Lessons learned : USAID/RCSA's [Regional Center for Southern Africa] experience in conducting a regional assistance program -- 1995-1997

Key lessons from this experience are detailed below. (1) Institutions involved in RCSA-type work should clarify why they are "operating regionally." In other words, they should decide if they are pursuing management objectives (e.g., to save money or other resources by consolidating administration of bilateral programs) or programmatic ones (e.g., to permit engagement on regionwide issues). The two objectives necessitate two very different structural, budgetary, and staffing patterns. (2) Set realistic benchmarks and goals. Designing and managing regional work is more complex than bilateral work, and imposes greater management demands. In addition, both longstanding and reengineered Agency procedures often assume a bilateral context, and must be manipulated to meet the needs of a regional program. As a result, it simply takes longer to set up and achieve results from a regional operation than it does from a bilateral one. (3) Do not count on operating expense (OE) savings. While a regional program may have greater impact and possess some programmatic efficiencies, it will probably not yield significant OE savings per dollar of assistance delivered (the "efficiency measure" used by Agency management analysts to guide staffing and OE budget levels). Regional operations require more information and staff time for the coordination of multiple partners and stakeholders, and regional institutions generally have lower capacities. (4) Clarify relationships up front. Regional programs are conducted in the same geographical space as bilateral programs. Both regional and bilateral missions find the coordination of these two types of programs burdensome, the latter more so than the former. Good will does not suffice to overcome these burdens. Rather, responsibilities and resources must be explicitly allocated (e.g., OE for travel to regional meetings, staff to assist in reporting results with regional impact) to permit missions to carry out these additional tasks without undue cost to their own programs. (5) Develop a regional strategy. In cases where it has been decided to conduct a regional program, a regional strategic plan should be developed to which both bilateral and regional office strategic plans are subordinate. This should help to revise the perception of regional programs as anomalies in the world of development programming. (Author abstract, modified)