This year’s Value for Money training had an excellent mix of participants ranging from private sector, the donor community, research, and the INGO sector; and from America, India, Somalia, Finland, Canada, the UK, Kenya and Spain – a perfect international mix, if we can get an Australian participant next time we will have representation of all continents! This sharing of different sectors, cultures and countries contributes greatly to our ability to share learning on the strengths and weaknesses of different VfM methodologies in different contexts, and gives us a practical inside view of key players' roles and understanding of VfM. IMA International conducts this workshop with the leading UK think tank NEF– the New Economics Foundation, incorporating the best current practice in economic theory, as well as the practical application of existing and emerging tools.
We began the week by exploration of the mainstream approaches and rationale of Value for Money thinking, progressing on to look at how to embed VfM in project cycles and M&E (from Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts) together with how Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness fit across project and programme cycles. After all this hard work and thinking it was certainly time for an evening stroll around the Tate Art Gallery and a well-deserved group dinner!
After wider thinking about VfM practice we introduced the in-depth exploration and practical applications of different tools including multi-criteria analysis and multi criteria decision-making, Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Social Return on Investment (SROI), triple bottom line outcomes: social, economic and environmental, and valuing social and environmental impacts. The final day looked at VfM from an organisational perspective, from readiness, systems, structural alignment, decision making, and of course, how we can communicate good Value for Money.
