ngo performance

ngoperformance is written by me, Alex Jacobs. Since October 2011, I’ve been Director of Programme Quality at Plan International. Email me on alex(at)ngoperformance.org or leave a comment on the site.

It is based on twenty years experience of working with NGOs on development, including:

• I was Mango‘s founding director, managing the award-winning organisation for nine years. I worked with many NGOs, carrying out evaluations for ActionAid and the DEC, creating the Who Counts? campaign and co-leading the Listen First project.
• I spent three years working and managing projects in Africa, particularly Rwanda, DRC and Zimbabwe, mostly with Oxfam GB.
• For a couple of years, I was Keystone‘s Research Director, developing practical ways of measuring performance with ALINe and the Institute for Development Studies for clients including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grantees.
• I’ve held visiting fellowships at Oxford and Duke Universities, working on accountability and performance in NGOs, and taught at other universities including Liverpool, INSEAD & Cass.
• I spent a year as a donor with the Joffe Charitable Trust. advising on making grants to NGOs and developing overall policy. I’m still a trustee for the Trust.
• I sat on Oxfam GB‘s audit committee for six years, was a trustee of Bond for six years and was a trustee of Link Community Development for eight years. In January 2011, I was elected to HAP‘s board as an independent member – though I had to step down when I joined Plan.
• I’ve been involved in sector wide initiatives, including: Bond’s Effectiveness Programme, chairing Bond’s Quality Group, helping draft the 2007 HAP standard and sitting on an ESRC funding panel.
• I have a degree in social anthropology and am a qualified chartered management accountant, starting my career with PwC. I believe in participation and management!

Publications

• “Creating the missing feedback loop”, IDS Bulletin 41.6, Nov 2010. Summary available here.
• “Three approaches to monitoring: feedback systems, participatory monitoring and evaluation and logical frameworks” with Chris Barnett and Richard Ponsford, IDS Bulletin 41.6, Nov 2010
• “Listen First: a pilot system for managing downward accountability in NGOs” with Robyn Wilford, Development in Practice, Vol 20, No.7, 2010
• “Putting new approaches to NGO accountability into action”, with Robyn Wilford, NUI Galway, 2007
• “Helping People is Difficult” in “Social entrepreneurship, new models of sustainable social change”, ed Nicholls, OUP, 2006
• “Mango’s Guide to Financial Management for NGOs”, Mango, 2005
• “Who Counts? Financial Reporting to Beneficiaries”, Humanitarian Exchange, ODI, Sept 2005

The contents of ngoperformance.org by Alex Jacobs are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License January 2011