2014 has been a very successful year for Itad across our thematic areas of technical work, we are celebrating our 30 years as a company, and we are in the midst of infrastructure upgrades that will improve our office space.
We continue our success with DFID’s Global Evaluation Framework Agreement (GEFA), and as co-lead on the e-Pact consortia – we have been awarded GEFA contracts across many of our thematic areas. Our Health and Human Development theme are conducting an evaluation of the DFID – Clinton Health Access Initiative Market-Shaping for Access to Safe, Effective and Affordable Health Commodities, we are acting as the Verification and Evaluation Service Provider for the WASH Results Programme; under our Organisation Effectiveness theme we are conducting an Evaluation of Approaches to Build Capacity for Use of Research Evidence, while the Macro-Evaluations of DFID’s Strategic Vision for Girls and Women is being implemented by our Empowerment, Accountability and Gender thematic group. An evaluation of DFID’s aid to the Typhoon Haiyan disaster falls within our Fragile and Conflict Affected States theme, while the Evaluation Management Unit for the West Africa Food Markets Pilot is being led by our Private Sector Development theme.
Beyond GEFA, we are also working on other DFID projects, including Building Resilience and Adapting to Climate Extremes and Disaster Risk Fund (BRACED) in collaboration with ODI, and we are also acting as the Independent Evaluation Manager (IEM) for the Mobilising for Development (M4D) Programme in Nigeria. We are also undertaking the final Evaluation of the Accountability in Tanzania (AcT) Programme.
We have also continued to work with EU bilateral donors throughout 2014. We are carrying out the Independent Evaluation of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) for Norad as well as an Evaluation of Support to Capacity Development, one of a trio of evaluations running concurrently with parallel projects funded by SIDA and Danida. For SIDA, we are providing an Education Sector Monitoring Team for a multiannual project, and we are evaluating the strategy for Danish Humanitarian Action 2010 – 2015, on behalf of DANIDA. For IrishAid, we have carried out a Mid-Term Review of the Civil Society Support Programme.
We will also be continuing to work with philanthropic foundations through into 2015. We are now preparing for a Global Evaluation of Girl Hub, the Nike Foundation’s support programme for adolescent girls in Africa and in West Africa, we are implementing a two year programme of Reinforcement of Monitoring and Learning Capacities for Tostan, a programme of grass roots support to informal education in West Africa. For the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, we are evaluating their contribution to the 2015 International Climate negotiations. We have continued to build on our collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation with the provision of monitoring and evaluation services for their Digital Jobs Africa Initiative, and we also completed our monitoring and evaluation of the Rockefeller Foundation’s $60million Asia Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) initiative.
Other notable contracts won in 2014 include an Itad led team with Euro Health Group, which will be conducting the Global Fund’s 2015 Strategic Review and we also prepared the Global Report on IHP+ Performance for the World Health Organisation.
Throughout 2014, and continuing into 2015, we are implementing IT system upgrades, as well as office expansion and redesign. We had two teams take part in the Oxfam Emergency Challenge, with their fundraising activities including ‘The Great Itad Bake Off’ which has run over 5 months, a Rounders match in Hove Park, and an Itad-themed pub quiz. We held a 30th anniversary event at the Grand Hotel in Brighton which included an afternoon of technical talks and a drinks and canapés reception – as well as publishing several blogs to mark the occasion.
