Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010 – 2011

The biennium has also illuminated a simple truth: that bringing about good change, in the end, comes down to reaching people who have influence, and reaching them when the hour is ‘ripe’ (witness the effect of Living Planet: Connected Planet, the RRA produced for the Convention on Migratory Species). We need to be more strategic, more circumspect and more courageous in targeting the message – it is not enough to identify the ‘decision mak- ers’ in the public and private sector spheres. Our true tar- get is their constituency, whether they be key segments of the electorate, civil society advocates and NGOs, journal- ists, academia, financial and commercial actors – the ones for whom they sit up and listen. The main lesson from 2011, echoing reflections from the 2010 Progress Report, is that the success of any strate- gic realignment hinges on strengthening operational ef- fectiveness through dedicated application of the Results Based Management (RbM) approach. By the end of the biennium, GRID-Arendal had learned and demonstrated the value of RbM from the vantage point of reporting, with generous support from NORAD. The challenge going for- ward will be to mainstream RbM as a “management tool”. As accepted policy, it is now necessary to embed the tool in operations in order to realise its potential for significant im- provements in project and programme design, monitoring and evaluation, and feeding lessons forward in the project and programme cycle. Moreover, given the extent and value of its collaboration with UNEP, mainstreaming also implies that GRID-Arendal has a strong incentive to work very close- ly with UNEP in its own efforts to strengthen operational effectiveness through the results management approach. To support this policy, GRID-Arendal is in the process of developing a Monitoring & Evaluation Framework that will underpin future programmes of work and, hopefully, serve as a value-added in future collaboration with UNEP.

International Seabed Authority and the Commonwealth Secretariat on oceans governance and ‘downstream’ activ- ities related to the UNEP Shelf Programme, and the World Bank on the Global Partnership for Oceans – promises to strengthen the financial sustainability of GRID-Arendal’s operations, while enhancing the relevance and impact of its development activities through involvement in pro- grammatic interventions with longer-term perspectives and “rolling” financing plans. Experience from the biennium has also highlighted the potential for GRID-Arendal to make more effective use of its comparative advantage as a ‘nimble networker’ , i.e. the capacity to bring all manner of stakeholders together around complex issues to help identify and broadcast practical solutions that will push policy and thus contrib- ute to good change. It’s a brand of ‘soft advocacy’ that works because the focus is on pragmatic solutions, col- laboration, and clear messaging. 13.2 At the level of operations A clear ‘tactical’ lesson from the past two years is that, while GRID-Arendal is already well-known for its stellar series of publications – which have represented its most powerful and visible marketing vehicle up until now – there is great scope for pushing change through ‘active’ outreach and dissemination activities that go well beyond the classic launch event and even digital media (what has come to be known as “life after launch”). The scope for this type of engagement, which harkens back to the early days of GRID-Arendal’s extensive outreach programmes for journalists in the former Soviet republics, is large and cannot be met by GRID-Arendal and UNEP alone. The or- ganisation is well positioned to push the boundaries for this type of activity in collaboration with its partners.

14 Audited financial statement

The Audited Financial Statement (Annex 3) from KPMG was undertaken in accordance with the ISRS 4400 En- gagements to Perform Agreed Upon Procedures Regard- ing Financial Information.

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