News and events

e-bulletin

Every two months we send out an email to keep you informed of upcoming events and the latest news from the effectiveness programme.

New Bond Transparency Programme launched

The Bond Transparency Programme will run for two years, co-funded by DFID and delivered in partnership with the Scottish and Northern Irish NGO networks, NIDOS and CADA.

It will support UK NGOs to:

Comply with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard
Improve NGO transparency and the disclosure of project, governance and performance information, particularly as part of the Bond Effectiveness Programme

Member views on value for money

Several Bond members have been asked to share their experiences and latest thinking around value for money. Build Africa, HIV/AIDS Alliance, and Leonard Cheshire Disability provided their perspective on the challenges around the debate for the August/October 2011 issue of The Networker Magazine. You will also find reflections from CAFOD's Zimbabwe programme included in the article.

Following recommendations from the membership, the programme has also set up two working groups. The technical reference group will meet to share knowledge and experience on how to prove and improve value for money. The group will provide peer support to group members in the piloting of new approaches to proving and improving value for money. As well as this, Bond is currently working on a background paper on value for money and several members have joined the reference group and provided detailed feedback on the content.

INTRAC join the process

The programme has recruited a team of consultants from the International NGO Training and Resource Centre (INTRAC) to work alongside Bond and NIDOS members and Comic Relief Grantees to identify commonly used indicators and tools across area eight thematic areas. This work will feed into the commonly agreed framework for improving effectiveness. The team are in the process of carrying out background research into the indicators Bond members are using to measure their performance.

Effectiveness self-assessment tool pilot

13 member organisations have signed up to participate in the second stage of the pilot process which will run from September-November. There was an inception workshop in September for those piloting the tool within their organisation. The purpose of this workshop was to explain how the piloting process will work. Members also found out about the type of support available to enable their organisation to complete the pilot process. Organisations who have already piloted the tool in their organisation shared their experiences.

Defining common indicators

The effectiveness team is moving forward with the development of the Im-Prove it! Framework, a sector-wide system of indicators and assessment methods to improve how members assess and demonstrate their effectiveness. Over 135 staff from 77 organisations have signed up to the eight thematic area task groups. Members of the task groups attended a workshop in central London on 21 September 2011. The purpose of the workshop was to develop the dimensions of change for the eight thematic areas.