TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0200-SN-BM-Revolutionary-Change-for-Relief-and-Development

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REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE
for RELIEF and DEVELOPMENT
TPB thinking circa 2003

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TPB Note: This manuscript reflects lessons learned during almost 30 years of relief and development consultancy for the World Bank, the UN and others. The management and organizational arrangements in these organizations reflected best practice from a very long time ago ... and it showed.

SECTION 1
The State of the Relief and Development Sector.
Where We Are! How and Why?

1. Failure
Broad brush ... subject to criticism. [Box: Good People Doing Amazing Work]. The relief and development sector. Documented failure. Poverty a bigger killer than terrorism. Where did it all go wrong? The problem of war, violence and terrorism. The problem of poverty and hunger. The problem of disease and premature death. The problem of education. So much intolerance. Wealth creation.

2. Who Cares?
Nobody. Except the poor. Maybe it would be smart to care. An emerging community of anti-north activists. And worse. Also a “north” community of advocates for reform.

3. How and Why
Getting beyond mere description. How? Why?

4. So Many Things Are Wrong
Hundreds of issues. My first visit to Africa. [Box: My first visit to Africa]. Bluntly put, everything is wrong. Connecting the dots. [Box: Learning Experience]. People. Why is the infrastructure so run down? Why is water such a problem? Why so much war and violence? Bloody guns: death, refugees and IDPs. Refugees – war is the problem. [Box: Refugees – War is the Problem]. Ghastly globalization. And the matter of intolerance. Making sense of this chaos.

5. Value Destruction
Metric of Performance. What is performance measurement? Where performance is measured. Value analysis. Value Destroying Activities. Projects and programs. [Box: Value Destroying Projects]. [Box: Value Destruction in South Sudan]. [Box: Shrimp Project in Yemen (YAR)]. Foreign direct investment (FDI) Extractive industries. [Box: Value Destruction in a Mining Enterprise]. Infrastructure construction. Coffee, cocoa, tea, cashew, palm oil, etc., etc.. [Box: World Bank's Rotten Projections]. Parastatals, FDI and Privatization. Trade. Workshops and conferences. Research and studies. [Box: A Study of Studies in Lesotho]. The academic community. [Box: Teaching Relief and Development Methodology]. Valueless political rhetoric and press releases. Value Destruction Aggravated with Debt. Debt is a result. Debt cancellation, restructuring ... whatever. [Box: Minister in Namibia Had It Right]. No Sustainability. Value destruction is unsustainable. Environmental sustainability. Sustainability of the community. Organizational sustainability. Project sustainability. National sustainability.

6. Organization – Deadly Dysfunction
A Dangerous Situation. Reducing expectation of life. [Box: Too Much Death]. Organizational performance. [Box: Dysfunctional Organizations]. Dysfunctional process. [Box: What Dysfunction Looks Like]. Relief and Development Organizations. The relief and development sector. [Box: Improving Relief and Development Performance]. Disastrous decision making processes. [Box: Value Destruction in South Sudan]. Too much planning. Learning organizations and institutional memory. Projects and Programs. The project and the project cycle. [Box: My Experience with World Bank Projects]. People in the project structure. Whatever happened to the “multiplier effect”? Project complexity. [Box: The Education Sector in Brazil]. Projects are sometimes not planned right. [Box Shrimp Project in Yemen (YAR) – Project Preparation was Wrong]. Development Investment. Excessive unproductive investment. [Box: The Fisheries Sector in Burma]. Waste in investment. [Box: Tarmac Roads in Equatoria, Sudan]. Scale and Complexity. Economies or dis-economies of scale. [Box: Scale in the Fishing Industry]. Complexity. Large Scale Foreign Direct Investment. Value analysis ... value destruction. Foreign direct investment (FDI). Diamonds [Box: Blood Diamonds]. Oil. [Box: Oil Poverty]. Globalization. Good for the “north”. [Box: Level Playing Field]. Subsidies and unfair trade practices. [Box: Distortion arising from subsidies]. Market economics. Development economics. Military ... Relief and Development. Valuable core competence Advocacy. Advocacy movements. Advocacy for relief and development sector reform. [Box: Principles of Physics 1]. Advocacy for debt relief. Advocacy for transparency. Letter writing. [Box: Bread for the World] Relief versus Development. Two very different activities. Natural disasters. And there are man-made disasters.

