The Mozambique country platform of Population Service International (PSI) receives core funding from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). Because this arrangement is unusual both within PSI and EKN, the two parties are keen to understand the effect and added value that such core funding has, in comparison to the more common project funding approach. The resulting analysis has additional interest for the wider development sector, since core funding is generally perceived to be preferable to project funding, yet prior to this study no satisfactory methodology existed to ascertain the added value of core funding.
This study developed an original methodology in order to test the added value of core funding in PSI Mozambique. Drawing on contribution analysis and process tracing, we worked with PSI Mozambique to establish a hypothesis of the effect that core funding has had on its operations and programming. We then tested that hypothesis using an evaluation framework, with relevant indicators to determine whether the hypothesis could be true or partly true. The hypothesis and evaluation framework are tailored to PSI Mozambique, and therefore may not be directly applicable to other NGOs. However, the process used in this study provides a valuable starting point for developing further approaches to measuring the added value of core funding.
Read Team Leader Robin Brady’s Blog – ‘Is Core Funding really all it’s cracked up to be?’
Image © Beach hunt. Photo Credit: F Mira
