OPM Capability Statement - Oxford Policy Management

Capability Statement
January 2011

Table of contents
OPM Capacity Statement 3
Introducing OPM 3
The OPM structure 4
OPM Country Offices 6
Contact Oxford Policy Management 9
Oxford Office
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India Office
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Pakistan Office
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South Africa Office 9

OPM Capability Statement
OPM Capability Statement
Introducing OPM
OPM is an international development consultancy that enables strategic decisionmakers
to identify and implement sustainable solutions for reducing social and
economic disadvantage. Our success is based on a unique combination of high-quality
analysis and 30 years’ practical experience of facilitating positive change in over 80
countries across the globe. Supported by a multinational team of 100 full-time
specialists on three continents, our expertise spans the entire policy cycle, from
diagnosing the issues and strategic options through to implementation and evaluation.
OPM aims to contribute in innovative ways to enhance economic and social progress in
developing and transition economies, with a focus on the needs of the socially and
economically disadvantaged. OPM work focuses on:
• improving access to, and efficiency and effectiveness of, key social sector services,
including health, education and social protection;
• strengthening the use of quantitative and qualitative information in formulating,
monitoring and evaluating policies and programmes and enhancing accountability;
• more effective and accountable public expenditure management;
• more effective macroeconomic management, private and financial sector policies
and programmes;
• public administration and governance reform; and
• capacity building and training tailored to the specific needs of the clients.
Through policy research and development, strategic advice and management capacity,
OPM is able to link strategic vision to best operational practice. OPM has a worldwide
reputation for combining analytical rigour with practical know-how. This enables
collaboration on client engagements with many of the leading names in policy
development and the management of change, including global consultancy practices,
universities and major financial institutions.
OPM is a dynamic organisation that has grown robustly over recent years while
maintaining its key strengths within its specialist consulting practices. OPM’s culture
and management structure support excellent interaction across disciplines: social,
economic, organisational and administrative issues typically require coordinated expert
analysis for effective policy advice and the delivery of superior results. This core
competence in professional cross-fertilisation is highly valued by clients.
OPM clients need expert advice and assistance to provide a firm foundation for
making policy and strategy decisions and managing operations. OPM helps clients
across the whole spectrum of their requirements, from supporting policy development
to the management of associated change. OPM has worked in over 90 countries with a
wide range of clients in Africa, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
and transition countries, throughout Asia and the Middle East, and in central and
southern America.
OPM people. An important feature of OPM is its strong core of technical staff,
employing over 70 full-time consulting staff and regularly drawing on the experience of
a carefully chosen group of specialist associates. Based in Oxford, OPM has country
offices in India, Pakistan and South Africa, providing access and support to a much
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OPM Capability Statement
larger network of organisations and independent consultants across the globe for
specific project needs. OPM consultants are respected in their fields, with a reputation
for combining intellectual leadership with the ability to develop practical solutions.
The OPM structure
OPM's consultants are grouped into four areas of expertise. These are the social policy
programme; the statistics, evaluation and accountability programme; the public sector
finance and management programme; and the economic policy programme.
(1) Social Policy
• The poverty policy and social protection team specialises in poverty
measurement and analysis; options, strategies and institutional arrangements for
social protection; monitoring and evaluation of social protection programmes and
poverty reduction strategies; and financing poverty reduction programmes. The
team is also skilled in supporting the development of social care services, including
for children. OPM has particular expertise in combining quantitative and qualitative
methods to measure and explain the impacts of interventions on different groups of
people, capturing multiple dimensions of poverty and identifying effective policy
solutions.
• OPM’s health and education policy teams focus on the analysis of policy options;
financing strategies; reform and organisational change; pro-poor service delivery;
and the evaluation of health care and education delivery.
(2) Statistics, Evaluation and Accountability
• OPM has expertise in surveys and statistics for evidence-based policy-making, in
the design and implementation of national household and community surveys, and
public expenditure tracking and service delivery surveys. It includes the
development of monitoring and evaluation systems and the design and
implementation of rigorous impact evaluations. OPM provides support in the
development and reform of national statistical systems, in developing statistical
management capacity, and capacity development in a range of social and
economic statistics. Statistical products are developed to support policy-making and
accountability.
• OPM supports cross-cutting social development, promoting policies and
institutions that increase inclusiveness and equity in access to and control of
services, resources and opportunities. Operationally this includes integrating
poverty and policy analysis with the process of engaging citizens and service users,
particularly the poor and marginalised groups. Social development also involves
increasing participatory governance of policy processes by strengthening social
accountability mechanisms in public policy design; budget allocation;
implementation; and monitoring and evaluation.
• OPM carries out a wide range of evaluations and programme reviews, including
operational, process and impact evaluations, for bilateral and multilateral agencies
and for governments. We conduct independent, rigorous and evidence-based
evaluations that reflect the Paris Declaration principles of country ownership and
harmonisation and that are in keeping with the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria and
draft evaluation quality guidelines. Evaluation approaches used have included
econometric studies; large-scale surveys; use of participatory techniques;
document reviews; and consultation with key informants.