7. People – Disastrous Decisions
People are Central to Everything. People make the bad decisions. [Box: I'm All Right, Jack]. Where do priorities come from? My job ... my career. [Box: Disaster Relief]. People are not held accountable. Obscene Greed and Cruelty. Who is taking responsibility. 21st Century Robber Barons. People make war. People do violence. Incompetence or Brilliance. Incompetent or brilliant, staff and experts. [Box: Would You Believe This!]. Economic hit men. What happens to good work? [Box: Liberia – Cooperatives and Other Organizations]. Bad work. [Box: Fish meal in Malachal, Yemen PDRY]. People are Responsible for Corruption. There's a hole in the bucket. Accountants are meant to control corruption. Very little of the funding gets to beneficiaries. [Box: Shrimp Project in Yemen (YAR) – Substantial Corrupt Benefits]. [Box: From Nigeria in the 1970s]. Bribery is profitable ... therefore widespread. [Box: Brunei]. [Box: Corruption - Nigeria Since the 1970s]. Corruption is very well protected. [Box: Making Corrupt Money in Fisheries in Burma]. Poor People ... Human Beings or Pawns. Every person should be treated right. Economic migration. [Box: Escaping from Ethiopia]. Brain drain. Human trafficking.

8. Management Information – Missing in Action
Lots of Data ... Not Much Information. Economic data, not accounting. [Box: Ignorance is Bliss]. Why so much data compiled? And yet a paucity of useful information. Accounting. [Box: Lots of Accounting ... and No Information]. UNDP information going backwards. [Box:Why was the DCR Discontinued]. OECD DAC Reporting. [Box: DAC Data Accuracy]. Reporting in the ODA world. [Box: Delayed Accounting is No Accounting]. Who wants good accounting? [Box: Management Account for UNDP]. Who understands accounting? [Box: Shrimp Project in Yemen (YAR) – Accounting not Understood].

9. Some Other Issues
Transparency and Accountability. Transparency. Who is to blame? A system without accountability. Media ... Telling a Story. Story telling not management information. Media. Where is investigative journalism? Spin. [Box: PR versus Reality]. Technology. Where is reliable useful information to be found? [Box: Spin - Impact of World Bank SAP in Ghana]. Oversight Absolutely Absent. Internal oversight. [Box: GAO]. Internal audit. [Box: UN Internal Audit]. Audit. [Box: Oversight ... the Fannie Mae Fiasco]. Monitoring and evaluation. Whistle blowers. Feedback and remedial action. [Box: Global Fund]. [Box: Shrimp Project in Yemen (YAR) – No Remedial Action]. We know ... but what on earth to do?

SECTION 2
A Way Forward.
Revolutionary Change

10. Practical Framework for Success
A Pragmatic Approach. Small steps and different mindset. [Box:Water Skiing ... Skiing Moguls]. There is no one best way. [Box:Getting Good Results When There is Chaos]. Avoid impossible goals. [Box: Maginot Line]. Not an easy fix. [Box: An Easy Fix]. Elements of Strategy. What is the potential for performance improvement? Existing organizations and their initiatives. Do the most with what is available. [Box: Making the Most of What You Have]. Getting rid of constraints. [Box: Removing Constraints]. Risk reduction. Strategic design. Know more of local and indigenous knowledge. International knowledge. Get the scale right. [Box: What is the Best Scale?]. Economic distortion. Do the most with the least. [Box: A Study in New York City]. Ownership. Less planning, more organization. Focus on community. [Box: Principles of Physics 1]. Reform of big institutions.

