Lesson Learned

MCC should undertake greater efforts during compact development to conduct screening and due diligence on a potential pipeline of projects that would be eligible for grant funding.

MCC should undertake greater efforts during compact development to conduct screening and due diligence on a potential pipeline of projects that would be eligible for grant funding. During implementation of the Innovation Grant Program (IGP), significant time and effort was expended in administering a process to identify and award grants to qualified organizations, with each grant cycle requiring nearly one year to compete the process leading up to the signing of grant agreements. In addition, the evaluation revealed that many of the grantees ultimately selected lacked the organizational capacity to quickly launch their interventions in a way that met MCA-Zambia’s requirements for initial disbursements. MCA-Zambia and its grant facility manager subsequently provided extensive capacity building to several grantees in financial management, accounting, reporting, monitoring and evaluation and other areas – using up added time and resources that were not originally planned for as part of the design of the program. In planning for future grant facilities, it is therefore important to assess the likely pool of applicants and eligible grantees working in the specific technical intervention areas envisioned under the broader grant facility, and to determine their capacity to develop and implement well-targeted and effective interventions. Where their financial and administrative capacity is found to be limited, MCC should carefully consider the appropriateness of the grant facility modality for the project. When there are specific advantages to working with grantees with lower capacity (such as their local knowledge and understanding of hard-to reach populations), MCC should set aside sufficient time and resources for technical assistance in order to meet requirements for effective oversight and administration. MCC will incorporate this lesson by requiring more rigorous screening and selection mechanisms for future grant programs, with greater emphasis on capacity. Where necessary, grant programs will provide resources for capacity building of grantees in key areas.