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OPM Capability Statement
(3) Public Sector Finance and Management
• OPM’s approach to public financial management (PFM) is based on an
understanding of the institutional and organisational requirements of a functioning
public sector budget process and financial management and reporting system.
OPM is at the forefront of developments in PFM with a strong track record of
research, operational experience and evaluation work in a wide range of
assignments, including budget process reforms and medium-term expenditure
frameworks (MTEFs); macroeconomic and fiscal forecasting; public expenditure
reviews; public finance diagnostics; and budget support, training and dissemination.
• Public management and accountability embraces a wide range of issues
concerned with public administration reform and modernising the management of
public services, including performance management systems; human resource
management; organisational development and the strengthening of policy
processes; and other aspects of governance and accountability.
• OPM’s debt management work includes debt strategy and policy formulation; the
legal and institutional structure for debt management; debt sustainability analysis
and other cost / risk analytical frameworks; support for debt restructuring and debt
relief; and management of contingent liabilities, on-lending and subnational debt.
• OPM regional development and local government expertise addresses the role
of the lower levels of government and local communities in policy planning and
resource allocation. The work includes: regional / local economic development
strategies; institutional linkages between local service delivery institutions, local
authorities, and local communities; local government reforms; fiscal decentralisation
and financing of local authorities and other local service delivery institutions; local
participatory planning processes; and decentralised systems of poverty monitoring.
(4) Economic Policy
• Development policy specialities include support for national poverty reduction
programmes; development agency strategies; aid evaluation and policy research;
and advice to the private sector on international development issues.
• OPM’s macroeconomic policy expertise includes economic assessment of
alternative policy options; development of macroeconomic forecasting models and
financial programming frameworks; and the estimation of fiscal space under
different economic scenarios.
• Private sector policy focuses on supporting the development, implementation and
review of private sector development strategies, including the analysis of poverty
and market linkages and the development of micro-, small and medium enterprises.
• Financial sector development, with a focus on financial sector policies, comprises
the design and implementation of integrated financial sector reform programmes,
and the coordination and implementation of financial sector assessment
programmes.
• OPM rural and natural resource policy work comprises natural resource
management; the mainstreaming of environment and rural development issues into
poverty reduction strategies; and the design and management of complex
organisational and policy reform programmes affecting the rural sector. This has
included providing advice to corporate and government clients, as well as to
multilateral agencies, on how the benefits from extracting natural resources can be
maximised for social advantage and for sustainable development outcomes.
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OPM Capability Statement
OPM Country Offices
To best serve our clients, OPM has branch offices in countries where we traditionally
operate and in countries where significant market opportunities are present as a result
of government demand for support with policy development and implementation. These
country offices extend and improve our services in regions where we have
considerable experience, contribute to building national capacity, and strengthen the
contact and support that we offer to local clients.
OPM has country offices in India (New Delhi), Pakistan (Islamabad) and South Africa
(Tshwane – Pretoria).
OPM New Delhi
OPM India compliments and strengthens the company’s global experience, cutting
edge quality control and technical expertise across sectors, effectively tapping into and
collaborating with a widening range of local organisations and established networks.
OPM Work in India
Our current projects in India are carried out with the support of well-established,
credible, and experienced local partners and consultants, with strategic technical inputs
from across OPM.
In early 2009 OPM India won two interrelated UNICEF projects on child labour and
children’s rights.
• A formative research study using participatory research methods in four states that
will increase understanding of knowledge, attitudes, and practices around child
labour in India, particularly in the cotton sector, contributing to UNICEF’s
communication strategies to reduce child labour. This is being implemented with
local partner organisations: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Glocal
Research & Consultancy Services, and Child Rights Trust (CRT).
• A desk review of children in the cotton sector in India, specifically in five states, that
will be informed by the ‘knowledge, attitudes and practices’ (KAP) study and
contribute to an understanding of current policies and their implementation
processes, the existing legal frameworks, and programmes and schemes related to
child labour. Our partners on this project are the Tata Institute of Social Sciences
(TISS), Child Rights Trust (CRT), Dr Davuluri Venkateswarlu (Director of Glocal
Research), and Sudhir Katiyar (Director of Prayas Center for Labour Research &
Action).
In addition at the end of 2009, we completed work on the formulation of a capacity
development framework for use by UNICEF-India within the scope of their Country
Programme of Action 2008-12. This framework tool will assist UNICEF-India offices
and staff to self-assess their capacity development efforts in six key flagship
programmes.
We are currently working on:
• Developing an M&E framework for district decentralisation and convergence
intervention: Phase I (Baseline Study). This study is being carried out in
collaboration with the India Development Foundation (IDF).
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OPM Capability Statement
And within the South Asia region, in October 2009 we were contracted for a
quantitative and qualitative baseline study in Nepal for UNFPA’s Sixth Country
Programme 2008–10. This will be implemented in collaboration with a well-established
local NGO in Nepal, The Center for Research on Environment, Health and Population
Activities (CREHPA).