11. Support What is Already There.
Support Existing Initiatives. What value analysis shows. [Box: Most Efficient Operations]. Huge inventory of existing initiatives. What form should support take? Incremental money. Appropriate gifts in kind. Help with negotiating the operating environment. Help with relevant and appropriate learning, Being friends. A Host of Existing Initiatives. Tens of thousands of opportunities. Orphans. Hospice care. Schools. Churches and faith based organizations. Telecenters. Professional groups. [Box: Professionals in the “South”]. Universities. ODA organizations.

12. Management
Management ... the Process. Has almost universal application. [Table] Get facts. Plan ... and budget. Organize and implement. Measure. Feedback. Action. Management ... the Function. Management is not administration. [Table]. Management performance makes a difference. [Box: Management Makes a Difference]. Procedures are a crutch. [Box: Procedures Get in the Way]. Knowing is not enough. Make best use. [Box: Getting the Most for the Least].

13. Get Facts
Get Facts. Before you plan ... get the facts. [Box: No Investment is Sometimes the Right Answer].

14. Plan ... and Budget
Plan ... Some Strategic Elements. Getting facts is not planning. Planning is an iterative exercise. [Box: To Plan, or Not to Plan?]. ... and Budget Developing a budget. Revisions to plans and budgets.

15. Organize ... and Implement
Organize. Has almost universal application. People, knowledge and money. Resources. People ... who need opportunities. Infrastructure. [Box: The Challenge of Infrastructure]. Organization. Natural Resources. Knowledge. Money. Constraints.

16. Measure
Make Measurements. Measure, collect data. Measure ... make it easy. Distributed analysis. Organize the data. Communicate and consolidate the data. Result of measurement.

17. Feedback ... and Make Improvements
Feedback. Feedback and adjustment. [Box Feedback and Control Theory]. [Box: Performance Reporting and Feedback]. [Box: Two Contrasting Experiences]. [Box: Measure ... Feedback ...Action].

18. Financial Control
Accounting. The central core of financial control. Oversight and accounting. [Box: Financial Control]. Making information accurate. Control through measuring performance. Getting improvement that sticks. [Box: Balloons and Wrenches]. Reporting to stakeholders. [Box: Less is More]. The accounting foundation. [Box: Rules Versus Principles]. Transactions. Balance sheet and operating statement. Purposes of financial and operational reporting. Complete report sets. Reporting can have different formats. [Box: Reports].

19. Management Information
Management Information. Without it, anything goes. [Box: Sports Performance]. Key characteristic of management information. KISS. Printed on 11/30/15 at 9:07:53 AM What information is needed? Start by measuring and collecting data. [Box: Measuring Performance]. Low cost. Improve the management information. Performance Measurement. Accounting is a part. Performance - resources in, value out. [Box: The Thermodynamic Idea of Efficiency]. Operating costs - activity costs - variances. Results and realized values. [Box: Costs, Activities, Results and Value]. Integrating key items and accounting. Different ways to compare performance. Time series. [Box: Shrimp Prices by Month 1945 to Present]. Consistency - enabling comparisons. Budgets. Management Accounting. Cost accounting. Standard cost accounting. [Box: Improve Profits by Understanding Cost Behavior]. Cost centers and profit centers. Value accounting.

20. Distributed Decisions
Letting Go. The best way to progress. Keeping track. Community. Oversight.

21. Public Accountability
Accountability. What is it? Accountability to whom? Public accounting. The accountancy profession. A Public Accounting Utility. The main elements. Information. [Box:A Database of Community Information]. A communications network. An information storage capacity. A data mining or data analysis capacity. Users.

22. Ethics, Culture and Religion
Ethics ... Is it Right or Wrong? Is It Legal? Whatever happened to right and wrong? Different systems of law. Corporate responsibility. [Box: The Crime is “Getting Caught”]. Culture. The value of culture. Respect. Learn. Bottom line. Religion. A power ... for what? [Box: Easter in Addis Ababa]. Religious organizations and their communities.

