Guidance for strategic civil society partners (“Plusspartner”)

Quick links:

1. What do we mean by strategic dialogue?

2. Applying to calls for proposals and entering into agreements with Norad

3. Results management 

4. Financial Management

5. Follow-up and renewal of strategic civil society partnership status

 

Purpose of the strategic civil society partnership scheme

The purpose is

• to have a model for cooperation with large, strategically important partners that have proven to have satisfactory systems and routines.
• to facilitate for more efficient application and follow-up processes for strategic civil society partners.
• to spend more time on strategic dialogue, focusing on results, innovation and learning.

What does it mean to be a strategic civil society partner for Norad?

• It means your organisation is considered to be of strategic importance to Norad, supporting us in achieving the objectives of Norwegian development policy.
• It means your organisation is considered to have very good competence and proven capacity to operationalise and implement within the approved thematic areas.

See here for a description of the strategic civil society partner model and information about the application process for strategic civil society partner approval. Find guidance to the different phases in the agreement cycle below.

Note that the information on this webpage is not exhaustive and strategic civil society partners are therefore asked to carefully review the call for proposals and any documentation shared by Norad, specifically grant agreements, and direct communication with Norad staff. The grant agreement constitutes the legal basis for a grant. The text in these Guidelines is not legally binding.

1. What do we mean by strategic dialogue? 

The strategic dialogue serves several purposes:

• Build competence and knowledge about the types of development efforts and methods that yield the best results and under what conditions.
• An important tool to achieve this is good dialogue on how to use targeted reviews and evaluations to support learning.
• Provide more room for flexibility and innovation.
• The dialogue should encourage innovation, and in cases where the willingness to test new ideas has not yielded the expected results, the subsequent dialogue will focus on what has been learned and how this knowledge can be used going forward.
• A platform to raise important political priorities.
• Discussion forum for important common challenges and ambitions, including, but not limited to nexus programming, locally led development, climate and the environment, gender equality, and human rights.

Strategic dialogue must be properly planned for

The strategic dialogue will take place at various arenas at different times during the agreement cycle, for example in thematic meetings, portfolio gatherings, field visits, annual meetings, in connection with reporting, etc. Good planning will be important to ensure a constructive strategic dialogue:

• An annual wheel can be a relevant tool to structure the dialogue and agree on meeting points and milestones. The annual wheel and reporting may look different depending on where in the support period one is and what needs the strategic civil society partner and Norad have.

Annual meetings

• In line with common practice in Norad’s relationships with grantees, annual meetings will focus on progress (results) and learning in the project as well as plans including the budget for the following year (however, with no need to obtain Norad’s formal approval of the latter).
• Norad and the partner will discuss overarching trends and the strategic direction of the project, including knowledge gaps. Annual meetings are also a suitable venue for agreeing on any substantial adjustments of the intervention and on larger reviews, evaluations, research, etc. that will be undertaken.
• The timing and level of participation in annual meetings will be agreed upon bilaterally and can vary from one year to the next.

2. Applying to calls for proposals and entering into agreements with Norad

Simplified application 

Strategic civil society partners are entitled to submit a simplified application when applying for grants within a thematic area for which they have been approved as strategic civil society partner.

A simplified application may look somewhat different from one call for proposals to the next, but generally, the strategic civil society partner should not document systems and competencies that have already been assessed through the strategic civil society partner assessment.

There will be no need to document competence and capacity in thematic areas, where the strategic civil society partner has already been approved.

Description of results/results framework should be at an overarching level. Categories of outputs or examples of outputs are sufficient. The theory of change should be based on available knowledge and equally presented at an overarching level.

The application form will include guidance related to information that strategic civil society partners are not expected to provide.

Norad reserves the right to request additional information from applicants. This may be relevant for example if an application contains thematic or geographic areas that have not been assessed as part of the strategic civil society partner assessment.

Kindly contact the person responsible for the call to seek additional guidance if relevant.

Entering into an agreement

• When entering into an agreement, the same grant agreement template will be used as for regular partner agreements. However, the Specific Conditions will be adapted according to the rights defined in the rules for strategic civil society partners.  This includes the right to overarching follow-up, reporting, and financial flexibility.
• It is important to note that the flexibility and efficiency in the strategic civil society partner model is based on the results and budget being agreed upon at an overarching level. The budget template for strategic civil society partners should be used, and the agreed results framework should focus on key results.  An agreed results framework at an overarching level will ensure that minor and semi-minor changes to the framework do not require prior written approval as significant changes, thereby reducing the need for revisions due to minor adjustments (cf. the Grant Agreement, Specific Conditions, sections 3.4 and 3.5).

3. Results management 

Keywords are flexibility, focus on changes for target groups and at the societal level, and strategic use of reviews and evaluations. Strategic civil society partners will be followed up at an overarching level from a results management perspective. This means that:

• The formulations of results shall focus on the key results the project seeks to contribute to. Norad does not require a specific format/method for results management (the results framework/logframe format is not mandatory).
• Norad does not need detailed results setups (frameworks or similar) from all sub-projects/countries. For complex programmes, an overarching, aggregated setup, using examples or “output categories” to illustrate the results chain, will suffice.
• Results reporting shall include a narrative description, preferably with direct reference to financial reporting, of how the flexible budget line has been used. Have the flexible funds provided the grant recipients with an opportunity to adapt to the context, new opportunities, and innovate?
• Result information is an important part of the strategic dialogue between Norad and strategic civil society partners. Thematic and portfolio meetings, field visits, evaluations, and reviews are important checkpoints for discussing and conveying results information.
• Ad-hoc requests for more detailed information about the strategic civil society partner’s interventions and results at the country level may arise, for example, related to political visits.

