What is IHP+Results?

• IHP+Results is the official independent monitoring, evaluation and public accountability mechanism for the IHP+.
• This is providing an independent evidence-based  assessment of the results of the IHP+ at the country level and of the performance of IHP+ signatories individually, as well as collectively, as required by the IHP+ Global Compact that IHP+ Partners signed up to.
  
• IHP+Results will make a critical contribution towards making the IHP+ work because this provides the main mechanism through which partners will be held to account for the commitments they have made at the country and international levels.

Stop right there! Is this not yet another externally driven burden on countries?

• IHP+Results will work with any IHP+ monitoring processes already agreed with partners in a country and can use this as the basis for assessment, or will agree ways to add value to country arrangements.
• It is not the intention of IHP+Results to impose any additional monitoring and evaluation burden on the country.
• To discuss any proposal you might have for streamlining and improving the IHP+Results activities in a particular country, please discuss this with the IHP+ Core Team, post a comment in the North-South Observatory for IHP+ Results, or feel free to contact Shaun Conway/Tim Shorten directly.
  

What are the potential benefits of IHP+Results to Partners?

• Through IHP+Results you can let other partners know what your agency or government is doing from year to year.
• The IHP+Results Partner Scorecards provide a great communication tool. It allows you to demonstrate how you are implementing aid effectiveness measures in the health sector and can profile your successes in strengthening health systems!
  
• This should encourage other partners to reciprocate and take similar actions, in the spirit of partnership and progress towards the Health MDGs.
  
• Scorecards can also provide a tool for self-appraisal and improvement that can be used to jointly assess and agree with both internal and external stakeholders what incremental actions your agency will take to deliver more effective aid.

How can National Governments benefit from IHP+Results?

• Through the independent performance appraisals that IHP+Results provides, National Governments can hold Development Partners and Multilateral Agencies to account for their commitments.
  
• This also provides a channel for government officials to escalate to the international level specific concerns that might arise about how aid is being delivered to the country.

What is the role of Civil Society in IHP+Results and how can this be used to promote change?

• The IHP+Results consortium is led by Responsible Action! (an independent consultancy). The 'North-South Consortium' includes Oxfam, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and country-based researchers in the IHP+ countries. This also has strong Civil Society representation through an independent Advisory Group, with links to the IHP+ Scaling-up Reference Group.
• Civil Society at the country level will be actively engaged to contribute towards and take action on the findings of IHP+Results to create public accountability. This will begin more formally in Year 2 of IHP+Results from the beginning of 2010, after the first Annual IHP+Results Performance Report has been published.
  
• Civil Society Organizations that have signed country-level agreements that are relevant to the IHP+ will be invited to be assessed in the same way as other partners that have signed up to the Global IHP+ Compact.
  

How will the performance of IHP+ signatories be assessed?

• The IHP+Results consortium is asking Partner representatives to let us know which are the highest priority actions that your agency or government is taking each year to deliver more effective aid and to strengthen health systems.  The more specific, measurable and achievable these actions are, the better!
• Then we want to know how you will demonstrate that you have achieved the results that each action is intended to deliver. You are asked to give an interim self-assessed indication to us of whether you believe these results will have been achieved by October 2009 (or if you will still be 'working towards' achieving them).
• The consortium will review evidence of progress against these stated actions and make a transparent apraisal of whether the self-assessment is a valid indication of the progress made. We will use transparent and objective criteria for rating performance.
• If your agency or government does not agree with any rating that the Consortium makes before publishing the final report, you will be able to lodge and appeal backed with evidence that will be independently and fairly adjudicated.

What evidence is being collected to track results at the country level?

• A small set of performance indicators is being tracked to measure the results of the IHP+ within countries, using standardised routinely reported data that is already available in countries. This will help to communicate the story of what changes are taking place over time.
  
• We will not be creating additional work for government or development partner agencies.
• In three IHP+ Countries (Ethiopia, Nepal and Mali), we will be undertaking more in-depth longitudinal case studies to better understand what is contributing to the results that we are tracking. These studies will be undertaken by the LSHTM in full cooperation and with consent of the national governments and their partners in these countries.

What is the IHP+Results Partner Scorecard?

