UNESCO

RTC Consultants Bureau of Strategic Planning ( BSP )

RESULTS BASED

PROGRAMMING,MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING (RBM) GUIDE

1) Introduction

By decision of the Director General and the Executive Board, staff and managers in each Sector and Programme of UNESCO are henceforth required to apply Results-Based Programming, Management and Monitoring (RBM) to the design and implementation of all UNESCO’s activities, namely Major Programmes, Programmes, Subprogrammes, Main lines of action, actions and activities. This Guide introduces a number of the fundamental concepts that underpin RBM. In essence, RBM is a quite straightforward way of thinking about three basic questions that are fundamental to any organisation:

What do we wish to achieve ?

What will we do to reach that goal ?

How will we know whether we have achieved our goal ?

One of the core values of a modern approach to RBM is a clear move away from downward-driven and resource-based command-and-control management systems, towards new models based on collective responsibility and delegation, interaction and collective accountability.

2) What is RBM?

a) RBM is a method to help reach and assess achievements

RBM is about a managerial philosophy and approach which underpins decision-making and provides for regular feedback and adjustment. It helps moving the focus of managing and decision-making from a tradition of assessing what has been done and how it has been done, to a concentration on selecting objectives to be met, and assessing what was achieved as an implementation of such objectives.

For that purpose, it focuses on

  what an organization intends to achieve in terms of the nature of the real changes that programming activities are designed to bring about, and the relevance of such activities;

  medium-term ways of identifying and showing staff and managers, as well as all stakeholders, how the implementation of that programming actually “made a difference” in bringing about such changes.

For example, if what is being sought is to build a policy-making capacity within a number of national governments, or to enhance the capacity of societal institutions to respond to a recognized problem, the RBM approach is not to focus on the conferences, the training, the seminars or the networks that may have been undertaken. Instead, the RBM approach will assess whether that policy-making capacity was enhanced; or whether those societal institutions succeeded in grappling with the problem.

Some of UNESCO’s bilateral and multilateral partners have adopted their own unique approaches to RBM over the last decade. For them, RBM has helped to improve the quality of decision-making and enhance the effectiveness of programming. As each organization has unique characteristics, mandates and responsibilities, the way RBM is introduced and the way it evolves will necessarily differ from one body to the next.

b) RBM is a participatory, flexible and living method

RBM seeks to develop at the beginning of the planning process a complete understanding of what is to be achieved, by whom and how achievements will be assessed. It also seeks to build a collective understanding of the scope of activities and how they contribute to the larger, more strategic objectives and goals that an organisation may set. It therefore calls for a three-way flow of information within an organisation : between staff and managers, among every staff equally and, above all, with stakeholders

Negotiation and validation among colleagues, and between staff and managers, are vital parts of a fully-developed approach to RBM, which is based on openness, collective problem-solving and collective decision-making. These values reflect an ethos where it is natural to discuss upwards, downwards and horizontally, and to do so in a transparent and timely manner. To that end, the negotiation and validation elements of SISTER are indeed electronic proxies for the philosophy of RBM.

RBM is a fundamentally flexible approach to planning and decision-making. The tools and techniques needed to respond to the three primary questions listed at the start of this Guide will vary, not only among organizations, but also within an organization. Different types of organizational elements will need different approaches and different tools. For example, administrative and service-delivery elements of an organization will address the three questions differently from the way entities dealing with policy, forecasting and planning issues will. But all parts of the Organization must address all three questions. RBM is a flexible way for every part of UNESCO to plan, assess progress and take decisions.

The very concept of “results” will for example vary according to the level at which it is considered : in the context of UNESCO, the design of a “ result” is required at each of the six existing levels of programming, and this is also the core principle along which SISTER has been designed.

·  In the context of the medium term strategy ( C/4 ) , specific OUTCOMES must be formulated for each strategic objective and sub-objective, which gives the Major Programmes and Programmes their direction and programmatic guidance

·  In the context of the biennial programme and budget ( C/5 ), EXPECTED RESULTS are articulated, pertaining to each main line of action.

·  In the workplans, more OPERATIONAL RESULTS are formulated for each and every action and activity, including also performance indicators

All of these elements are to be entered into SISTER

It is obvious that the nature, magnitude, meaning of “results” cannot be the same between the outcomes of a medium term strategy and the series of outputs making the result of an activity. Nevertheless, it is crucial that all these results build a chain of meaningful achievements, bridging the gap between the permanent goals of UNESCO and what the Organisation actually achieves in its current daily action. The method of nesting Logframes, from Major Programme down to activity and vice versa is a powerful one to make such a programming a coherent and efficient one. SISTER is based on such a logic, and contributes to relate distinct levels to each other. Making results fit together and add up into major outcomes for the Organisation as a whole is what designing strategies is all about. This is the core task of senior management, and indeed permeates all programme management.

Nesting Logframes:

the logics of SISTER support the RBM approach to programming

MP P SP MLA Action activity

Goal

Purpose Goal

Output Purpose Goal

Programme Output Purpose Goal

Sb progr; Output Purpose Goal

MLA Output Purpose Goal

Action Output Purpose

Activity Output

“expected

OUTCOMES results” “ operational results”

Specific indicators are required for each type of “ result”. They also serve as entry points for evaluation and monitoring assessments . They must concentrate on achievements, not on compliance. The feedback and analysis which are core components of RBM imply that new solutions must be welcomed and that an organization and its programming cannot remain static in an ever-changing world. RBM thus reflects the acceptance of continuous improvement as part of an organization’s basic culture

RBM is well adapted to UNESCO’ s requirements

3) The Programme Logic of RBM - A Simplified View

RBM is a simple approach to programming logic that is inherently intuitive, where one step builds immediately on the earlier.

