MOPAN's relevance
On the members’ side, MOPAN assessments were presumed to have the potential to provide knowledge about institutional arrangements about which the members are largely uninformed but can use in their own accountability processes. Alternatively, members might see the mere existence of an external assessment as a safeguard that suffices to ensure accountability. On the MO side, the most plausible assumption at the beginning of the evaluation is that the assessments are not used. But an assessment such as MOPAN could have the perverse effect whereby MOs would appear to follow the standards MOPAN promotes, which is unlikely however, given the assessment’s tacit, non-binding nature. MOs see the benefit of MOPAN overwhelmingly in its potential to reduce the number of assessments they undergo. We assumed that under certain conditions (for some standards, some kinds of MOs, in certain contexts, etc.) it was still possible that MOs used the assessments, and that efforts to adapt could contribute to their use. Within this general framework, we assume that the variations in the use of MOPAN products depend less on the quality of each MOPAN assessment than on the following: • specific context of each member country and MO, and their relationships • capacity, power and commitment of the individuals involved in MOPAN processes, especially in the member countries (MOPAN representatives, ILs, case managers, board members, decision-makers…) and MOs (MOFP, staff, senior-level managers…), Secretariat staff and service providers. Figure 2 presents the general framework for examining the uses of MOPAN products.
Figure 2 : MOPAN is embedded in several spheres of use MOPAN is... The Multilateral System RBM in the multilateral system
A group of like-minded donors A manifestation and an instrument of RBM
Accountability relationship of MOs to major donors
One-to-one relationships between MOs M OP and member countries AN di is em ffe re bed nt sp ded he in re t Personal interactions within and s hes e outside organisations
A tacit agreement between donors and MOs allowing assessment but limiting scope of consequences
A knowledge production process which countries/MOs may decide to use in support of their own strategies and policy making
A number of individuals within members, the staff, and in MOs, and consultants which participate to MOPAN processes
We assume that contribution occurs through an informal accountability relationship. This lack of formalism makes the assessments possible in absence of a formal mandate, but also limits their potential consequences for organisations.
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