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A N N U A L
R E P O R T :
C E O ’ S
L E T T E R
We had just finished a meeting of the President, Tony
Two years earlier my personal journey with AGI began in
Blair and the Minister of Agriculture. Bumbuna is the
the same office. I joined the organisation three months
hydroelectric dam the Government had completed the
after its launch to lead the new project in Sierra Leone,
year before, bringing power to the capital for the first
working alongside President Koroma’s team at State
time, the landmark achievement of the President’s first
House in Freetown. Two years later, in autumn 2012,
term, and he had been discussing the lessons he took
we completed our work in the Ministry of Agriculture
from that experience that he now wanted to apply to
as Sierra Leone prepared for its third free and peace-
agriculture: ruthless focus on the priority programme,
ful Presidential elections since the devastating civil war.
clear goals and milestones, consistent application of his authority, and a process to co-ordinate different parts of
I tell this story because it represents to me what AGI is
government.
about.
O U R
M I SSI O N
is my Bumbuna for agriculture” was so important. We place advisors inside partner governments, working
We began back in 2008 as an organisation built on
alongside local public servants to build trusted rela-
three simple but deeply held beliefs:
tionships at the very heart of government, in parallel to an on-going relationship between our Patron, Tony
•
•
That effective governance matters – the hard-
Blair, and the President. This in turns means that we
est part of government, wherever you are in the
can work with them to build the systems and the skills
world, isn’t coming up with a great policy idea but
they need to drive the three critical functions of ef-
seeing it implemented to deliver results;
fective governance: prioritisation, planning and perfor-
That political authority matters – the centre of
mance management.
government, the heart of political power and authority, is a critical part of the system capable of delivering change over a broad landscape but too often overlooked; •
And that change is possible – above all we main-
“ EVERY MUS T
S UMMON
PA RTI CUL A R
tain the optimistic view that Africa’s time for
A ND
change is now, as a new generation of African
I NVES T
leaders, like President Koroma, look to take their countries beyond their troubled pasts and to realise the potential of their people. The theory of change which that leads to goes like this:
COUNTRY THE
W I L L
DI S CI P L I NE I N
P EOP L E,
I TS
OW N
BENEFI T
OW N
I TS
CHA L L ENG ES , FROM
TO OWN
A ND
I TS
OWN
S UCCES S . ” HOWA RD
G .
BUFFETT
We start with a Government’s own policy priorities,
In the case of the Smallholder Commercialisation Pro-
because genuine government ownership is vital for
gramme, we saw that growing effectiveness translated
reform to stick – that’s why the President saying “this
into change at both the macro- and the micro-level.
By the time of the election, in a country where 70%
Our own year was summed up by three themes:
of the population rely on subsistence farming and nearly 80% of the rural population live below the pov-
A
erty line, and 30-40% of harvested produce had been of rural roads, the Programme had already seen over than 200 ‘Agricultural Business Centres’ constructed in villages across the country, combining to enable smallholders to make the transition from subsistence to income-generating production. One big factor behind this was a system of Presidential stocktakes that AGI helped to establish. These regular meetings allowed the President, when the implementation of the Programme met with bottlenecks like the challenge of setting up a “Roads Maintenance Fund”, to apply his political authority to overcoming barriers to progress. It is a demonstration of how process improvements at the centre of power can have a leverage effect on the system as a whole. At the micro-level, it is about the many individuals like Sam Sesay, the Minister of Agriculture and his team, and Professor Strasser-King and colleagues in the President’s Strategy and Policy Unit, whose commitment not just to delivering for their people but to reforming the culture of government as they do so is never short of inspiring.
“ [A GI] W IT H A
AR E U S .
L O T
OF
S H A R E
W I T H ,
A C C E PT WH AT
W E
T H EY
R E A D I LY
T H I N K .
B AS I S .
GO V E R NM E N T
W E
ON
T H I S
D IF F E R E N CE O F F I CE
T H EY
A N D
V E RY
P R E S I D E N T,
tries than ever before. Adding to the work we already had in Rwanda, Liberia and of course Sierra Leone, we embedded our new work in Guinea with a small team supporting President Condé; we provided support to the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in Nigeria; we started work in the Office of the President in South Sudan; and we moved quickly to support President Joyce Banda in Malawi soon after she took office. Working in one of Africa’s biggest countries alongside its newest, not to mention our first in La Francophonie, all brought many challenges and rich experiences; and in every case I’m proud that we were invited in by the leader of the country. The aim of growth was to test our ideas in more and different places and to have impact on a bigger scale.
I
but the people who matter most, the beneficiaries of our work ultimately, are the people they themselves serve: in 2011 the governments we supported repnumber was 200 million. To give you a flavour of our different work over the year in the Report we highlight three case studies: •
the Strategic Capacity Building Initiative in Rwanda, where we play an integral role in delivering the
A N
Government’s ambitious programme to deliver
I S
improvements in energy, agriculture, mining and
S E E. ”
OF F I CI AL ,
OF
tice in a greater number and broader range of coun-
resented 20 million people, by the end of 2012 that
ALWAY S
T OG E T HE R
E Q U A L TH E
W E
W HAT E V E R
C O ME
WO R K
SHA R E
T HI N G S
TO GE T H E R …
2012 was the year in which we put our ideas into prac-
In AGI we work in service to our partner governments,
AT TACHED W E
OF
G ROWTH
going to waste each year because of the poor state 900km of rural feeder roads rehabilitated and more
YEA R
investment; •
the “first 150 days” of President Johnson Sirleaf’s second term in Liberia, where political momentum
T H E
and the power of accountability led to 200km of
S OU T H
roads being built, 3000 vocational training places cre-
SUD A N
ated and major progress in the critical power sector; •
and our newest work in Malawi, where we had
So 2012, the basis for this, our fourth Annual Report,
the absolute privilege of working with President
was an important year for us here in AGI as it was for
Banda and her team just weeks after she came
President Koroma and the people of Sierra Leone.
to power.
A
YE AR
O F
L E AR NI NG 2012 was also the year in which we invested further in
– “problem driven iterative adaptation” – is one that
our learning, as we strove to “lift the lid” on our work
speaks to much of our experience. These two leading
and bring our findings to a wider audience. We con-
thinkers are part of an emerging consensus in the de-
tinued to work with the innovative firm Agulhas Ap-
velopment community on approaches to governance
plied Knowledge to ensure rigorous and independent
and reform. As we grow I want us to stay at the cutting
evaluation of our work. And we stepped up the public
edge of this thinking, practitioners on a journey with
content of our work, for example through the AGI in
much still to do and to learn. But as we continue to
Action videos you’ll see on our website.
experiment, to innovate, to fail and to succeed I hope that it is a debate we can increasingly contribute to as
Working in new countries also gave us a richer un-
well as learn from.
derstanding of the importance of local context when designing systems reform and change programmes.
“ THE
We had always understood that “all reform is politi-
TO
cal”, and working in the complex environment of the centre of government an ability to read and adapt to political context is part of the skill of our people. But
RI G HT
A P P ROA CH
G OVERNA NCE DEVEL OP MENT
‘ BES T
FI T’
NOT
FOR I S
‘ BES T
P RA CTI CE’ . ”
as we worked in more places and learned from our mistakes we came to a closer understanding of what
DAVI D
BOOTH,
OVERS EAS
David Booth from the Overseas Development Insti-
DEVEL OP MENT
I NS TI TUT E
tute has called “best fit, not best practice approach”. Similarly, Matt Andrews’ work at Harvard on learning and adaptive approaches to solving policy problems
( ODI )
A
YE AR
O F
OU R
F U TU RE
CHAN G E The Report and this letter focus on 2012. Of course Finally, then, 2012 was a year of change for us: a year
much time has already passed since then. 2013 has
when we grew, and also grew up. The year when we
been about pushing further on all of these fronts. We
stopped seeing ourselves as a start-up and began
have consolidated our presence in the seven countries,
to think of ourselves as the established independent
and are now looking outwards again at further growth.
