy Trivedy
v
REVIEW OF DFID SUPPORT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY- Paper to DFID Development Committee, London (March 2010), Andrea
Ledward, Roy Trivedy
vi
REVIEW OF DFID SUPPORT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY- Paper to DFID Development Committee, London (March 2010),
Andrea Ledward, Roy Trivedy
Supporting results, value for Money and Transparency: DFID’s work with Civil Society, Presentation to Funding the Future,
London (March 2011) Nick Dyer, Director of Policy DFID
vii
viii
PPA Meta-evaluation, London (January 2010), Neil MacDonald