Managing for Development Results (MfDR) and Results Based Management (RBM) are systems that help organisations to ensure their processes, products and services contribute to the achievement of their desired outcomes and impacts. Traditional Project Cycle Management focuses on inputs and activities, but MfDR and RBM shifts this emphasis to results. In the process, MfDR and RBM help agencies to develop a more flexible and responsive approach within programmes and associated activities.

Through our work with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swiss Development Cooperation programme (SDC) we have been a key player in the development and refinement of approaches to results based programme monitoring and evaluation.

Our services include:

Tailored workshops
PARC can offer tailored seminars and information workshops on MfDR and RBM, providing an overview of the methodologies used by development agencies to implement more results-based monitoring and evaluation systems. Previous clients have included the international development departments of the UK (DFID), Japan (JICA) and Switzerland (SDC).

Monitoring Frameworks for Country Programmes
PARC can assist with the development of results-based management frameworks across country portfolios, helping to make the connection between overall country programme goals, funded projects and staff time. We will help to ensure that frameworks go beyond just monitoring – frameworks can encourage offices to integrate corporate targets, review the efficacy of administrative and financial systems, assess investment in knowledge management and information sharing, and analyse partner relationships. Our approaches have informed DFID's current corporate guidance on monitoring and managing country programmes.

Developing Agency Wide Performance Management Systems
Building on the principles developed through our work on Country Programme Monitoring Frameworks, we can also offer support on agency-wide performance monitoring and reporting frameworks. These frameworks assist with strategic planning by helping agencies clarify what they are hoping to achieve over a multi-year time frame and how this contributes to development. Using a modified balanced scorecard approach, the framework facilitates agency teams to identify corporate priorities, address their knowledge needs, monitor and manage their critical relationships, and assess the efficiency of their human and financial resources.

Evaluations of Results Based Country Programmes
PARC has now been involved in a number of country programme evaluations using results based approaches. We have retrospectively constructed Results Framework for the purposes of evaluation, which helps to organise information in a logical way and provides the basis for more rigorous programme analysis. For this information on "Results" to be useful at a management level, it needs to be supplemented by an analysis of what underpins the delivery of these results. By analysing the way an organisation works, including its organisational development processes, we are able to get a clearer picture as to why certain results are achieved or not achieved.