Bente Consulting ApS was a sparring partner for the Danish Institute for Human Rights for the finalization of their 2013 application for a cooperation agreement with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The sparring comprised refinement of the indicator framework, as well as strategic coherence in relation to DIHR's core competence areas and geographical focus. It was an interactive and dialogue-based short-term process during April 2013. DIHR expressed satidfaction with the job: "It was a pleasure to collaborate and have your careful and conscientious comments and input".
Swedish Cooperative Centre will initiate a civil society program (ARENA) with focus on agriculture and natural resources in Niassa Province from January 2013. Bente Consulting has elaborated the Baseline Study and Monitoring Plan, which is based on analysis of the Intervention Logic and the power relations in Niassa to allow for a specific scope on areas to be changed. The SCC strategy of working through local civil society partners posed challenges in shaping the monitoring system to partner organizations’ own systems. 50 working days.
Danida has established framework agreements with a number of major Danish NGOs. It is the plan to establish more framework agreements in 2012-13. Candidate organizations were assessed in 2010-11 and the assignment followed up on recommendations and assessed the actual capacity in relation to the framework organization criteria of administrative and technical capacity; experience with development work; compliance with Danish development strategies; knowledge about partner countries socio-political context; and financial and popular resources. Bente Consulting prepared short reports for each of the six organizations and carried out participatory consultations to verify facts and ensure ownership of findings and recommendations. 27 working days.
CARE Denmark has implemented two livelihood and governance projects in Mozambique. The projects were evaluated with the aim of drawing lessons learned for the formulation of a new civil society program. The evaluations involved extensive community interviews and context analysis. The formulation of an outline for a women-focused civil society and natural resource program dew upon experience from similar assignments and extensive knowledge about civil society and community based natural resource management in Mozambique. Bente Consulting collaborated with MAP Consultores. 30 working days.
As part of the core team and responsible for the Mozambique country case study, Bente Consulting participated in a multi-donor evaluation of support to civil society engagement in policy dialogue. The field work in Mozambique was carried out in two phases: Scoping Exercise in September 2011 and Case Study in November-December 2011. The evaluation has analyzed civil society strategies for engagement in policy dialogue, donor support strategies and identified lessons learned. Final country and synthesis reports have been presented and discussed in Vienna, Copenhagen and Stockholm in September 2012. The evaluation was commissioned by the Evaluation Department of the Danida on behalf of Sida (Sweden), ADA (Austria), Cida (Canada), Finnida (Finland and SDC (Schwitzerland) and carried out by ITAD and COWI. 45 working days.
Download Portuguese executive summary here
Bente Consulting provided input and quality assurance to the elaboration of the winning proposal for the implementation of a DFID-funded Citizens’ Engagement Program in Mozambique in the fields of education and health. The focus for the assignment was on overall consistency, civil society, citizens’ engagement and monitoring & evaluation. The assignment was carried out for COWI Mozambique. 10 working days.
Training needs assessment of selected institutions within the Mozambican Ministry of Environmental Coordination (MICOA) carried out in a participatory way, involving the Human Resource Department and staff actively. Bente Consulting ApS provided input to the revision of the ministry’s human resource development plan and prepared a comprehensive report in Portuguese. The assignment was carried out for NIRAS as part of the Danish environmental sector program support ESPS II. 35 working days.
Capacity Assessment of International Media Support, analyzing management systems, governance structure, partnership approach, financial management and administrative procedures, monitoring and evaluation systems, knowledge management and documentation, media tools and partnership approaches. Partner interviews were carried out in Egypt, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. The assignment was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and carried out in collaboration with Yebo ApS and Better-World.dk. Total 90 working days.
Bente Consulting ApS undertook a desk appraisal of the KVINFO program application, commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The desk appraisal analyzed the program application for compliance with recommendations from capacity assessment and Danida program guidelines. 6 working days.
The capacity assessment was commissioned by Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and covered the head quarter implementation and management capacity, financial management practices and procedures, monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge management and documentation, as well as networking and partnership approach. Partners in North Africa (Morocco, Egypt) and Middle East (Jordan) were visited and interviewed. Bente Consulting was leading a team of three consultants. 30 working days.
Based on previous years' screening of incoming applications and last year’s Lessons Learned-workshop among implementing Danish NGOs, a second Lessons Learned-workshop has been realized in June 2011. 5 working days.
Based on previous experience from the UniBRAIN formulation (2009), Bente Consulting assessed the need for future service provision under the UniBRAIN initiative. The assignment included extensive interviews with consortia for Agribusiness Innovation Incubators and UniBRAIN partners in Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya and Mali. 30 working days.
Bente Consulting provided input for the winning technical proposal for the implementation of the Danida-financed support program to the environmental sector in Mozambique. The assignment was carried out for NIRAS A/S. 6 working days.
Support to the Implementation of Monitoring & Evaluation Action Plan, including revision of database, application forms, flow of information, organizational self-assessment tools and preparation of case studies; establishment of learning loops and feedback mechanisms and training of organizations in monitoring and evaluation. Bente Consulting provided an input of 40 working days.
Preparing of Concept Note for the formulation of the fifth phase of the Danish support to national HIV/AIDS response and Health Sector Programme in Mozambique. The assignment included supervision of pre-studies in the areas of Decentralisation, HIV/AIDS response and Research for Health; explorative interviews with key stakeholders in Ministry of Health (MISAU), national AIDS Council (CNCS), donor agencies and civil society organizations. Preparation and facilitation of discussion workshops with involved stakeholders. 30 working days.