Vulnerable and Fragile States (Failed States)

The US Foreign Policy magazine has ranked 20 countries as the world´s most vulnerable states. These include inter alia South Sudan, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yemen and Ethiopia, where NCG has undertaken consulting work. By their very nature, such states have the greatest needs for humanitarian and development assistance. The challenge, however, is to identify and plan for these needs and then develop systems for delivering the assistance. Operating in such environments require a special type of expertise and experience which NCG personnel possess.

We therefore offer services in the following fields:

• Preparation of desk studies, country assessments, country/regional profiles, risk assessments.

• Recruitment, training and mobilisation of national consulting teams.

• Development of appropriate country methodologies and establishment of field surveys, and poverty reduction analysis.

• Development of studies on improved governance, state-building, society-building, civil service development.

• Surveys on corruption/transparency issues

• Preparation of aid harmonization strategies

• Development of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies (floods, drought, earthquakes etc.)

• Strategic programming and implementation, based on organisational reviews such as fit for purpose studies, baseline analysis, and development of theories of change.

• Program and project formulation and management, including the application of results based management (RBM), logical framework approach (LFA), planning/ monitoring/evaluating/ reporting (PMER) systems, and the development of baselines, risk analysis, indicator tracking, anticorruption strategies and cross-cutting issues.

• Improve workflows, clarity in roles and responsibilities through work process mapping, analysis and development, as well as redefining roles and job-descriptions.

• Development and implementation of advocacy strategies towards Norwegian and international decision makers.

• Development and implementation of fundraising strategies, including how to maximize donor support (such as understanding the Norad RAM Light system).

• Development and implementation of organisational learning strategies and plans.