ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, STRUCTURE AND PROCESS

• Learning and Information-sharing: Organizational Issues
• Project Assessment/Approval and Quality Control
• Programming Strategy
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

The present evaluation, like most others, focuses on UNDP’s projects, yet in considering the notion of a programming cycle, attention turns inevitably to the organizational context within which overall objectives are set and projects are planned, financed and implemented. In particular, on the basis of the findings of this study, it is suggested that certain elements of UNDP organizational culture and structure appear to get in the way of efforts to achieve quality programming. The problems described below also represent barriers to the achievement of a situation where intercountry programmes, taken as a collectivity, substantiate the priorities and principal values of the organization.

Like many other donor organizations and more than most, UNDP is highly decentralized in its operational structure. The organization is not lacking in bureaucratic procedures and regulations, yet unlike many of its counterparts, UNDP either lacks or does not use mechanisms to ensure internal consistency or through which to ensure common standards.

In internal planning documents, reference is made to the need for UNDP to become "a learning organization". On the basis of the findings of this evaluation, a great deal must be done if this ambition is to be realized.

The first set of issues raised relates directly to the question of organizational learning. The second group focuses on issues related to project assessment and quality control, the third deals with programming strategy and the fourth with monitoring, evaluation and accountability.

Essentially, all the issues discussed pertain to organizational learning. Several of the topics - monitoring, for example - are discussed elsewhere in the report. They are given emphasis here in order to draw attention to the need for action at the senior management level in dealing directly with deficiencies in internal structures and processes.

BOX 8

Learning and Information-sharing: Organizational Issues

The study identified the following problems:

• Very limited efforts by project planners to learn from the work of others or to consult evaluation reports or substantive programming guidelines.
• Weakness of horizontal communications with regard to projects within and across bureaux and divisions.
• An urgent preoccupation with getting projects funded and implemented, which appears to preclude any interest in learning from other initiatives or building learning strategies into projects.
• Leaving aside OESP with its particular mandate, no one in the organization takes responsibility for learning lessons from programming. There appear to be no incentives or support systems to facilitate a commitment to learning.

Project Assessment/Approval and Quality Control

The following problems have been identified:

• Project approval committees meet at a stage in the unfolding of events when too many commitments have already been made for project planners to be receptive to proposed adjustments in design. This makes it unlikely, if not impossible, that inputs from other elements of UNDP will be taken seriously.
• There exists an organizational culture with a commitment to decentralization and within which separate spheres of influence and territoriality are respected. The effect of these elements of the UNDP culture is to preclude any contribution that project approval committees might make to enhancing project quality by ensuring that reasonable standards are achieved.
• There is a lack of consistency in the quality of project documents and weak, ineffective guidelines for their preparation.
• UNDP lacks clear criteria and guidelines - and fails to use existing guidelines - for the active pursuit of quality through the project approval process.

Programming Strategy

• It is recognized that UNDP has a multitude of internal constituencies to satisfy as well as a range of external stakeholders. These have all had their influence in shaping programming strategy for intercountry programmes.
  If the organization is to achieve its objectives, there is a need for senior management, with the support of the Executive Committee, to take a more proactive role in working with the regional bureaux and BPPS in developing clear, focused guidelines. The goal should be to provide a framework for a more streamlined set of programmes that address a more limited set of themes and priorities within a given programming cycle.
• Directions from senior management will also be required in addressing the problem not only of the scattering of projects across a wide spectrum of themes and sectors but also the related phenomenon of the persistent under-budgeting of projects.
  There are too many projects and most have inadequate funds to achieve their purposes. This is a major factor in thwarting the effort to achieve programming quality and project effectiveness.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

• Perhaps in part because of inadequate budgets, projects have given little attention to developing systematic approaches to monitoring and evaluation. Failure to undertake (and budget for) the preparatory work required to generate baseline data regarding the problem situation/capacity gap to be addressed, along with the absence of performance indicators or benchmarks, makes it extremely difficult to undertake systematic monitoring. Furthermore, such limitations in design reduce the value of evaluations as learning tools while making it impossible to achieve accountability for results.