OPM Islamabad
Building on our past history and deep involvement in Pakistan, in January 2008 we
opened an OPM office in Islamabad. It has six full time experienced consultants in the
Pakistan Office, mostly with international experience, who are involved in various OPM
assignments in Pakistan and who work closely with their international counterparts.
OPM Islamabad also regularly draws on the experience of a carefully chosen group of
specialist associates.
OPM Work in Pakistan
OPM has shown its proficiency in different sectors of Pakistan including health,
education, social protection, poverty, microfinance, and the rural and urban economy
for over a decade and is respected for its quality of work. OPM has been involved in
high standard qualitative and quantitative national surveys, monitoring and evaluation,
and research in social and economic sectors. A few examples include:
• Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (1995–2003)
• Evaluation of the Prime Minister's Lady Health Worker Programme (1999–2003)
• Social Action Programme Mid Term Review in Pakistan (2000)
• Pakistan Participatory Poverty Assessment (2000–2003)
• Health Sector Reform. North West Frontier Province, Pakistan (2001–2002)
• Costing of the PSRP Education Strategy (2003)
• Development of a Strategic Plan for Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan (2004)
• Quantifying Social Exclusion in Pakistan (2004)
• Review of DFID Pakistan Trade and Poverty Programme
• Government of Pakistan Trade Institutional Review
• Poverty and Social Impact Assessment of Microfinance policies in Pakistan (2005–
2006)
• Pakistan Country Programme evaluation (2005–2007)
• Review of the Fiduciary Risk Assessment of the Maternal and Newborn Health
Programme in Pakistan (2007)
• Review of the Fiduciary Risk Assessment of the Earthquake Reconstruction and
Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and its Affiliates, Pakistan (2008)
• Lady Health Worker Programme Fourth External Evaluation (2007–2009)
• Costing Analysis of NWFP Education Sector.
OPM is presently providing technical expertise in the following projects in Pakistan:
• NWFP Provincial Reform Programme and Capacity Building Support to Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat
• Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in NWFP
• Mid Term Budget Frame work Pakistan Project
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OPM Capability Statement
• Punjab – Reform of the Provincial Economic Research Institute (PERI) and the
Punjab Bureau of Statistics
• Framework for Independent Health Care Commission in Punjab.
OPM Pretoria
OPM believe that the commitment to and drive for socioeconomic rights and
development in the Southern Africa region will continue to demand a range of expert
inputs and that OPM with its deep sectoral knowledge and experience and capacity
across the policy cycle (from problem identification and diagnostics to policy
development, policy implementation and monitoring and review) can effectively
complement the approaches and substantial skills already in place in South and
Southern Africa.
OPM Work in Southern Africa
In its initial phase the SA office provided support to social policy projects in Moldova
and Zambia and a large education reform project in Nigeria (ESSPIN). The office was
involved in a mid-term evaluation of the DFID funded Strengthening Analytical Capacity
for Evidence Based Decision Making Programme, implemented by the South African
Government.
The SA office is supporting OPM’s advising of the National Treasury on options for
hospital funding and is participating in a mid-term review of the implementation of the
SA National Strategic Plan for HIV & AIDS, led by Health and Development Africa.
OPM is a member of a consortium, led by the Economic Policy Research Institute,
undertaking an impact evaluation of the Child Support Grant for the Department of
Social Development.
Other recent and current OPM projects in the Southern African region include:
• Work on financial inclusion in a number of countries and for a range of clients,
including FinMark Trust;
• Ongoing support to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance with budgeting and budget;
• A Health Public Expenditure Review in Lesotho;
• Work on sustainable financing for AIDS in Swaziland, Lesotho and;
• Work on statistics for the Mozambican; and
• Implementation of the Financial Management Improvement Programme to the
South Africa National Treasury, funded by the EC.
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OPM Capability Statement
Contact Us
Africa
OPM Pretoria
Unit 5 Parkland Building, 223 Bronkhorst Street
Brooklyn, Pretoria 0102, South Africa
T +27 (0)12 346 0692
E info.southafricaoffice@opml.co.uk
Asia
OPM New Delhi
J-25 Jor Bagh Lane
New Delhi 110003, India
T +91 (0)11 2464 6026
E info.indiaoffice@opml.co.uk
OPM Islamabad
96 Margalla Road, Sector F-8/2
Islamabad, Pakistan
T +92 (0)51 2853 980
E info.pakistanoffice@opml.co.uk
OPM Dhaka
Level 5, Chandiwala Mansion, House 32
Road 11, Banani, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh
T +88 (0)1764 366 766
E info.bangladeshoffice@opml.co.uk
OPML Jakarta
City Lofts, 9 th Floor, Suite 916
Jalan KH Mas Mansyur No.121
Jakarta 10220, Indonesia
T +62 (0)21 2555 6753
E info.indonesiaoffice@opml.co.uk
Europe
OPM Oxford
6 St Aldates Courtyard, 38 St Aldates
Oxford, OX1 1BN
United Kingdom
T +44 (0)1865 207 300
E admin@opml.co.uk
www.opml.co.uk
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