Description
The Business Enabling Fund (BEF) is a grant-funding mechanism, the primary objective of which is to support local authorities in the creation of business-enabling environments that nurture economic growth while promoting pro-poor development. The Fund is based in Kwazulu Natal and responds to provincial priorities for economic growth and development as well as local government development priorities as expressed in the municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). The BEF is one of three broadly integrated funding instruments administered under the KZN Local Economic Development (LED) Support Programme known as Gijima. The two complementary funding mechanisms are the Local Competitiveness Fund (LCF), which is designed to support partnership groups with strong private sector representation to invest in economic development opportunities with high sustainable employment and enterprise growth potential; and the Networking and Cooperation Funding (NCF) mechanism that supports procurement related to training and knowledge exchange for LED operational and management capacity development. For more information visit the Gijima website.
Assignment
Feedback Research and Analytics, under sub-contract to the National Treasury’s Technical Assistance Unit (TAU), was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the BEF in order to document outcomes and lessons learned consequent to its implementation. The evaluation was required to both pronounce on the overall performance of the Fund, as well as find evidence of ‘what works’ and ‘what does not work’ in order to inform the design of future funding instruments.
Methodology
The testing of the usefulness of the BEF mechanism and its potential replicability was the objective that directed the methodological decisions. The BEF was a complicated intervention, involving multiple modalities for the delivery of multiple projects and project types by multiple agents. In addition the implementation context was substantially complex, exercising a significant influence over the attainment of outcomes and requiring significant programme adjustments to try to ensure that outcomes were ultimately realised. The evaluation design called for integrated mixed methodologies that included grounded qualitative and descriptive statistical analysis of programme documentation, a thorough literature review to account for the influence of contextual variables, in-depth interviews with key informants at programme and policy level, as well as a telephonic survey with key informants at project level and a set of project level case studies. In analysis the evaluation adopted a realist theoretical perspective in an attempt to draw evidenced based conclusions about performance and those aspects of the mechanism that would respond differently to different contextual variables.
Description
South African Economic policy has featured as one of its key components since liberation the empowerment of citizens previously excluded from consequential participation in the economy. Black Economic Empowerment transcactions have coventionally entailed the sale of equity to Black business interests which over time has created an elite class of repeated beneficiaries of the empowerment policy, and has been criticised by particularly labor unions for this effect. Subsequent policy emphasis has led to the inclusion of community trusts into BBBEE transactions to try and ensure the distribution of economic benefit to a broader base.
The Assignment
FeedbackRA conducted the first systematic review of the effectiveness of community trusts in achieving a broader distribution of economic benefit to previously disadvantaged communities. The study was funded by Tshikululu Social Investments, a fund manager providing services to private philanthropic foundations in South Africa. The study resulted in the production of three related papers and the design of a recommended model for more effectively managing the process of including community trusts in BBBEE transactions. Outputs and additional material can be viewed at the Tshikululu website.
Methodology
The evaluation involved the tracking and descriptive statistical analysis of the nature and trends in transacting BBBEE deals in South Africa. In addition key informants involved in the constituting and managing of such trusts were sampled and interviewed in a qualitative investigation into the persistant challenges confronting community trust entities.
Description
The majority of global donors funding efforts to combat the HIV and AIDS epidemic have adopted a common strategy: the sponsoring of locally based programmes, a large proportion of which are managed by community based organisations. Despite the ubiquity of this tsrategy little evidence exists endorsing its effectiveness.
The Assignment
The World Bank and DFID appointed ICF Macro, and FeedbackRA as sub-contractor, to conduct a study in Kenya and Nigeria to test the hypothesis that community based reponse is effective in addressing the effects of HIV and AIDS. The evaluation set out to measure the effects of community based responses on various outcomes of the HIV and Aids epidemic, including health outcomes; knowledge, attitudes and behavior; gender and child rights; and community mobilisation. The objectives were to provide an evidence base for funding decisions in the battle against the epidemic, as well as developing a replicable methodology for testing similar hypotheses in subsequent studies.
Methodology
The evaluation was designed as a quasi-experiment in which treatment and comparison communities were purposively selected and matched, based on the measured extent of their community based response activities. Data was collected from selected communities via a household survey for which households representing the communities were randomly selected. Analysis of survey data involved index development and testing hypotheses by comparing differences in effects measured across the treatment and comparison groups. Survey data was supplemeted by qualitative data collected in interviews with key informants. The study also included a cost-tracking exercise.
