Aid Management Program: Côte d'Ivoire
In January 2014, we began our partnership with Côte d’Ivoire to implement their Aid Management Platform (AMP) supported data use in the country. From the initial implementation, the partnership grew to have a global impact.
AMP Côte d'Ivoire Background
The Aid Management Platform helps governments and development partners gather, access, and monitor information on development activities, with the goal of increasing aid effectiveness. Using the AMP software, stakeholders can track activities through the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages. With online workspaces, data entry and reporting modules, and interactive dashboards and maps, decision-makers can better understand how aid is directed throughout the country. To ensure sustainability, the program implementation includes hands-on training for government and development partners, data management plans, ongoing technical support, policy support for program management, and a semi-annual Good Practices Workshop.
Like all AMP implementations, the work in Côte d’Ivoire started with an assessment to best understand the needs of government, development partners, and CSOs. DG partnered with the Technical Unit of the External Resources Mobilization Committee (COMOREX), housed in the Office of the Minister of Economy and Finances to complete the assessment and begin the implementation
Buy-in From the Top
From the beginning of the process, the Prime Minister was involved and the Ministry of Economics and Finance involved sector ministries in the AMP from the very beginning. Ministries were invited to provide feedback and help define how the tool and processes should work. Because of the high-level of buy-in, the COMOREX team was able to flip the structure of its AMP data collection process: prioritizing information from sector ministries, then supplementing with data from development partners. Sector ministries take the lead in providing data to the AMP and can include progress updates that are not normally captured in purely financial reports. Development partners then fill in information only on off-budget projects. This has been very successful in driving shared ownership and a stronger aid management program.
Outcomes
CIV has successfully managed its AMP for several years, and has integrated the system into existing processes. The COMOREX team has seen the information used for a variety of purposes within the country. Not only does the Prime Minister use AMP data for monthly meetings with development partners, but it is also used in National Development Plan monitoring, Busan Global Partnership monitoring, academic research, ODA reports and newsletters, and to inform meetings with investors. We surveyed government users of the platform and found that 77.8% of respondents agreed that AMP helps them in their daily work, specifically that it saves them time. Additionally, as a public-facing platform, community members can use and track the data as well.
Global Impact
Côte d’Ivoire has become a global leader in the AMP community. The COMEREX team has hosted study tours for peers implementing AMPs in Haiti and Chad and has taken on a standard-setting role. Additionally, since DG uses open-source frameworks an updated feature for one country partner becomes a feature for all AMP users. COMEREX has suggested fifteen of the new AMP features and improvements in the past few years. These included improvements to performance, batch geocoding capabilities, the addition of electric lines and road systems in GIS, and advanced performance indicators, in addition to other improvements.