Trends and Results in Private Sector Development Continued

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes and governments.

We took a number of interviews to capture some of the key messages that came out. They also aim to create a discussion around the issues highlighted, and all comments are very welcome.

The first four videos previously released, introduce the DCED Standard and how it, and its constituent parts, are being used by programmes. The next four aim to go beyond this, and review how other actors, such as donors and challenge funds, view results measurement and next steps for the DCED Standard.

In the fifth video, Hugh Scott and David Smith review measuring the impacts of challenge funds.

Challenge funds are an increasingly popular and effective mechanism for allocating and disbursing public funds. They are traditionally demand driven grant funding mechanisms, run as competitions where the winnings bids receive funding. The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) is a US$150m private sector fund of donor money available to the private sector on a competitive basis. It is hosted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and is currently funded by AusAid, DANIDA, DFID, IFAD, NMFA and Sida. It is open to proposals from all countries in Africa, with the aim to make agribusiness, finance, renewable energy and information market systems work better for the poor in rural areas. KPMG DAS was awarded the contract to manage the AECF following a competitive tender. KPMG DAS retains the services of Triple Line Consulting (TLC) for monitoring, evaluation and management information systems.

Hugh Scott, Director of the AECF, introduces the AECF and how it combines typical features of challenge funds, such as thorough advertising of competitions and clear criteria, and innovative methods, such as organising bespoke competitions. David Smith, Director of TLC, notes that the AECF is starting to implement the Standard, for instance developing intervention results chains and considering attribution, key to assessing the real impact of challenge funds. Challenge funds are light-touch mechanisms and have little resources themselves for monitoring. The businesses applying for funding focus on measuring business indicators over development impacts. David Smith suggests this means a compromise is needed between donors and businesses, including more donor support for results measurement. Hugh Scott outlines how the AECF will take forward and implement the DCED Standard.

View Hugh Scott and David Smith’s presentations at the DCED Current Trends and Results Seminarin Private Sector Development

In the following videos, Simon White reviews results measurement of business environment reform. Next steps in this area were identified at the seminar, including developing business environment reform models of change and reviewing business environment indicators. Alwyn Chilver and Peter Tschumi, members of the DCED Results Measurement Working Group, review the donor perspective on results measurement and the DCED standard. They highlight the value of the Standard as they face increasing pressures for credible results, and its adoption in their agencies. Finally Susanne Hartmann, Peter Tschumi and I address next steps for results measurement and the DCED Standard. Reviewing the seminar and the different issues raised, we highlight the importance of developing the market for the Standard.

To view the previous set of videos on current results measurement and application of the DCED Standard, click here.

Please follow developments by signing up to our newsletter at www.enterprise-development.org, following us on twitter, and commenting on the videos and on our Facebook page.