Measuring Change: Oxfam GB and DFID Partnership Programme Agreement 2008-2011: Baseline report

Overview

The Partnership Programme Agreement (PPA) is a much-valued source of funding for Oxfam. The flexibility and predictability that the PPA gives Oxfam is very welcome, particularly at a time when the economic downturn is starting to have an effect across the sector. But the PPA is about more than just the funding – it provides a mechanism for mutual accountability and genuine strategic engagement on issues where DFID and Oxfam work towards a common goal of supporting poor and marginalised citizens in developing countries. Oxfam GB is taking a developmental approach to building its capacity to do good evaluation, and is capitalising on the opportunity offered by performance-related funding mechanisms such as the DFID PPA. This will enable Oxfam’s MEL advisers to engage with new and existing programme teams, and to accompany them in embedding and strengthening good quality MEL practices in their programmes and projects. The approach that has been developed to support programme teams involved in reporting on the DFID PPA to develop high quality M&E plans and conduct baselines for their programmes, has proved successful and will be replicated with other programme teams over the next few years.