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RBM Background • Development aid is often provided on a point to point basis with no consistency with countries priorities.

• Development efforts are often fragmented and hardly sustainable.

• Stress was predominantly put on funding activities rather than on aid for results observable in terms of development.

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RBM Background

In the 1990ies, international development entered a reform and reformulation phase.

World leaders as well as the United nations and other multilateral institutions recognized that bold steps should be made in terms of efficient use of the development aid funds.

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Declaration of Paris

In 2005 in Paris, all the efforts jointly made by countries and agencies targeting development results and new ways of improving aid were discussed in terms of harmonization, alignment, and results.

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Declaration of Paris: Principles

• Ownership: Partner countries have developed ownership of their development policies and strategies and ensured coordination of development support actions.

• Alignment : Donors have based all their support on national development strategies, institutions, and procedures of partner countries.

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Declaration of Paris: Principles

• Harmonization : Donors’ actions are better harmonized and transparent, which results in more collective effectiveness.

• Result based management : management of resources and improvement of decision making process to get development results.

• Mutual Responsibility: Donors and partner countries are responsible for the results obtained in terms of development.

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Result based Management

Development result based management is one of the basic principles of the Declaration of Paris; it is defined as a more effective international development aid.

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RBM: Definition

RBM is a philosophy and a management approach which encourages results in planning, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation. It is based on the principle of commitment to obtaining results, and it should be a guideline for the definition of activities and strategy for project/programme management.

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RBM: Definition

According to CIDA, RBM “can help improve effectiveness and responsibility in management through the involvement of the key stakeholders in the definition of the expected results, evaluation of risks, monitoring of progress towards those results, integrating the lessons learned in management decision making processes and reports on outcomes”.

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RBM: Definition

According to UNDP,RBM is a “management strategy or methodology adopted by an organization to ensure that its procedures, products, and services help achieve clearly defined results. It is a consistent strategic planning and management framework which helps improve learning and responsibility.

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RBM: Definition

• According to the Declaration of Paris, “result based management means managing and implementing aid focussing on expected results and using available data to improve decision making process.”

• La RBM is therefore an approach which systematically focuses on the results, rather than on achieving defined activities, and optimizing use of human and financial resources.

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RBM: Chain of Results

Within the RBM concept , “result” is a generic concept which can have various meanings depending on its use at the evolution level of the development programme.

But, the various types of results in a development programme represent the chain of results, a key component of RBM.

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RBM: Chain of Results

Two main categories:• Management actions: They include the inputs

made available and the activities engaged by the project/programme management .

• Development results: they include the outputs, the outcomes, and the impact showing changes at the various stages of the project/programme implementation phase .

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RBM: Chain of Results

• Inputs include all financial, human, and material resources needed to achieve the expected results( implement activities) of a development action.

• Activities include all tasks and work carried out to produce a specific result using inputs.

• Outputs include immediate tangible products obtained through the implementation of activities.

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RBM: Chain of Results

• Outcomes include medium term results at development level derived from the use of outputs/products by the beneficiaries. They are changes observed by the beneficiaries (individuals, community based organizations, and local institutions) in terms of knowledge, know-how, and self-management skills.

• Impact is a long term overall development result the induced outcomes of which have helped achieve it within the framework of the project/programme.

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RBM: Chain of Results

The chain of results represents the links between the various components:

• Causal links between inputs, activities, and outputs;

• Logical links between outputs and outcomes;

• Contribution links between outcomes and impact overtime.

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RBM: Chain of Results

RBM is based on the principle that the management strategy focuses on impact, outcomes, and outputs (products or services) before defining the inputs and activities needed to achieve them.

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RBM: Principles

Involvement is one of the basic components of RBM. Involvement of all partners helps improve relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of development initiatives.

Involvement of all partners should be at all stages of the project/programme: during planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation processes .

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RBM: Principles Simplicity: RBM is a simple management tool which

can help stakeholders define and achieve realistic results.

Continuous learning: RBM should be implemented in a repetitive way by refining the strategies based on experience and lessons learned. With the help of RBM, stakeholders can improve and capitalize on the experience they have gathered.

Adaptable methodology: RBM can be used in many contexts and in a number of aspects of common project management operations. In pre-existing projects, RBM can be integrated during the implementation process.

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RBM: Principles

• Partnership: the expected results should be defined and validated by all stakeholders. The process helps develop stakeholders’ ownership and their commitment to monitoring.

• Accountability: The best way to strengthen stakeholders’ accountability is to define and validate results together, along with clear roles and responsibilities.

• Transparency : Transparency should be total throughout the process. The expected results and the relevant indicators should be clearly identified so that the results can be measured.

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RBM: Key Recommendations

• Clearly identify beneficiaries and design project consistently with their needs and priorities;

• Clearly define project objectives;

• Define realistic results at all levels of the chain of results based on an appropriate situation analysis;

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RBM: Key Recommendations

• Define indicators and measure achievement of results;

• Define appropriate indicators and monitor progress in achieving results.

• Increase knowledge and improve practices with the help of lessons learned from experience;

• Identify risks and define their management strategy;• Document results and resources used for more

transparency.