Evaluations and reviews

• Evaluations and reviews shall be used actively and strategically in the follow-up of grants. Evaluations should contribute to learning, and the knowledge should be used in the development of new projects.
• An external review will be agreed upon and budgeted for over the grant.
• Strategic civil society partners will have greater freedom to propose the type, theme, and timing of reviews and evaluations.  It will not be necessary to agree on predefined themes/countries/timings for evaluations and reviews in connection with negotiating the grant agreement.

Norad may initiate reviews and evaluations at the portfolio level, which include projects implemented by several grant recipients.

4. Financial Management

Agreed budgets

• Budgets are agreed upon on a less detailed level (see template for strategic civil society partner budget).
• Strategic civil society partners can reallocate funds up to 20% between thematic budget lines and up to 30% between budget lines by country (for the entire budget period, not annually) without requesting Norad’s prior approval.
• Revised budgets are only submitted to Norad when the partner foresees that the reallocation limit will be exceeded in the near future, or if the organisation plans to exceed the annual tentative distribution in the agreement. Given large budget lines, it may take a long time before submission of revised budgets to Norad becomes necessary.
• If the strategic civil society partner wishes to enter countries that have not been included in the application and reflected in the budget, this must be approved by Norad.

Flexible programme funds

• Strategic civil society partners may use part of the budget, up to 20% of the total grant amount, as flexible programme funds. Flexible programme funds are funds that are not planned for/allocated at the start of the programme. These funds should be used to achieve goals within the agreed-upon goal areas (theme/sector/outcome) and allocated continuously throughout the agreement period.
• For example, if three thematic goal areas are agreed upon; education, health, and nutrition, the flexible programme funds must be used to achieve results within these three areas.
• Strategic civil society partners do not need to seek prior approval from Norad for the use of the flexible programme funds but must report on how such funds have been used and what has been achieved.

Annual plans and budgets

• Strategic civil society partners are not required to submit annual plans and budgets to Norad for approval. However, significant changes in plans and budgets must be approved in advance by Norad, see specific conditions art. 3.4. Changes are measured against the overarching plan in the application and agreed budgets and results framework.
• Strategic civil society partners who wish to make a significant change in the project/programme are asked to submit a request in the form of a letter or e-mail along with a revised budget and/or results framework.

Disbursements

• Strategic civil society partners submit an updated financial report (signed by the financial manager and authorised person) to support disbursement requests twice a year. From year 2 of the project period, the second disbursement request of the year must also be accompanied by the audited financial statement and narrative reporting from the previous year.

Financial Reporting

• Reporting is done against the agreed budget and results framework, (or similar document) or the latest version approved by Norad, as well as the programme description in the application, and according to the agreement.
• The use of the flexible funds is reported by allocating the actual expenditures to the sector and country lines where they have been used.

Reallocations and deviations

• Note that the limits for when grant recipients must request approval for reallocation (generally 20% (thematic) and 30% (geographical) per budget line) apply for the entire agreement period, not annually.
• The financial reports must clearly present deviations from budget and include an explanation for all significant deviations in line with the requirements in the grant agreement (normally 10%).
• It may be useful to check how one stands in relation to the deviation limits (note, for the entire agreement period) in connection with annual reporting in years 3 and 4, so that exceeding the budget flexibility rule does not come as a surprise at the end of the period.

Statistical needs 

Applicable only for projects funded through the 170.70 civil society budget post:

• Strategic civil society partners are asked to send statistics/sub-unit forms in connection with entering into a new agreement. If there are changes above 1 million NOK per sub-unit, Norad requests an updated form in November in line with the planned budget for the current year and the budgets for the years ahead.
• When entering into a new agreement, tentative use of the flexible programme funds in year 1 is entered. In the form for the next year’s planned budget, the organisation should enter as much as possible of the flexible programme funds in the sub-units where they see it is likely that the funds will be used. The annual distribution of the flexible programme funds for planned use is for information only and does not need to be approved by Norad.

5. Follow-up and renewal of strategic civil society partnership status

Follow-up of strategic civil society partnership status

The strategic civil society partner assessment may have follow-up points for the strategic civil society partner. Norad will prepare a follow-up plan where relevant measures will be communicated in a timely manner to the strategic civil society partner.

At least once during the strategic civil society partnership period, spot checks (in addition to the follow-up plan) related to compliance with policies and routines will be conducted by Norad. The spot checks may cover the entire grant chain and will be notified in reasonable time.

The strategic civil society partner is obliged to inform Norad if there are major changes related to systems/competencies that were assessed when the strategic civil society partner approval was granted.

Renewal of the strategic civil society partnership 

The strategic civil society partner approval is valid for 5 years. Strategic civil society partners who wish to renew the approval must apply for this. The application should be sent at least 6 months before the approval period expires.

The new strategic civil society partner assessment should mainly confirm that follow-up points have been addressed and that the conditions for strategic civil society partner approval are still met.