Theory in Practice

There was a series of three articles recently on cash versus programme aid in Papua New Guinea. The essence of the articles was to discuss which form of capacity building assistance is better - through advisors or through budget support. Obviously, we all have our own opinions on this topic, and it has been written about frequently. However, some of the main themes of development effectiveness are 'ownership' and 'on-budget' programming, so the issues raised in the PNG case are due our consideration.

Recently, a friend asked me if I would take a look at a draft of the mid-term review being undertaken for the programme he manages. It's a large programme, some USD 35 million covering a number of countries. MTRs being, in theory, pretty straightforward exercises, I was knee to know why he needed my opinion. 'It's the theory of change. The consultant has created a new one and I'm at a loss as to why. We have one - it's in the project design document.' Indeed. Weird. Consultant myself, I sometimes have to wonder why consultants feel the need to prove that they have better ideas than literally everyone else, and also why they feel that it's somehow in the scope of their job description to literally try to change a project (unless, of course, that actually is the job description).