FCDO Africa Programmes Expertise Department Third Party Monitoring

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Africa Programmes Expertise Department operates programmes across a number of African countries, at the pan-African, regional or sub-regional levels, through a complex set of regional partners. The aim of third-party monitoring (TPM) was to help strengthen the department’s confidence in what is being delivered and achieved by its programmes, particularly in areas where staff are unable to monitor programme delivery or results directly.

The department’s country footprint includes some of the world’s most fragile and poorest countries facing protracted humanitarian crises. They can be inherently risky environments, where FCDO frequently relies on remote management of partners and programmes. The delivery of an effective regional strategy requires tackling complex development problems through large numbers of disparate institutions and stakeholders, including where FCDO has no presence on the ground.

As a TPM partner, Tetra Tech International Development provided FCDO with timely and relevant feedback on the quality of results systems, data and partner delivery. Our work supported the verification of programme monitoring across a portfolio that includes humanitarian, conflict, water, energy, climate change, trade, organised crime, and agricultural development programmes. We worked closely with our pool of technical specialists and regional research agencies to ensure that the collection and interpretation of TPM data is contextually relevant, technically accurate and useable for key policy and programming decisions.

Our TPM work served both learning and accountability objectives, contributing to FCDO’s efforts in the Africa region. It can be used by departmental staff and implementing partners to drive improvements to programme delivery and reporting, and to provide the department with a higher level of assurance in what is delivered and achieved through the portfolio.

We have been able to effectively provide our monitoring services even though the COVID-19 pandemic has limited opportunities for data collection in the field. We have successfully delivered a range of TPM activities across the portfolio by adapting our methodologies where necessary. Where it has been possible to conduct field studies, our network of local partners has provided us with timely local intelligence to capitalise on windows of opportunity to conduct fieldwork in a safe way.

Results

Since the programme’s inception, we have successfully delivered 44 third-party monitoring products across 12 programmes. We have been engaged in 10 African countries, covering a range of TPM products where fieldwork has been done, including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The programme has consistently delivered high quality results across its lifetime. In its final year, APEX successfully achieved all output targets and received an A in the FCDO review.
Annually, we have conducted Learning Synthesis which distils the key insights and lessons learned from TPM activities to guide FCDO’s developmental goals within the region. By consolidating evidence and identifying common lessons within the APEX portfolio, we contribute to broader learning within and beyond APEX.
Our timely responsiveness to changing FCDO needs has provided the APEX department with continuous oversight and assurance of programme delivery during a challenging period which included responding to COVID19 and flexing to ODA changes to budgets.
The interviews with the programme teams (PTs) confirmed the value of TPM field visits, especially during a period of continued travel restrictions when FCDO site visits were not possible. Our TPM was particularly useful for verifying results in hard-to-reach countries or projects, ensuring that the reported outcomes from partners were accurate and reliable.

Lessons learned

TPM provides PTs with actionable recommendations that significantly added value to the programmes. The TPM approach was particularly effective in identifying specific, implementable actions that could enhance programme outcomes.
Our monitoring activities highlight the importance of adaptability and responsiveness to the unique requirements of each TPM product and programme. This includes tailoring questions to specific cultures and geographies, and customising methodologies to meet the specific needs of PTs.
Close engagement with implementing partners (IPs) is essential for multilateral programmes, especially when FCDO’s contribution is limited. Key practices include sharing findings in advance, conducting preparatory calls for meaningful feedback, and allowing IPs sufficient time for report review. Involving FCDO Programme Teams in communications ensures alignment and actionable recommendations for all stakeholders.
Qualitative insights, such as detailed narrative and subjective experiences, are essential to building a comprehensive picture of programme delivery by providing a more comprehensive understanding of programme impact, outcomes and effectiveness.

Our third-party monitoring in focus

Africa Humanitarian Response Fund (AHRF)

As a part of our TPM support for AHRF, we conducted a Data System Review (DSR) that allows us to check the quality and suitability of implementing partners’ systems for results reporting, verification and aggregation along the delivery chain. Through DSR, we assessed FCDO’s contribution to the World Food Programme (WFP) campaign in the Central African Republic (CAR) focusing on cash transfer modalities as part of FCDO’s due diligence.

By drawing on evidence from multiple sources, including interviews with stakeholders from WFP and a detailed document review, our assessment revealed how WFP’s collaborative approach with partners enhances needs assessment, planning, monitoring, and cash-transfer management. This review was instrumental in verifying that the implementing partner had robust processes in place and identifying areas for improvement.

Africa Continental Free Trade Area Support Programme (AfCFTA)

Through Activity Verification Visits-Beneficiary Feedback, which involved observing partner activities and collecting independent feedback from beneficiaries through field visits and interviews, we intended to verify three research activities and their respective outputs.

We assessed the extent to which the activity products were oriented around the right topic, were timely, and targeted and reached the right stakeholders. Overall, respondents found the activities participatory and highly relevant to their work and ultimately useful to their responsibilities. Respondents could mostly identify how and where the activity will inform dialogue and/or policy.

African Agriculture Development Company (AgDevCo)

The purpose of the Rigorous Results Verification (RRV) activity was to verify results data as reported by AgDevCo and ECA that has fed into annual reporting on FCDO logframe output indicators based on a larger scale sample-based data collection exercise with beneficiaries. The scope of our work focused on a survey of a sample of contracted maize farmers, those who have entered into an input purchase agreement.

We used field data to verify the validity, integrity, precision and reliability of various data points related to smallholder maize farmers, including their identifiers, inputs, training, crop yields, gross income, purchase prices, and feedback. Our RRV assessment aimed at contributing to learning by FCDO, particularly understanding the effect of programme interventions on farmer yields and incomes, especially for women farmers.