Blink Governance

The rightful exercise of power rests on the application of laws established on the basis of democratic principles.
Most people accept that private persons and enterprises should operate within a regulatory framework established by government, even when this principle is often more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
It is often less readily appreciated that public institutions also have to stick to the rules, including those draw up by those institutions themselves.
Clearly defining what rules exist, for what reason and how they should be applied lies at the heart of our governance work.
This work takes local traditions and culture as a starting point for the introduction and refinement of policies and regulatory frameworks that work in an increasingly globalised setting.

About 8% of projects also had a training component.

•   Functional reviews
•   Organisational change management
•   Mandate formulation
•   Workload analysis
•   Job descriptions
•   Career development tools
•   Manual development and training

There’s management and then there’s management. Time was when the term was associated mainly, almost exclusively, with the private sector.
In the last quarter of the 20th century it became fashionable to speak of management in the public sector also.
At that time too, in the private and the public sector both, everybody not actually on the ‘work floor’ became a manager, devaluing at the same time the designation ‘manager’ and the content of the term ‘management’.
Of course, management, and good management at that, remains essential for any organisation, private or public, to achieve results. It is a pity therefore that good managers remain scarce in the public sector. This is not because of any lack of good professionals in public administration. Apart from remuneration levels in the public sector, it is mainly because professionals with potential are not giving much opportunity to manage.
Even with the more limited degrees of freedom to act in public administration, there is scope for enhancing the management skills of civil service personnel. In fact, the more limited freedom to act on the part of public sector managers makes using the limited leeway that does exist to instil and exercise management skills, a rewarding challenge. A challenge we are happy to take on.

About 8% of projects also had a training component.

•   Policy development
•   Strategy formulation
•   Strategic management
•   Programme & project management
•   Project Management Cycle (PCM) training
•   Logical framework analysis
•   Mentoring

People learn best by doing, so it is said, and indeed they generally do.
Unfortunately, this dictum cannot be assumed to apply to institutions, both public and private, to the same extent. In fact, especially larger institutions and companies tend to be slow learners. ‘Office politics’, poor internal communication and fear of the outside are some of the reasons for entities’ slow adjustment to changing circumstances and taking into account past experience.
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are tools for the management of public and private bodies and dealing with of inevitable changes in their cultural, economic, political and social environment.
Our approach to M&E is grounded in the principle that it should be a participatory process. Our expertise may help to produce a realistic assessment of institutional and corporate problems, the formulation of potential solutions and the distillation of ‘lessons learned’.
However, if these solutions and lessons are not grounded in the experience and expressed opinions of all stakeholders (not only management) they will prove infertile in the longer term.
Recent methodological developments, such as ‘theory of change’ and ‘self-evaluation’, which inspire our work, help to take into account and balance stakeholders’ views and interests.
Another important aspect of our M&E work is that the recommendations it yields should be SMART. That is, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Without these characteristics, M&E recommendations will likely be ignored as irrelevant.

About 8% of projects also had a training component on monitoring and evaluation procedures.

•   Ex-ante, interim and ex-post M&E reporting
•   Design of M&E systems and procedures
•   Formulation of M&E manuals and
•   Monitoring & Evaluation training