Empowering citizens Engaging governments Rebuilding communities

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Box 9
Stabilization in Iraq: 20 tactical lessons (continued)
Converting roadblocks into a roadmap
• Reduce security risks to staff in all facets of their jobs: at their home community, on their commute to work, at the
project site, and during field visits. In addition, careful consideration should be given to addressing the mental,
physical, and psychological challenges that can strain staff, diminish morale, and increase turnover.
• Strengthen senior staff and backstop staff. Adding more senior staff positions as projects progress will motivate
staff and minimize turnover. Additionally, future COIN programs must prepare an adequate budget for headquarters
staff and technical assistance of field programs.
Military and PRT partnerships
• Maintain open lines of communication with military leaders and PRTs. Dialogue between city program directors
and the military can increase staff safety and improve project supervision in dangerous areas. Directors should
seek regular extensive briefings to ensure that they have up-to-date intelligence on local social, political, and
tribal shifts.
• Make sure lines of communication are clear, understood, and followed. Program directors should buffer staff
members from direct contact with the military, however well intended. Similarly, PRTs should be made to follow
requirements directing them to work through technical officers to provide direction to implementing partners.
• Encourage PRTs to take a more active review role on projects and site locations when projects are still in the
stabilization phase.
Monitoring and evaluation
• Develop a detailed monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan as part of the initial application process. In addition, the
implementing agency should collaborate closely with the donor in developing and reporting appropriate performance
indicators.
• Give top priority to hiring and training qualified M&E staff. Ensure that the program has an M&E director with an
appropriate background in conflict situations. All relevant senior management and headquarters staff should be
fully integrated into the M&E system design, and basic training in measurement and analysis processes should
occur at least once a year.
• Build M&E staff capacity to allow both for independent measurement and analysis and for collaborative measurement
with outside contractors.
• Focus on region-specific analyses when possible so project data in specific cities can be shared with program staff
to assess local effectiveness and impact.
• Develop a project system for archiving city-specific documents, as well as all official reports and complementary
data systems, and include this system as part of the basic startup management package in each city program.
The CSP archive, developed by the CSP reporting and information officer, is an example of this lesson in practice.
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