What were the terms of reference for the RPC and LPCs?

Stage 1

The fourth major decision is what kind of coordinating or overall management mechanism to establish. Highly capable and responsible NGOs may require little intervention or supervision in principle, but substantive managerial site visits will almost certainly be required before, during and after the research. The key managerial relationship in project execution is therefore between the regional or international project coordinator (RPC) and the local project coordinators (LPCs).

The RPC should manage the implementation of the project at national levels, liaise with LPCs, monitor progress and synthesize policy reviews from the five participating countries. Sufficient time and resources should be made available to allow for substantive coordinating site visits during research by the international/regional coordinator. The kind of on-site tasks an experienced RPC would be expected to perform would include:

• Meeting with the research team, assisting them to solve conceptual problems at the outset, approving site selection, and attending initial community meetings;
• "Course correction" visits in mid-stream, to share experiences of other project sites, to assist the team address difficult issues (e.g. problems of operationalizing of concepts, techniques for gathering information, initial identification of policy issues); briefing of policy researchers;
• Reviewing preliminary syntheses prior to the synthesis workshop in order to ensure consistency of approach.

These on-site tasks might be undertaken by someone at an institution which has regional capability, or vested in an international project coordinator based in the sponsoring institution. Again, much depends on the style and resources of the sponsoring institution, and its regional representation. If a strong, capable and committed regional institution can be identified to which can be delegated an effective coordinating role, this could be preferable.

Within each country the local project coordinator is responsible to the sponsoring agency for the design and conduct of the research, the management of the in-country research team or teams, the local budget, and the quality and timeliness of the outputs. The LPCs are the lead researchers who should work directly in the field with other researchers and the community; and must reside within the community together with team members for the duration of fieldwork. It is expected that this will be a formal contractual responsibility. Delegation at this level would be inconsistent with the thrust of the project. It would be excellent if provision could be made for LPCs during the field research period to visit one or more other sites in order to exchange experiences and gain ideas.

The actual structure of management will again depend largely on the style of the sponsoring organization, but several points should be borne in mind:

• In a project promoting participatory development, it's consistent to have a participatory management style;
• A considerable amount of discretion should be left to the LPC regarding how best to produce the required results, as there will be wide variations between and even within countries; the role of management should therefore be supportive and responsive rather than directive;
• Many developing country NGOs are severely under-resourced in personnel, finance and equipment; communications and logistics are likely to be a major problem in many sites and countries; therefore the costs and time frame of the project should be sufficiently realistic to take this adequately into account;
• The management and budget arrangements should be thoroughly and openly reviewed at the first workshop.