new assignments;

  • Danida: Pre-appraisal of the Palestine Bilateral Programme 2021-2025

    To contribute to the preparation of the Palestine Strategic Framework 2021-2025, and based on the draft of the same, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has requested the pre-appraisal of the Palestine Bilateral Programme 2021-2025. This program has the overall objective of supporting a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the realisation of a two-state solution and aiming for stabilisation in the region. The Strategic Framework has 3 cross-cutting objectives: 1) Human rights & democratic accountability, 2) green, sustainable & inclusive economic growth, 3) resilience, peace & stability.

    This assignment was awarded to Nordic Consulting Group, where NCG’s partner Jakob Kirkemann Boesen was part of the team of consultants, with Hans Henrik Madsen as Team Leader.

    The objective of the pre-appraisal is to assess the quality and the feasibility of the proposed bilateral projects, which are seven: Municipality Development Programme (MDP) IV, Reform, and development of market chains and producers’ organisations II, Support to the Danish House in Palestine (DHIP), Support to West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC), Green Jobs and Sustainable Income Opportunities for Palestinian Female and Male Youth in the Agri-food Sector, Core support to Independent comm. for Human Rights (ICHR) incl. twinning with DIHR. As well as quality assurance of these, and the identification of synergies with other Danish supported programmes, and donor complementarity. 

    The pre-appraisal should also identify the overall linkages of the projects to the Strategic Framework and their relevance for Palestinian development and needs. The final product will therefore reflect overall recommendations as well as specific project recommendations.

  • Danida: Study on the evaluation and prospects of support to civil society in Mali

    As part of the on-going preparation of a new Country Policy Strategy, and as basis for the upcoming formulation of a new bilateral programme 2021-26 between Denmark and Mali, the Royal Danish Embassy in Mali will conduct several studies. The present study of support to Civil Society feeds into this formulation process.

    The study takes departure in the current political and highly volatile security and humanitarian situation in Mali, and the possible role that civil society can play on the fight against corruption and nepotism, as well as its role in monitoring, documenting and denouncing cases of human rights violations. The study of civil society includes: Identification of interventions already initiated and their prospects for continuation; identification of lessons learned from support to Malian civil society by Danish, European and other donors. Analysis of current and future needed capacity of Malian CSOs in the current unstable context; further, identification of the most relevant themes in view of the experience of FAMOC (Drivers of Change Support Fund - Fonds d'Appui aux Moteurs du Changement), a Danish fund aimed at strengthening and supporting civil society in Mali; identification and analysis of opportunities and key themes of interventions, taking into consideration i) inclusion of women and youth ii) good governance iii) a Human Rights Based Approach iv) sustainable impact balanced between national coverage and specific and measurable local impacts in the intervention areas v) the potential for cooperation with other donors, in particular EU vi) relevance and commitment of national and local authorities to the interventions vii) innovative aspects of the approach.

    The study of civil society included analysis of current context, a comprehensive analysis of current donor support, identifications of lessons learned, analysis of capacities of CSOs, as well as identifying and defining possible intervention areas for the future 5-10 years.

    A detailed study with recommendations and conclusions was submitted to the Embassy in Mali in May 2021. The assignment comprised one international and one national consultant.

  • Evaluation and Synthesis Study of DRC-Danida Strategic Partnership Agreement 2018-2021

    With the objective of evaluating which has been the effect of the programmes under this Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), analysing the link between its implementation and the correspondent tracking processes, as well as to analyse the strategic use of funds, and formulate recommendations to improve result tracking; this evaluation and synthesis study has been assigned to Nordic Consulting Group – Denmark’s partners Dorte Buschand Jakob Kirkemann Boesen.

    Due to the difference that has been present among the monitoring data, evidence and results obtained throughout the countries covered by the SPA, and the lack of a clear analysis of whether the funds were used strategically, which could allow to draw conclusions on a global level; the evaluation draws upon an intention to collect, explore and analyse and draw conclusions during 2021 to reflect programmatic results, as well as implementation and result tracking processes.

    The Humanitarian Lot is the main subject of this evaluation, which covers approximately 20 countries in Asia, Middle East, North and West Africa.

    The SPA 2018-2021 is the programmatic foundation for the partnership governing Danida’s funding for DRC regional and country programmes under Danida’s Humanitarian Lot, as well as funding to the central organisation’s pursuit of key strategic and policy themes.

  • Evaluation of Agricultural Growth & Employment Programme (AGEP) - Bangladesh

    NCG, in consortium with Orbicon, has recently been contracted by Danida to carry out an evaluation of the Agricultural Growth and Development Programme (AGEP) in Bangladesh. Support through Danish development assistance (Danida) has played a significant role in the transformation of the agricultural sector in Bangladesh, particularly through the ‘farmer field school’ (FFS) approach developed in the 1990’s. The FFS is an integral part of AGEP, however the programme also places focus on value chains between producers and consumers (“market linkages”) to support the transformation of the rural economy for the benefit of poor, marginal and small farmers.

    The key aspect the evaluation will explore is male and female farmers’ use and application of knowledge gained through participation in FFS training, which is envisioned to inform the design of further support for rural development within a new Danida country programme (from 2021).

    The evaluation will cover the past 5 years of the Danida-funded programme (2013-2018) and the objectives are threefold:

    • To document achievements of AGEP since 2013
    • To analyse the outcomes and impact of the integrated farm management component and agricultural and food security project
    • On the basis of the lessons learned through the AGEP, to prepare recommendations for the future as inputs for the design of a new country programme for Danida in Bangladesh
    NCG’s team of experts will be involved in the design of evaluation methodology, field work, analysis, drafting of evaluation report, and quality assurance, with Steffen Johnsen in the role of Agricultural Expert, Louise Scheibel Smed as Research Assistant and Gender Equality Specialist, and Per Kirkeman as QA Manager.

  • Project References

  • Review and Capacity Assessment of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke/ ActionAid Denmark

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (MFA) has launched a Review of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke/ActionAid Denmark, which NCG has been commissioned to carry out.  Action Aid Denmark works to strengthen civil society, including social movements with a focus on youth and women, in order to enhance democratic participation and civic space, economic opportunities and decent work, gender-responsive public services through progressive tax as well as to strengthen localisation of humanitarian action and resilience by enhancing protection, accountability and social and economic resilience in protracted crisis with special focus on women and youth.

    The purpose of the Review is to stimulate learning, support relevant organisational development, and analyse and strengthen cost effectiveness within the organisation. Accordingly, the review should issue recommendations, which will provide a critical input to the MFA’s on-going dialogue with Action Aid Denmark. Recommendations may include areas for further review.

    The team is composed of NCG partners Anne-Lise Klausen and Lone Bildsøe Lassen, and financial management expert, Jonas Lovkrona.

  • Review of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)

  • Technical Assistance to the full Round of Application to the Danida Market Development Partnerships Programme 2018

     

    NCG has recently been awarded a contract regarding the Danida Market Development Partnerships Programme (DMDP). DMDP was launched in 2016 and is a business programme situated at the precompetitive end of the scale. The overall objective of the Danida Market Development Partnerships is to contribute to sustainable economic growth and employment in developing countries with a focus on the Sustainable Development Goal 8. This is done by promoting broad partnerships that combine knowledge and resources from different types of actors including private sector. The point of departure for a partnership project is a business idea driven by one or more private businesses, thus motivating and mobilizing private sector knowledge and investment in development. The business purpose must underpin the development objective and may contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals in addition to SDG 8.


    NCG's team consists of Chief Consultant, Mikkel Klim, and consultant and managing director of NCG, Marie-Louise Appelquist.