• The Partner Scorecard is the main performance appraisal and reporting tool specifically designed for the IHP+ to promote individual and mutual accountability.
• An IHP+Results Partner Scorecard is being produced for each IHP+ Global Compact signatory.
  
• This will clearly document and assess the actions that bilateral donors, multilteral agencies, national governments and other IHP+ signatories are taking to live up to their publicly agreed IHP+ commitments.
  
• The Scorecards are tools for promoting individual and mutual accountability towards new and improved ways of working to achieve health results.
  
• These will be independently published at the end of each year as part of an annual Performance Report. This will contribute to the annual high-level ministerial review of the IHP+.
  
• Scorecards will also be published and maintained online within the North-South Observatory, together with transparent supporting evidence for the performance ratings.
• For more information please see here.

What are 'Partner Actions'?

• We want to know what specific, measurable, time-bound and achievable actions your agency is implementing right now.
  
• Action Statements within each Results Area of your Partner Scorecard must show how your agency is translating into practice the broad political commitments of the IHP+ Global Compact to improve aid effectiveness in the health sector and to strengthen health systems for the health-related MDG's.
  
• Only the top priority actions specific to your agency should appear here.
  
• These Actions can (or should) change from year to year, to demonstrate how you are making progress and to pushing forward the agenda for change.
• These actions should primarily be relevant to the IHP+ countries, but can also apply to the other countries where your agency is active.

How are IHP+Results Partner Scorecards being compiled?

• IHP+Results research team members are conducting 'light-touch' consultative reviews with all IHP+ Global Compact signatories at the international and country levels during August-September 2009.
  
• We are asking Partner representatives to complete a brief verbal survey, which we will capture into a standard template (please note this is not designed for self-administration and we are more than willing to work through the questions with you).
  
• Through this survey, we are collecting the minimum information needed to complete a Scorecard for each Partner. For this, we need to know what actions your institution is taking that are relevant to fulfilling the IHP+ commitments. These will be different for each agency and should be achievable, concrete, prioritised examples of what your agency is doing to improve the effectiveness of aid in the health sector and to strengthen country health systems. We have categorized these actions into 5 'Results Areas' that capture the essence of what the IHP+ is about.
  
• For Actions that your agency has already defined in country compacts (or their equivalent), we will use these as the sources for this information (but please point us in the right direction).
• A single 'Global' Scorecard will be developed for each IHP+ Global Compact signatory.
  
• For Partners that have country presence, we will compile prioritized actions from your agency's country-level scorecards into a single Partner Scorecard, in dialogue with your agency representatives at the International level.
• After an initial round of collecting this information during August and September, we will present you with a draft scorecard in October that contains your self-assessed actions, with ratings appraised by the Consortium.
  
• We will be in contact with you again during early October to discuss these ratings and to ask some further questions about your Agency's performance in taking these Actions.
  
• Final draft scorecards will be produced at the end of October.

What do you as a Partner representative need to do to complete a Scorecard?

• You will be contacted by a member of the IHP+Results research group and asked a set of questions about your general impressions of how the IHP+ is progressing and what results this is achieving. We expect some general comments on this, not a detailed analysis.
• For each of the initial 10 IHP+ Countries that your agency is active in, you are requested to indicate what progress your agency is making towards achieving the results that appear in the right-hand panel of the Scorecard.
• You will also be asked  to provide a list of the priority current actions that your agency is committed to undertaking within each of 5 Results Areas (these will be reflected in the left panels of the Scorecard). If you need to consult within your organisation before providing these statements, you will be asked to contact us to discuss the Actions, or to insert these in table A of the Survey Tool.
• The IHP+Results researcher will get back to you with a draft scorecard that incorporated the information you have provided, for your review and approval on how the Actions are defined. Please work with us to get this to adequately reflect what your agency is doing.

Who is being asked to provide information for the Scorecards?

• IHP+Results is consulting representatives of the IHP+ Global Compact signatory partners, at both country and international levels. This includes the Bilateral Donors, Multilateral Agencies, Civil Society Organisations and National Governments.
• A scorecard will be produced for each of the National Governments of the IHP+ countries.
• For the first year, IHP+Results is only focusing on appraising performance in the initial 10 IHP+ countries and for signatories of the IHP+ Global Compact.

