Addressing emerging and long-standing threats to UK national security and tackling serious and organised crime (SOC) overseas are top priorities for the UK Government.
Itad is leading five monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) partnership contracts, providing strategic advice and support to the UK Government’s Integrated Security Fund (ISF).
We are helping the UK Government to develop a more evidence-based approach to tackling the biggest threats to UK national security, including state- and non-state threats, conflict, instability and SOC. We also aim to enhance the Government’s ability to generate evidence and make well-informed programme, policy and strategy decisions.
Managed by the Cabinet Office, the ISF uses a whole-of-government approach to find creative solutions to the most complex national security challenges.
The ISF was launched in April 2024 and builds on the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, under which we previously worked.
We have 10 years of experience providing MERL services to ISF
As MERL service providers, we have over 10 years of experience supporting ISF (and its predecessor CSSF) at a regional and global level. These contracts include:
- Fund-wide level – since 2024
- Africa (formerly East Africa) – since 2015
- Middle East and North Africa – since 2017
- South Asia and Indo-Pacific – since 2020
- UK Overseas Territories (since 2023)
We also provided MERL support to the Home Office Global Serious and Organised Crime Portfolio, funded through ISF, from 2015-2025.
Our role
As a MERL Partner, our purpose is to:
- Strengthen the ability of programme and portfolio MERL systems to measure and demonstrate results and value for money
- Build a robust and reliable evidence base for what works in ISF programming
- Help communicate results and impact to inform strategic decision making.
Increasingly, we are required to design and deliver complex strategic evaluations that look beyond individual programmes and measure the collective impact of UK interventions on stability, conflict and SOC at the country level.
Drawing on Itad’s expertise in impact evaluations, we push the boundaries of MERL services –while remaining politically sensitive. We provide innovative solutions to increase the utility of our services to cross-government teams, such as measuring political access and influencing or measuring integrated delivery and catalytic effect.
At the heart of our work is a learning agenda. Drawing on Itad’s global leadership in adaptive programming, we work closely with ISF programme teams, and their implementing partners (IPs), to integrate collaborative, adaptive learning approaches that respond to fast-changing contexts and use evidence to inform programme adjustments quickly.
Our methods & approaches
We offer ISF programme teams – and their implementing partners (IPs) – MERL support across all phases of the programme/project cycle. This includes:
- Design of programmes/projects and MERL systems strengthening
- Monitoring and verification
- Evaluation and research
- Learning
We provide mentoring and accompaniment support to help teams develop adaptive MERL frameworks and theories of change. These ensure interventions are aligned with strategy, informed by an understanding of the operating context, and set realistic objectives underpinned by evidence.
We also help strengthen the quality of outcome data through third-party monitoring and developing monitoring tools that track progress and support adaptation. We conduct rapid research and evaluations of programmes and strategies to provide evidence of contribution to strategic objectives.
Across all our work, we focus on supporting learning and uptake to inform improved programme and policy decisions. There is also a strong focus on GESI, conflict sensitivity, political access and influence (PAI) and Value for Money (VfM).
Our approach is underpinned by six key principles
- Appreciation: we build on existing work, respecting the time and energy that clients and their IPs have already invested.
- Accompaniment approach: we act as a mentor and sounding board to our clients and their IPs, supporting them to make sense of, and use, findings and recommendations and play a convening role to help them continually reflect and learn.
- Critical friend: we seek to provide an objective viewpoint, sometimes delivering difficult messages. We always prioritise clear, constructive, appreciative and evidence-based communication.
- Flexibility and adaptation. we recognise the need to respond to evolving demands and priorities, aiming to balance structure and agility. We proactively seeking to resolve tensions through close collaboration with clients and partners.
- Proportionality: we design fit-for-purpose processes based on a realistic understanding of what is practical and possible to implement.
- Utilisation focus: we identify key users, their needs for support and engagement points at the outset. We then continually reflect to tailor and adapt MERL processes and products to be of greatest use.
Outcomes and impact
We have contributed to an improved evidence base and better learning on what works and why in priority areas of UK investment, such as cross-border migration, countering violent extremism, and SOC.
We have developed a number of innovative MERL tools and approaches which have been taken up by ISF teams globally, including:
- A framework and toolkit to measure PAI, enabling programmes to track and assess the nature and extent of their access and influence gained through programmatic investments.
- An approach to better measure the performance and effect of pre-deployment military training, currently used by the British Peace Support Team.
Thanks to our support, ISF and Home Office teams, and their IPs, have improved their ability to make policy and programme decisions informed by robust evidence.
We have gained a very strong reputation across defence, development, diplomatic and SOC teams, nurturing a culture of MERL through long-term accompaniment and close capacity building.
