APC Mid-Term Assessment APC LAC Member Meeting, Montevideo, November 2006 Anriette Esterhuysen

Association for Progressive Communications Where are we in our planning cycle? Strategic priorities agreed on in Cartagena, November 2003 Strategic plan finalised with EB and reviewed by members, 2004 Fundraising drive, 2004 Implementation started 2004 but really took off in 2005 through BCO and DGIS grants

Association for Progressive Communications APC planning cycle

Association for Progressive Communications Actions for Mid-term assessment of implementation of the plan –Staff and members to do exercise to measure contribution and relevance of our activities in terms of meeting agreed priorities Agree on priorities for plan –Regional meetings in 2006, 2007 –Further interaction with members prior to 2007 Council meeting

Association for Progressive Communications Goals of the mid-term assessment Assess the relevance and contribution of our work to achieving the goals in the plan Members to assess how relevant their work is to meeting agreed priorities Prepare for the next round of strategic planning which will start with members setting priorities at the 2007 council meeting Develop the basis for a simple, reusable monitoring and evaluation framework for APC Do ground work for end-of-term assessment Learn about our work, what we do well and what not so well, and why, and how to plan better and more realistically.

Association for Progressive Communications What the mid-term assessment IS and IS NOT It is not an impact assessment It is checking if WHAT we do is contributing meeting APC strategic priorities: –are we making the right choices? –are we investing time / resources appropriately? –looking back on completed activities, did they contribute to realising the strategic plan? Impact assessment will follow closer to the end of the cycle

Association for Progressive Communications Actions for staff Develop a ‘rating’ system that is part of the APC project management space Rate activities for relevance and contribution to APC strategic priorities, key result areas (goals) and thematic cross cuts

Association for Progressive Communications Actions for the EB Rate, from their perspective, the contribution and relevance of APC activities to the strategic plan Staff and EB to compare their ratings Make recommendations as to what should be prioritised, or de-prioritised for the duration of this planning cycle

Association for Progressive Communications Actions for members Discuss in their own organisations, or as regions, how their activities relate to the APC strategic priorities and goals Consider, and do some brainstorming, on priorities and goals that should be addressed in the next APC planning cycle

Association for Progressive Communications Other tasks that form part of the MTA Member completion of abbreviated database fields after discussion in their own organisation, or as region Examination of reports to donors as well as funding proposals Interviews with APC staff Interviews with member organisations Interviews with representatives of people working in same field Interviews with key donors and partners Electronic requests for information Documentary and related review Analysis of budgets / financial reports to get patterns of support provided Analysis of web-site statistics

Association for Progressive Communications What happens after the Mid-Term Assessment? Based on lessons from MTA: –reassess activities revealed as questionable –reassess KRAs based on ratings and feedback from raters –design the end-of-term assessment –‘broader’ focus: wider informant group –‘narrower’ focus: going ‘into’ programmes and projects