WORKING IN CONSORTIA

SHARING EXPERIENCES FROM THE LIBERIA WASH CONSORTIUM

Chantal Richey

ECHO Partners Conference 2010

BACKGROUNDLiberia WASH Consortium

• Initiated by DFID in mid 2006 and formalised in early 2007• Consortium Members – Action Contre la Faim (ACF), Concern Worldwide, OGB (Lead Agency),

Tearfund & Solidarites International• 3 - 5 year strategy which is extendable and will extend • Three Pillared Strategy

– Direct Service Delivery WASH to > 1.1 million people– Institutional Capacity Building of Government and Local NGO’s; and– Advocacy and Communications

• Budget – c $29.3m – Secured (rounded figures)

• DFID - $ 7m• ECHO - $ 10 m• Irish Aid - $2 m• Bilateral from UNICEF and the World Bank – $ 800 k

• Gap – c $ 9.5 m

BENEFITS OF WORKING IN A CONSORTIUM• Financial

– Increased & consistent funding, shared resources, streamlined management, flexibility to move funds, risk is spread, economies of scale, model is attractive to donors

• Empowerment– Building local capacity, supporting government, long term sustainability,

stronger advocacy voice

• Coordination– Fosters interactions with all stakeholders, enhances county coordination,

enhances donor liaison, reduces government bureaucracy burden – Assistant Minister for Public Works “ It’s much easier for us to speak to one consortium than 5 agencies”

• Partnership– Shared burden of responsibility, improves internal systems and policies,

cross hybridising of ideas, links regions and teams, board membership give government and donors ownership

• Delivery

– Eradication of stop start programming, can rapidly scale up, standardisation of approaches and coherence in the sector, cross learning, BIG IMPACT

IMPACT

+ 700,000 people with SAFE WATER

+ 182,000 people with SAFE SANITATION

+ 400,000 people trained in HYGIENE PROMOTION

2 GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES CAPACITY BUILT4 LNGO’S CAPACITY BUILTWASH BUDGET INCREASED BY GOVERNMENT

COVERAGE

CHALLENGES OF WORKING IN A CONSORTIUM• Financial

– Dividing up funds

• Empowerment– Headquarters & autonomy

• Coordination– Initially just too many meetings, poor reporting,

time consuming – “At one time, I was everything, I was everyone!”, MOU & Operating Agreements development, administratively heavy and therefore no time for monitoring, OGB Institutional capacity building element not understood

• Partnership– Other agencies/Gov/UNICEF feeling threatened

(now well overcome), getting frank dialogue going initially, different agencies different cultures and values, changing mindsets

• Delivery– Standardisation (flipside of this is variety), hard for

field staff to understand the concept, increased workload, LNGO’s meeting expectations of INGO’s

ASSETS & HINDRANCES

ASSETS• Respect and Trust• Collaboration and Learning from

Local Partners• Enabling Government and Policy

Development• Informality• Novelty• Big Funds

HINDRANCES• Lack of a Strategy• Lack of Harmonisation• Lack of a Consortium Coordinator• Administrative Burden• Global Economic Crisis• Staff Turnover

LESSONS LEARNT

• Risk• MOU’s and Operating Agreements• Proposals and Reporting• Branding

Liberia WASH Consortium

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REPLICATIONThere is a developing trend towards working in consortia with more and more donors requesting that agencies collaborate. The following are “Top Tips” for replication:

• Choosing member agencies – number, selection criteria, culture (NB for funding)

• Consortium Coordination Team needs to be on board from day one

• Develop a strategy first but don’t procrastinate too much• Values & Planning workshop at the beginning• Agencies need to be empowered by HQ• Kick start workshop for field teams• If one agency only is doing institutional capacity building the

others need to know how to complement this• Exit strategy and LNGO capacity building ownership agreed up

front• Technical working groups need to be very active• Agreement up front on how to divide funds

THANK YOU

QUESTIONS?