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RBM Process: Key Rules

• Project managers are facilitators in the approach implementation process

• All stakeholders of the approach are responsible: manager, beneficiary populations, community based organizations, and other technical and financial partners

• The project objectives and activities are defined through consultation with all stakeholders

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RBM Process: Key rules

• Activities are implemented by all stakeholders based on responsibility level

• Monitoring-Evaluation of activity implementation and results are carried out by all stakeholders

• Learning is secured through lessons learned by all stakeholders based on responsibility level.

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RBM: Process

RBM approach is repetitive:

• Definition of short and medium term objectives

• Definition of activities to be carried out and inputs to be used

• Evaluation of achieved results

• Definition of lessons learned and of new short and medium term objectives.

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RBM: Process

The implementation of the RBM approach follows three distinct phases:

• Identification and planning phase

• Development and formulation phase

• Monitoring and evaluation phase

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RBM: Process

Identification and planning phase: several steps.

1. Identification of constraints and needs: it is about:• Identifying a negative situation and analyzing it with the

affected stakeholders

• Proposing solutions to those constraints 2. Analysis of stakeholders: it is about categorizing them

based on their interventions areas, competencies, or inputs (contributions).

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RBM: Process

Identification and planning phase: several steps.

3. Planning: definition of output framework:

The output framework helps develop the project through a series of components: project goal, expected results, beneficiaries, and implementation strategy

The output framework expresses a chain of results and indicates the course of a current situation and the vision of the expected change.

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RBM: Process

Identification and planning phase: several steps.

4. Definition of output measuring indicators• Output indicators are “qualitative and quantitative

measurements of the resources used, the scope of outcomes at development level”.

• Indicators should be defined at each level of the chain of results: impact, outcome and output.

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RBM: Process

Identification and planning phase: several steps.

5. Assumption determination and risk analysis

Assumptions indicate the conditions necessary to have causal relations between the various levels be operational.

The risks are external and internal negative factors which affect effective achievement of the project results.

Each time an assumption is defined for the project success, the risk of its absence should be analyzed.

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RBM: Process

Development and formulation phase6. RBM is based on a chain of results in the following

logic: • Resources help implement activities;• Activities produce immediate results (outputs);• Use of outputs (products) by beneficiaries help them

make changes: outcomes;• Outcomes or immediate results will help in the long run

achieve end results which are the impact.

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RBM: Process

Development and formulation phase:7. Development of the logical framework matrix

This matrix which provides a snapshot of the project logic includes the objectives, results, activities, resources, indicators , verification sources, assumptions and risks.

The matrix holds the vertical logic or chain of results and the horizontal logic, that is the indicators of the expected results, the beneficiaries and the risks in relation to the project implementation.

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RBM: Process

Development and formulation phase:8. Project drafting (Project Chart):This stage takes into account all decisions made in

the previous steps: project rationale, relevance, feasibility and viability of solutions proposed, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation modalities, project budgeting and financial management.

(An example of a project chart)

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RBM: Process

Outcome monitoring and evaluation phase• Monitoring & Evaluation is about the project observation

and analysis process and the achievement of the results and objectives. The overall aim of monitoring and evaluation is to measure and evaluate performance in order to better manage the outcomes and products called “development results”.

• It is not about a mere monitoring and evaluation of the project products, but also its outcomes.

• Outcome monitoring and evaluation has much to do with systematic data collection and analysis in order to follow up changes from reference situation to expected outcomes and to see if there is change or not.

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RBM: Process

Outcome monitoring and evaluation phase

Monitoring and evaluation can help monitor estimates against achievements.

Monitoring is also a management tool for it helps redirect actions.

The “outcome measuring framework” tool, while incorporating outcome indicators, data sources, data collection methodology, frequency and responsibility, helps establish the link between the components that are monitored and the way to do it.

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RBM: Process

Outcome monitoring and evaluation phase

RBM encourages participatory monitoring which should be:• Less demanding in terms of financial resource and time,• Targeted on some information and indicators,• Consultative so that a large number of stakeholders are

sensitized about and involved in the monitoring and evaluation process.

Participatory monitoring and evaluation is different from the more conventional approaches; it encourages more intense participation of the project stakeholders based on the notion of learning.

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RBM: ProcessOutcome monitoring and evaluation phaseMonitoring and evaluation should consider the developed outcome

measuring framework and answer the following questions:

• Have the activities and resources helped achieve the expected results? Verification of the project efficiency.

• Have the results encouraged the achievement of the objectives? Verification of the project effectiveness.

• Has the selected strategy helped achieve the results and objectives? Verification of the project relevance.

• Has the institutional, political, social, and organizational context helped the project succeed? Analysis of the results against assumptions/risks.

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RBM and RIMS

To meet the demands for more effective international aid, IFAD adopted RIMS (Result and impact management system), a framework which helps define the measure components, result presentation, and impact of the projects it funds on the changes made by the beneficiaries.

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RBM and RIMS

RIMS includes three levels of results corresponding with three types of development results of the RBM chain of results.

The 1st level results correspond with the project products. Those results are generally planned and implemented on an annual basis.

The 2nd level results correspond with the changes observed with the beneficiaries following the use of the project products.

The 3rd level results correspond with the project impact. Consistently with IFAD commitment to the MDGs, RIMS includes two mandatory indicators (infant malnutrition and household assets) to measure the project contribution to “alleviating extreme poverty and hunger”.