State Partnership for Accountability Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC)

2008 to 2014

Multi-million pound project

Government of Nigeria

2,500 staff months of expertise in programme management; public service reform; public financial management; human resources; local government; capacity building; knowledge management; training; policy and strategy.

The programme objective is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of state governments’ use of public resources. Initially the programme has been active in five states (Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa) and their associated Local Government Authorities, with two more lead states entering the programme during the course of the programme. SPARC also provides support to a number of Federal Government Agencies with an emphasis on providing greater incentives for state level reform.

The programme consists of government capability building which focuses on supporting more responsive planning and policy formulation, enhanced public financial management and HR systems and a more performance-focused public service.

SPARC Programme outputs are:

1. appropriate state policies and strategies adopted, monitored and evaluated;
2. state public financial management improved;
3. state civil service performance improved; and
4. federal support to state governance improved.

The first phase of the process was an initial baseline assessment of each of the five states.  Following this, State Reform Plans have been developed in the key areas of Public Service Reform and Public Financial Management.  These Reform Plans then drive SPARC’s workplans for supporting the State Governments.

Within each state the key public administration institutions were identified during the Inception Phase of the programme, and a structured approach to capacity building developed and implemented.  Capacity building is about more than just training, and SPARC takes this wider view of the reform process.

SPARC is working within a small selection of Nigeria’s 36 states.  Federal Government structures are also being supported, to build their capability to support the reform process within all the states of Nigeria.  This key area of support from SPARC ensures that the reach of the programme is far greater than the states it is directly working in.  State-to-state learning and knowledge exchange is encouraged, and, through SPARC, assistance given to the Federal Government to take over this role and expand the reach of the reforms.

SPARC works closely with its sister programme, SAVI (State Accountability and Voice Initiative) which focuses on CSO development to identify key areas where government and CSOs can be brought together to improve policy-making, PFM and democratic dialogue with the aim of improved service delivery to citizens.

Website: http://www.sparc-nigeria.com/

HTSPE is providing services at State Level in the following areas:

• Policy and Strategy: particularly State Economic Empowerment & Development Strategy (SEEDS).
• Public Service Reform: development of a reform plan in each of the current five states and support to implementation.  Assessment of structure, legal framework, HRM and current reform plans (if any).
• Monitoring and Evaluation: building capacity of government monitoring and evaluation systems. There is currently limited monitoring, evaluation and statistical information to inform policy formulation and the information available is often uncoordinated or poorly presented.
• Public Financial Management: SPARC focuses on strengthening PFM systems to reduce waste and increase the likelihood of budgets being implemented as planned. This includes working with central ministries to support the introduction of tools, such as the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which build stronger linkages between sector policies and annual budgets including those for health, education and growth.

HTSPE is also supporting the Federal Governments in their reform process.

Programme-wide HTSPE is supporting Knowledge Management at four key levels:

• support to Knowledge Management initiatives within the workstreams of Lead State work programmes;
• enabling wider replication and adoption in non-Lead States and at Federal Level;
• across the suite of new State Level Programmes (covering SPARC, ESSPIN [education sector], PATHS2 [health sector], and SAVI [CSOs]); and
• support to the efficient management of SPARC.