SWIFT ConsortiumSWIFT Consortium
Français
English
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • DFID’S WASH RESULTS PROGRAMME
    • PAYMENT BY RESULTS
    • SUSTAINABLE WASH
  • WHO
    • GLOBAL MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATE
    • PARTNERS IN COUNTRY
    • MANAGEMENT TEAM
  • WHERE
    • KENYA
    • DRC
  • WHAT
    • SUSTAINABLE WATER
    • SUSTAINABLE SANITATION
    • SUSTAINABLE HYGIENE
  • RESOURCES
    • PUBLICATIONS
    • SWIFT STORIES OF SUSTAINABLE CHANGE
  • NEWS

ODI’s research on innovating and adapting within the SWIFT programme

Nathaniel Mason is a Senior Research Fellow at ODI. He has been involved in the SWIFT programme ever since the proposal development stage. He now oversees the operational learning of the programme and has represented ODI within the consortium’s steering committee. He is currently working on a piece of research around the theme of innovation and adaptation.

 

Image result for quotation marks

Reasons behind the research

There are two main reasons why we chose to conduct research on the topic of innovating and adapting within the SWIFT programme.
The first reason is to find out how the implementing partners can better support local staff to solve problems, particularly when working under quite new, challenging and very time-pressured programmes such as SWIFT. We are looking to find how to empower teams in country to adapt and change what they are doing according to the needs that arise.
The second reason is to try and bring some of the learnings of the SWIFT programme to the wider sector, looking at whether Payments by Results programming, as well as how such programmes are managed, can incentivize innovative, adaptive ways of working.

The research process

Once we had picked the topic of the research we had to define what we were talking about. For, example, in terms of innovation, we adopted a narrow definition, as something that is new and brings additional value.
We then asked staff what they thought was new or different. We created a short survey that was sent out to all the partner organisations. We got answers from people at all levels from the management team to staff on the ground in Kenya and in the DRC. That gave us some initial suggestions, not just regarding what people thought was innovative but also what had helped them innovate. There were three main themes that people were talking about:
● Monitoring for results, which was linked to the payment by results system.
● The new approach to sanitation in the arid and semi-arid lands in Kenya, in which locally produced latrine slabs were introduced to reduce problems of pits collapsing.
● The ASUREP model in the DRC (the professionalised water committees).

Unexpected answers

There were a few respondents, mainly from the global level that said that there wasn’t really anything innovative about SWIFT. In a way that reflected the nature of the programme and the risks involved with payment by results. If you must hit a certain number of beneficiaries, it makes sense to do what you know works well.
But interestingly enough, quite a high number of staff working in Kenya and DRC felt that they were solving problems and getting better results by doing things differently. Approaches that are quite well known in the sector maybe felt new to the people implementing them in the field. There is a lot of debate about what really counts as innovation – or even whether there was a conscious approach to promoting more adaptive ways of working, which we will discuss in the report.

 

Face-to-face interviews

After the online surveys, we carried out interviews face to face. We wanted them to be done in country by staff who had been involved in the program, which obviously poses some risks because it reduces independence. But it was part of a wider framing of this whole piece of work. It was not about establishing a kind of objective truth about innovation and what was innovative, but more of an internal reflection helping the people who had actually done the program take a step back and have a moment to think about what works and what could be done differently next time.
Things that came up as enablers of innovation tended to be about the human side of the programme – how people interacted with their peers, managers and a wider network, for example a management style that allowed people to take risks. There was less emphasis on the programme design or hard constraints like budget. A couple of people reflected on the payment by results modality as being helpful, because in comparison to a grant contract, the teams could reallocate the budget to different activities without having to agree with the donor first, as long as they thought it was going to achieve the outputs and the outcomes.

Final publication

The next stage of the research is to finish the analysis of the interviews. We enter the transcripts into a software that helps us analyse the information and pull out the themes that are coming up consistently. We will then write that up into a document. We will aim to have recommendations, and not just facts and figures, for other organisations attempting to do innovation or work more adaptively and empower staff on the ground.

 

Image result for quotation marks

 

Nathaniel Mason

Interview with Ian Langdown: ODI’s research on the ASUREP model
Interview with Ian Langdown: ODI’s research on the ASUREP model
SWIFT’s behaviour change pilot explained by ODI researcher Florence Pichon
SWIFT’s behaviour change pilot explained by ODI researcher Florence Pichon

About SWIFT

Since 2014, the Sustainable WASH In Fragile Contexts (SWIFT) Consortium has been working to provide access to water and sanitation and to encourage the adoption of basic hygiene practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Kenya. Various partners implement SWIFT’s actions in both target countries, in collaboration with governments as well as water providers, including utilities. The consortium is led by Oxfam, and includes Tearfund and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) as global members. The SWIFT programme is funded by UK aid from the UK government under a Payment by Results (PbR) contract.

Receive updates from SWIFT

View our privacy policy

Global Members

DFID TSO
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • CONTACT
© 2018 All Rights Reserved. Design dfsc.co.uk
We use cookies to ensure that you have the best experience on our website. If you continue browsing, we’ll assume that you are happy to receive all our cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy