Grants Management

Pact is a good steward of donor funding with over 36 years of grants management experience stemming from its original role as the grants administration arm of the United States Agency for International Development Office of Private Voluntary Cooperation. In the past 8 years alone, Pact has managed more than $300 million in subgrants for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. State Department, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), World Bank, Pfizer Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Displaced Children and Orphans Fund and Leahy War Victims. Pact awards grants ranging from as little as $1,000 to as much as $5,000,000.

Our partnering and grants management principles
Pact's shared values in partnering include active target audience and stakeholder (including national and local governmental bodies) involvement, building capacity at the grassroots level, strengthening community-based networks, and adding to the body of knowledge on effective responses through continuous learning and ensuring a results-oriented focus.

Open and transparent competitive award process
If the program design requires competitive grant awards, Pact's competitive awards process contains the following elements.

• The posting of an annual program statement (APS) or request for application (RFA) by either a Pact country office or headquarters or through a lead local NGO. The themes or focus of the APS or RFA are determined in collaboration with the donor/s and stakeholders, including beneficiaries.
• A requirement that applicants map anticipated program results against the donor's goals and objectives.
• A requirement that reviewers of applications sign "conflict-of-interest" statements.
• A system of providing debriefing for unsuccessful applicants geared towards improving the applicants' likelihood of success in a future competition round.

Technical review, evaluation and grant selection
Pact generally uses a two-tiered process that begins with a request for an executive summary application or an expression of interest. Submissions are reviewed by a technical review panel, which selects the finalists and invites them to submit a full technical application. A second expert technical panel is convened to select the final grant award winners. Local NGO applicants not selected can request a debriefing in order to obtain information on the strengths/weaknesses of their application.

Pre-award and capacity building needs assessment
After grant winners are selected Pact or the local partner NGO conducts a pre-award assessment for grant worthiness. Grant worthiness indicates sufficient technical, managerial and financial capacity to carry out program objectives and achieve stated results. Grantees are assigned a "risk" level that determines the level of capacity building assistance required for them to comply with donor regulations, policies and procedures. Capacity building is tailored to each grantee depending upon the organization's needs for technical, managerial or financial skills development training.

Grants monitoring and peer partnerships
Pact works together with grantees on a peer partnership basis. Grantee performance is monitored through annual work plans and periodic financial and program reporting. Periodic visits to grantees provide additional opportunities for on-the-job training.

Recent Pact grants management programs
There are numerous current examples where Pact's work entails a high degree of grants management, generally in combination with one or more technical areas of support. Under the Institutional Strengthening Grants Management (ISGM) program in the Greater Horn of Africa, Pact has awarded 28 grants totaling $3,876,856 to community-based organizations working in regional food security and conflict resolution efforts. Pact's Omega Initiative in Africa is in the process of awarding $5 million to local NGOs assisting war veterans and noncombatant victims of war in recovery, recuperation and the seeking of economic opportunities. In Zimbabwe Pact provides grants to a wide range of civil society organizations advocating at the parliamentary level for human rights and social reform.

Two significant global grants management programs are administered from Pact headquarters. The first is a civil society strengthening program involving 12 U.S.-based partners and over $6 million in grants. The second, Community REACH, is designed as a rapid response mechanism to provide grants to NGOs working in HIV/AIDS with a current grant portfolio of $8 million to 83 HIV/AIDS NGOs working in twenty countries. Two country-level programs under REACH—in Brazil and South Africa—have a HIV/AIDS grants component totaling $50 million.