Author: Schofield, Bethan

CARE International UK
Working with the CARE UK Governance Team

Why Governance?
Increasingly, CARE Country Offices are identifying poor governance as an underlying cause of poverty and social injustice and therefore as an issue they must address in their programming. Without capable government institutions, held to account by a strong civil society and working in the interests of all segments of the population, sustainable, equitable development is impossible. The CARE UK Governance Team specialises in building the skills and confidence of marginalised groups, in particular women, to participate in local and national governance processes and at improving accountability between service providers and citizens. From monitoring the quality of teaching in schools, to advocating how the district budget should be spent, we help disempowered communities influence policy and hold government and the private sector to account.
For more on our approach to governance, see the Governance Programming Framework (GPF) on our wiki page.
Services available to CARE and its partners*
For many COs, governance is a cross cutting theme. The following services are available to support COs to develop new governance programming or to incorporate elements of governance into existing programming, be it sectoral, geographic or defined by impact group.
Context analysis and programme design
We can support various processes aimed at analysing the governance context and using this analysis to inform programme design. Our advisors can lead or accompany analysis at the national, local, or sectoral level, as part of long range strategic planning or in the design of a specific project or programme. We can also provide guidance on using a variety of analysis tools and methodologies, including power analysis, stakeholder analysis, and political economy analysis. Through these, we can support country offices and partners to develop theories of change and programming models that respond to identified needs.

Fundraising and proposal development
The Governance Team can help you to develop and write proposals for donors such as the European Commission, DFID, USAID and private foundations. We can provide support remotely or facilitate a design workshop in your country. Alternatively, we can source consultants to do this.
Monitoring and evaluation
CARE UK’s Governance M&E Guidance Note provides a framework for governance M&E in CARE. We can help you apply this framework to your context and develop plans to monitor and evaluate governance change within your programmes. We can also advise on data collection methods and link you with evaluation experts from external research institutions such as the Institute for Development Studies.
Technical assistance in implementing social accountability approaches
“Social accountability” refers to programming techniques that strengthen dialogue between communities and public authorities, with the ultimate goal of making government more accountable and improving public services. CARE already engages in a range of such programmes, from citizen monitoring of health clinics in Peru to participatory budgeting in Rwanda. We can provide support on the following techniques, among others:
Community Score Cards
Participatory Budget Analysis and Budget Tracking
Advocacy to influence policy
We can help CARE country offices and partners develop and implement local and national advocacy strategies, including analysing policy-making processes and key decision-makers, identifying target audiences, messages, and tactics, and accompanying partners as they build confidence in this area.

Documentation and learning
The Governance Team facilitates reflection processes to help CARE to learn from good practice and share lessons with the wider development sector. We operate a wiki page and hold regular learning events with broad participation from across CARE. In addition, we can support your efforts to document and reflect on learning in a number of ways, including:
Writing or reviewing a case study of your governance programme/project
Conducting or commissioning research on questions of interest to you (see, for example, our paper on the effect of cash transfers on women’s empowerment)
Facilitating a workshop to draw out lessons and engage staff in reflection
Co-facilitating learning events (see, for example, the Arusha meeting on Community Score Cards.
Governance Wiki : Connecting you to lessons and experience across CARE

Forwards accountability
Like many NGOs and donors, CARE is working to improve its own accountability to our impact groups and partners. CARE’s draft Accountability Framework sets out the basic principles of this commitment. The Governance Team has experience supporting forward accountability pilots such as the GALI initiative in West Africa and can help country offices to design their own forwards accountability systems, such as in CARE Peru.
*The above can be provided in the form of remote support, country visits, training, or a combination of these. Our training page gives an indication of the likely length of time of various training modules. In general the Governance Team will need to recover the full costs of our time and travel. Please contact us for details of our cost recovery policy.

Who we are

	Gaia Gozzo Governance Team Leader	Gozzo@careinternational.org / Skype: gaiagozzo / Tel: +44 (0)20 70916020
	Muhamed Bizimana Africa Governance Advisor	Bizimana@careinternational.org / Skype: muhamed.bizimana / Tel: +232 88333996
	Maria Cavatore Asia Governance Advisor	Cavatore@careinternational.org / Skype: Maria.cavatore / Tel: +44 (0)20 70916070
	Lukas van Trier Governance & Accountability Advisor	Vantrier@careinternational.org / Skype: lukasvtrier / Tel: +44 (0)20 70916152
	Tom Aston / Latin America Governance Advisor	Aston@careinternational.org / Skype: Tragalgar.aston / Tel: +44 (0)20 70916158