A New Approach To Programme Design And Delivery In A Pandemic

Author: Olayemi Ajibola

The world is currently battling a pandemic that has affected millions of lives and led to the shutdown of many sectors of the global economy threatening global prosperity and development. The impact of this pandemic is more pronounced in low and middle-income countries whose economy and governance structure is fragile and with the majority of the population living below the poverty line. 

Many countries in Africa rely on programmes and activities of organizations in the non-profit sector to contribute to the development of their society but different Covid-19 containment measures by African governments have affected service-delivery from these non-profit organizations. Therefore, what lessons can development organizations glean from this sober period in human history to improve their programme design and delivery approach? 

The Need For Community “Evangelists” And Transfer Of Knowledge:

Many governments are adopting various containment measures to check the spread of the virus. Some of these measures include restricting the movement of people, closing educational centres, and imposing curfews, which have affected the activities of development experts. The key components to programme designs such as needs assessments, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, piloting, and implementation have also been affected because the technical experts saddled with each aspect of these processes are unable to carry out their duties as a result of the containment measures. The uncertainty of this period should be seen as a call to development organizations to actively engage community evangelists and transfer knowledge crucial to implementing programmes to these community evangelists. 

Devolving Decision-Making Centres:

The current pandemic has affected many African communities disrupting the traditional approach to programme delivery by non-profit organizations. This approach concentrates decision-making to the top of the organizational hierarchy while leaving field workers, or community project leaders, without any decision-making power to influence service delivery. The pandemic has shown that development organizations should empower their community evangelists with some form of decision-making power as this could be a trigger to innovative thinking on project delivery. It will also mitigate against suspending crucial intervention to these communities should a similar COVID-19 pandemic occur in the future. Devolving decision-making centres will also allow recipient communities to further own a project and see to its successful implementation.  

Embracing Technology To Accelerate Development Initiatives:

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a global embrace of technology, with many organizations working remotely and coordinating organizational activities online. Development organizations have also moved their processes online, but there are key processes that cannot be moved to the “cloud”. Introducing technology to the programme design process is vital for continuous synergy between development experts and community evangelists. It ensures a continuous implementation of programmes and preserves the quality of the intervention while maintaining operational efficiency and effectiveness. There are different ways development organizations/non-profits can leverage technology for impact especially during a pandemic. They can explore virtual technologies to inform, engage and update supporters and shareholders; adopt tools to remotely manage databases so as to keep track of project progress; and take advantage of mobile messaging to reach project beneficiaries with important information about service delivery.  

Lastly, by thinking proactively and innovatively, there are opportunities for development organizations and non-profits to improve their programme delivery approach while making social-impact in unprecedented ways. In line with the need to be in tandem with current happenings, the VS Management & Consulting is committed to ensuring non-profits can take advantage of this perilous time by preparing them to think innovatively; as this will be a major requirement for survival in the post-COVID world.