Thematic Review of Ibis with a special focus on Governance, Performance and Financial and Organisational Management;

Sierra Leone as country case IBIS' governance programme in the post-conflict country Sierra Leone (Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities in Governance, CRRG) aims at providing support to the empowerment of poor people, women and youth to influence political debates and priorities.

A priority at both national and international level is to empower civil society to monitor the extractives industry (particularly diamond mining in their area of operation) to ensure that the social use of revenues and local benefits to people is maximised, and that harmful effects of mining are minimized.

The CRRG programme along with the regional Africa Against Poverty programme engages in a number of international campaigns and have produced studies to increase the evidence-base on the diamond mining and trade in Sierra Leone to increase industry transparency.

The Sierra Leone programme also seeks to influence structural reforms and resource allocation at local and national level in Sierra Leone.

The Review of IBIS' framework agreement with Danida was undertaken from May to August 2013. The overall purpose of the review was to assess the performance of the organisation within the thematic area of governance at country programme level.

The review was undertaken by a team from the Technical Advisory Services and the Office for Humanitarian Action, Civil Society and Personnel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and consultants from Nordic Consulting Group. The review included a document review, interviews in the capital Freetown and field study in Kono district, debriefing meetings at field and headquarter level, and a final workshop, as well as the presentation of a review report.

Based on Danida's general requirements for Framework Agreements, the specific objectives of the review were:

• To analyse and assess IBIS' professional performance for the theme chosen for the current thematic review (governance) at head office level as well as in the field (Sierra Leone).
• To provide a general assessment of IBIS' current financial and organisational capacity to operate programmes under the MFA framework agreement including an assessment of the organisation's follow-up of the recommendations from the latest review.
• To assess coordination and collaboration with other donors (NGOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies) in Sierra Leone, in DK and internationally.
• To asses IBIS' approach to governance in terms of strategic choices and design vis-á-vis MFA strategy for support to governance sector.
• To identify, analyse and verify the characteristics of the "partner policy chains" model IBIS often uses to achieve greater impact of the support; including an assessment of IBIS' and partners' approach to advocacy at local, national and international level within the same policy area - in this case governance sector. Types of services provided:
• Assessment of the governance programming, including overall strategic value of interventions and their partnership-based approach Assessment of the adequacy of the organisational structure, available human resources and management systems seen in relation to the totality of activities to be performed in general and in relation to the management of the framework agreement with MFA in particular.
• Assessment of the adequacy and quality of general financial management systems and processes (e.g. budgeting, monitoring, accounting and reporting) including any measures for increasing cost effectiveness, time registration system applied at headquarter and country offices, internal control systems, handling of suspicion on anomalies, local performance audits etc.
• Assessment of the relevance and feasibility of monitoring systems of monitoring and quality assurance with a focus on governance components and activities, specifically including indicators and outcome monitoring.