charity we have become. This shift is symbolised by
We have been honoured to have been approached by
our move into our own “home”, of which we are very
other governments as well as development institutions
proud! And we see it also in the strengthening of our
to work with them. We have published our first case
foundations: people and funding. We raised nearly
study, on the “first 150 days action plan” in Liberia,
£3.5m in 2012 from a range of philanthropic and in-
and plan for others. We have held a public event with
stitutional sources to support our charitable activi-
President Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Tony
ties and future growth; and we diversified our funding
Blair on “the science of delivery”. We have completed
base to promote our stability and independence. We
evaluations of our major programmes. And we con-
recruited over 20 people from the best of the interna-
tinue to celebrate our fifth anniversary – this Report
tional public, private and third sectors, cementing our
coming out five years exactly since I boarded that first
reputation for having highly talented staff from diverse
plane to Sierra Leone. I look forward to telling you
backgrounds. And we invested further in development
about all of this and more next year; and you will see
and progression: more staff than ever moving between
more information on our website (www.africagover-
programmes, and in our annual staff survey 70% say-
nance.org) in the meantime.
ing they wanted to spend 2-4 years of their careers with us.
We are proud of the organisation we have built over the last five years. We are ambitious for the next five. We
It was also a year of great personal change. As many
are deeply grateful to our many friends, funders and
of you will know, in autumn 2012 our first CEO, Kate
supporters who have made it possible. And above all
Gross, was diagnosed with cancer. We are a small
else we are humbled and privileged to work alongside
and close organisation, and Kate’s sudden departure
the many public servants who are striving to change
as she stepped down to concentrate on her health
their countries, and who this story is really about.
brought much sadness. But it is how we respond to adversity that defines us, and I have never been more
Africa is on the move. The challenges are immense,
proud than of the way in which the AGI family respond-
but the leadership and the will are there. Change is
ed. Having worked alongside Kate since the beginning
possible, and we’re excited to be a part of it.
it was a great challenge and a great privilege to be asked by the Board to step into her shoes. As a friend,
It is a great privilege to be able to present AGI’s fourth
it is an even greater pleasure to know that as I write
Annual Report. I hope you enjoy it.
this she is completing her treatment and preparing to come back and join us.
Nick Thompson
I
A M
H O N O UR ED
A G A I N
I NTR O DU CE
G O V E R NAN CE R E P O R T. L E T T ER L O N G E R B E E N
A
AS
NI CK
THI S A
THE
A F RICA
S AYS
Y EA R,
IN
A NNU A L HIS
IS
A ND
TO
GROW
AN D
IN
A G I
S TA R T- U P
PR I V I LEG E
C O U N TR I E S
O NCE
I NITIATIVE’ S
O R G AN I SAT I O N A N D
TO
NO
IT
HA S
WATCH INTO
ITS
THE
NEW
REP U TATIO N
AB I LI T I E S.
Growth is exciting but also challenging for any organisation, so I would like to commend Nick as well as Kate before him and the rest of the management team for their continual work to make sure AGI provides the same quality of support to its new partner governments as it has done since its inception in Rwanda and Sierra Leone in 2008. At its core AGI remains focussed on supporting the creation of capable institutions which can implement reforms for the benefit of citizens, ultimately reducing poverty and improving lives. The AGI Board also expanded in 2012 with the addition of Tunde Olanrewaju. Tunde is a Partner in McKinsey’s London office where he leads the company’s UK Business Technology Practice. He is also a member of Oxfam GB’s advisory board. He is an excellent and welcome addition to our team. The Trustees would also like to thank our funders for their continued generous support without which AGI would not be able to achieve what it has. We also want to say a special word of gratitude and congratulations to the new Chief Executive, Nick Thompson, who the Trustees chose as the right leader for the organisation’s continued development. He has the confidence of the staff and the Trustees to lead and grow AGI in line with its mission and values. We would also like to thank the senior management team and staff of AGI; and the public servants they work alongside in Africa for their commitment, passion and professionalism – they are the people that make AGI’s work so special. Liz Lloyd, Chair of the Board of Trustees
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D O W N LO A D AN N UA L R E P O R T ( PD F )