How is the survey information put into the scorecard?

• After providing the required information, this is captured into the Survey Tool that is reviewed and edited by the Results Area Leads.
  
• Each Action is transparently analysed and documented online in the North-South Observatory, where you will find a page for each of your agency's actions, recorded in a table with the rating criteria, benchmarks and sources of information for making the appraisal.
• Following our Consortium's appraisal of your agency's performance against each action, a rating is recorded in the North-South Obsevatory, together with supporting evidence. This rating is based on your self-assesment , validated by the Consortium Researchers against collatoral data.
  
• There will then be a short consultation period which allows the agency/country to check and (if necessary) appeal against the Consortium's appraisal of the evidence for performance.

Where do we fit our Actions into the survey table?

• Only your top-priority actions need to be entered into the Survey Table A (up to a maximum of 5 for each Results Area).
  
• Not every cell in the table needs to have an action.
• For assistance with completing the table, or with defining your agency's Actions, please feel free to discuss this with the Consortium researchers/Leads (see the relevant Results Areas for contact information).

What is the timeline for the Annual Performance Appraisal process?

• August to early September: partner representatives contacted and scorecard data collected
• End of August: all responses collected and perfomance appraisal begins
• September: brief consultation process for countries/agencies to check/contest provisional ratings of performance
  
• End of September: final ratings for this year entered into scorecards
• September into October: individual consultation with partner representatives to review performance; collection of collateral data
• End of October: final drafts of scorecards disseminated for partners to review, with Adjudication of disputes
• November: Annual Performance Report Compiled
• January: 2009 Annual Performance Report published
• Q1 2010: High-level Ministerial Review of Progress

Is IHP+Results monitoring agreements and commitments we have made at the country level, or to the set of global commitments?

• The Global Partner Scorecard will summarize the top priority actions you agency is taking at both the international and country levels.
  
• Ideally, any internaional actions should be directly linked to country-level action. For example, we would expect to know that you are doing something  specific in 'x' number of countries.

How can IHP+Results strengthen country processes and systems for partnership and monitoring processes?

• The IHP+Results consortium will work with National Governments and country-level stakeholders to make this a relevant and effective mechanism for countries. We welcome any feedback and will endeavor to make this a worthwhile  process. We are willing to be flexible in how this is implemented.
  

Who is behind IHP+Results?

• An independent North-South Consortium has officially been appointed by IHP+ Signatories, through the Scaling-up Reference Group, to undertake annual monitoring and evaluation of the IHP+.
• The Project Director is Dr Shaun Conway and Project Manager is Tim Shorten.
• The consortium is led by Responsible Action!, with LSHTM, Oxfam and national researchers in the IHP+ countries. For more information, please see the North-South Observatory for IHP+Results at www.ihpresults.net
• The Terms of Reference for this work and the Inception Plan for IHP+Results can be found here on the North-South Observatory.

What is the mandate for IHP+Results and are we obliged to participate?

• IHP+Results has been mandated by and is a requirement of the IHP+Global Compact that all Partners signed. This was further endorsed by the high-level Ministerial Review of the IHP+ in February 2009 and therefore has the support of National Ministries of Health.
  
• The North-South Consortium conducting this work has been appointed for a 3-year period through a fair, competitive process by the IHP+ Scaling-up Reference Group.
• The Consortium reports to the Scaling-up Reference Group comprising senior Partner representatives.
  
• The Scaling-up Reference Group has assured the Consortium the full cooperation of their Agency representatives at the internaional and country levels for the work to be undertaken.
• We are mindful of the circumstances, needs and expectations of each country and partner, so would welcome  suggestions for how the work can be most effectively and efficiently carried out.

What is the North-South Observatory for IHP+Results?

• The North-South Observatory provides an online source of transparent information and a platform for all IHP+ stakeholders to participate in monitoring and evaluating IHP+ Partners.
  
• Any member of the public can view information in the Observatory, but you need to sign up online for a user account to contribute in the online discussions, or to receive email updates from the Observatory.
• For any assistance you might require, contact Laura Thorogood (laura@human-scale.net).