Remote management approaches to project implementation are increasingly used to reach vulnerable populations in conflict-affected regions while safeguarding the security of organisational personnel. This report highlights the need for organisations to engage fully with the principles of remote monitoring and accountability and with the planning required to ensure they are successfully implemented.
The initial research focused on identifying the key issues experienced by and concerns highlighted by 38 humanitarian and development stakeholders regarding remote project monitoring and beneficiary accountability practice. The stakeholders were INGOs and NGOs, UN agencies, institutional donors and research and good practice organisations. This phase was followed by an innovation phase in which good practice recommendations were developed to address the issues raised.
Concerns regarding how remotely managed projects can ensure high programme quality and rigorous project monitoring were the issues project stakeholders raised with the greatest fervour. While the research had a strong focus on accountability practice, there was not substantial evidence of this being a strong focus for all individual stakeholders.
The research found that a significant number of the stakeholders (26 of the 38, that is 68 percent) were in favour of using remote management approaches in project locations of medium- to high-insecurity. They believe that, if sufficient attention is paid to improving remote monitoring and accountability practices, there is the potential for remote management to be successful, safeguarding technical quality and adequately mitigating against fraud, corruption and a lack of accountability. In contrast, nine stakeholders (24 per cent) highlighted that they would be opposed to the practice of remote management under any circumstances. They believed that the challenges outlined in this report can never be adequately addressed, leading to deficiencies in programme quality, personnel safety and security, and in appropriate financial management.
The issues surrounding remote management do pose a substantial threat to programme quality and accountability. However, this report highlights good practices that can be developed further and used to address these issues.
Evidence suggests that, for the most part, organisations are struggling to make traditional approaches to project management fit with newer remote management concepts. This report strongly recommends that organisations using remote management consider how their whole approach to programming and support functions will need to change in the light of the selected remote management structure. Programmatic considerations including recruitment, programme size and project type need to be reviewed, as well as standard approaches to monitoring and accountability. It is strongly recommended that organisations coordinate with one another in and between countries experiencing medium- to high-insecurity and share learning and best practice.
Recommendations for remote project monitoring
- Programmatic considerations – e.g. consider limiting the size and/or scope of the programme; implement multi-region projects in both secure and insecure locations.
- Recruiting local, national and international staff
- Building the capacity of local staff and/or partners
- Ensuring facilitation of regular face-to-face meetings
- Promoting organisational values and ethos
- Developing a remote management strategy
- Tightening controls and building micro-management approaches to monitoring
- Ensuring dedicated monitoring and evaluation capacity at programme and project level
- Developing a monitoring and evaluation framework at programme and project level
- Researching and investing in information and communication technologies to support remote monitoring
- Peer monitoring – e.g. cross-agency and local government monitoring; cross-project exchange visits and monitoring within own organisation
- Beneficiary- and community-led monitoring
Recommendations for remote beneficiary accountability
- Establishing and delivering on commitments – e.g. establish a beneficiary accountability focal person at the primary organisation/programme head office and at the local project office
- Staff competency – e.g. a capacity development programme with follow-up
- Sharing information
- Participation – e.g. develop additional structures within the community to promote beneficiary participation; consider whether it is practical and appropriate to meet with beneficiaries outside a project implementation area
- Beneficiary feedback and complaints handling
- Learning and continual improvement