This graphic illustrates the process and emphasizes that it is cyclical. The first step - setting objectives and expected results - is, and must be, inextricably linked with the final - assessing actual results.

From objectives to outcomes : the RBM programming cycle

Necessarily, this drawing oversimplifies the complexities inherent in the programme logic that underpins the reality of UNESCO. Its purpose is not to map all the steps of programme logic, or to factor in other necessary management tools such as cost-efficiency analysis and internal auditing to ensure regulatory compliance, etc.

It is just to show the necessary relationship between the articulation of Expected Results and what is actually achieved as compared with what was intended. Equally, it shows how the practice of negotiation and validation mentioned earlier and enshrined in SISTER must occur at each step as part of a on-going dialogue between all levels contributing to a coherent series of results, from primary output to major outcomes : the output of an activity must be logically linked with how the action of which this activity is part and parcel will itself further the attainment of the Main Line of action’s Expected Result in the first place, and so on.

This whole cycle is directed towards an approach to management that goes beyond an examination of what was done and how many resources were consumed, towards one which concentrates on the assessment of the impact of programming - simply, i.e what was achieved.

Goals/ objectives have to be kept in a given relation to purposes, outputs and acts, so as to form together an integrated whole. It constitutes the main planks of the Logical Framework approach, so that acts contribute to the purpose through an output, and the purpose fits to the goal. In such a framework, one could denote the result as being the level of approximation between output and purpose. Each of the four concepts take its exact meaning from its relation to the three others, opening the way for a very creative and yet extremely rigorous approach to programming by collective thinking and joint designing of strategies.

Performance Means

Indicators of verification

Goals Conditions

Purpose Conditions

RESULTS

outputs Conditions

Acts Conditions

4) The Immediate Focus - The Main Line of Action

Out of the six levels of UNESCO’s programming

·  Major Programme

o  Programme

§  Sub-Programmes

·  Main line of action

o  Action

§  Activity

the Main Line of Action (MLA) is the place where outputs from actions and activities are aggregated and contribute to build up outcomes for major programmes. This is where the C/5 articulates expected results against which the Organisation’s action will be monitored and evaluated, where strategic and operational factors intersect.

For UNESCO the ability to determine what is being achieved first becomes truly practical at the level of the Main Line of Action. It is at this level where the number and duration of individual types of programming come together in a sufficient critical mass to begin to make it possible to look towards achievements. The building blocks of programming ( actions ) begin to be aggregated in sufficient volume so as to clarify the relationship between what is being sought, what is being done and what has been achieved – in essence the responses to the three questions that opened this Guide. The higher levels of UNESCO programming serve to house related Main Lines of Action whereas at the lower levels - action and activity - the focus turns to individual instances of programming.

Main Lines of Action naturally work together to contribute to broader programme objectives. The articulation of sub-objectives for each Major Programme in the draft C/4 illustrates the way how Main Lines of Action come together to form a totality that reflects accomplishment by a sector, which can themselves be monitored in terms of results and achievements as well.

In addition, all MLAs need to take into account to what extent and how they relate to the strategic objectives of the medium term strategy ( C/4 ) and respond to the two cross-cutting themes : the contribution of information and communication technologies to the development of education, science, and culture, and the construction of a knowledge society and the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty. In this way, the collective problem-solving nature of RBM will facilitate the assessment of how Main Lines of Action collectively contribute to UNESCO-wide strategies and goals, thereby sharpening the focus and impact of all that UNESCO does.

5) Developing a common terminology for RBM at UNESCO

The following short list of terms may be a starting point for UNESCO, and thus a common understanding of the basics of RBM at the MLA.

An Expected Result

“ Expected results describe a change in a situation and/or benefits to end-users/clients due to activities or interventions of the Organisation. Expected results are specific and can be captured either in quantitative or qualitative terms”. Expected results can be designed at each and every level of programming, taking different faces according to what should be expected from each level – mainly outputs at the lowest level, merely outcomes when in comes to higher strategic levels.

Strategies

Strategies describe the broad ways in which one intends to work towards the achievement of an Expected Result. They address conceptual issues such as the nature and modalities of UNESCO’s work ( whether catalytic, or normative, or as a clearing house, etc), whether it will be directed more towards action or towards reflection, the range of actions to be taken for that purpose at the appropriate level, and the means required for that purpose. They need to articulate how UNESCO’s action comes into play amongst other bodies’ role in the same field of intervention, and to take into account all stakeholders ‘ roles and interests.

An Input inputs are human, financial and other resources necessary for achieving results and producing outputs

An Output Outputs are final products, services or general activities delivered to end users/ clients. Such outputs are only sought for the purpose of contributing to the achievement of an expected result. Producing an output is by itself meaningless and useless. It only gains relevance by contributing adequately to an expected result, at the lowest possible input cost.

An Outcome Outcomes are overall changes in situations and/or benefits to end users/clients, either qualitative or quantitative, in the area where UNESCO has intervened, that may or may not be substantially due to the Organisation’s activities but were set out earlier as Expected Results and as such benefited from the Organisation’s efforts.

An Actual

Result an Actual Result is the collective assessment within the span of a biennium of the kind of, and degree of, change brought about in the field of action earlier articulated in the Expected Results set out for the MLA – or for any other level of programming, the term “ result “ being adequately used at each of them as a generic concept.