23. Oversight
Absolutely Needed. No oversight is an abdication of responsibility. Oversight is powerful. [Box: Management Information and Oversight Works]. Implementing good oversight. The importance of timeliness. Audit is not an oversight tool. Monitoring and evaluation is not oversight. Keeping good people honest and on the right track.

24. Issues that Constrain
Understanding Constraints. What a mess ... there are reasons. Trust. Security, violence, terrorism. The migration problem. Drugs, sex, gambling ... making money. What else? [Box: What We are Teaching Children]. Productivity. Scale.

25. Trust
Lack of trust is a huge constraint. Impossible to trust something you don't know. What is trust? Can rule of law substitute for trust? End to end trust. Building trust. Wrecking trust. [Box: Revoking Irrevocable Letters of Credit]. Deserving trust. Honesty. How to facilitate end-to-end trust. The old confirming house. Misplaced trust. [Box: Where Did the Money Go?].

26. Security, Violence and Terror
Doing Something About Weapons. What a mess. Guns. [Box: Guns – 1975]. Landmines. Nuclear weapons ... mutually assured destruction. Gas – biological weapons. The business of weapons. Making the community safe. Who is funding everything? Friends everywhere. Safety of the Open Society. [Box: Safety Through Communications]. Knowledge ... removing inequities.

27. Solving the Migration Problem
Immigration Has Become Unpopular. Foreigners ... immigrants are unpopular. Economic migration. [Box: Escaping from Ethiopia]. Why migrate? Fleeing violence. [Box: Refugees and IDPs]. Brain drain. Human trafficking. Constraining migration. Bad solution. Good solution.

28. Drugs, Sex, Gambling, etc.
Big Businesses ... Making Money. With huge profits. Illegal drugs. Prostitution. [Box: Bangkok 1992]. Gambling. Addiction. Tobacco. Alcohol. Are there any lessons.

29. Emergency Rescue and Relief
Humanitarian Relief is Big Business. Relief is much bigger than development. Rescue and relief versus development. Natural disasters. And there are man-made disasters. Planning for emergency relief. [Box: Identify, Budget, Do, Account]. Accounting and accountability. [Box: Tsunami Accounting and Accountability]. How to do emergency relief better. How to mitigate value destruction from disaster. Some disasters should never happen. [Box: Madagascar]. [Box: Failed Food Security]. Military resources in disaster situations. [Box: Military in Disaster Situations].

30 Sustainable Development
Sustainable Initiatives. What criteria to use? Multi-sector dynamics. Planning with a community focus. [Box: The FAO Project in Shenge, Sierra Leone]. Sustainable organizations. Removing critical constraints.

31. Money
Importance of Money. A critical resource. Keeping control of the money. Knowing what is done with the money. Mobilizing money. Raising money from official sources. Capital markets. Philanthropic sources of money. Monetizing assistance in kind. Remittances. Using the Internet. Investment clubs. [Box: Investment Clubs]. New mechanisms to access capital markets. Private sector fundable programs.

32. Technology, Information and Networks
Technology ... the Enabler. Enabled by new technology. What an opportunity. Moore's Law and missing productivity. Infrastructure. Information ... the Value. The nature of information. Information media. Information flows. The value of information. Networks ... the Connections. The network effect. But it is better!

33. People
People ... Human Resource. Make people an asset. [Box: Rebuilding Europe after World War II]. The world is full of good people. When good people meet bad systems. Developing opportunity. Jobs ... gainful employment. Workplace ethics. [Box: Workplace Safety]. People organizations. Respect for different skills. [Box: When I Worked in an Open Hearth Steel Shop]. Getting people organized - teamwork. [Box: Rebuilding a Refugee Camp in Malawi]. People are the key engine for development. Look for capability. [Box: People and Opportunity – Benin]. Functional expertise. [Box: About Functions ... Professions]. How everyone can help ... a little bit. [Box: Unwillingness to Stand Up and Be Counted]. How does this get coordinated?

34. Community
Community is the Center of Everything. Where do people live? Community is for ever. [Box: Okehampton, My Home Town]. Do powerful people want community focus? Development Strategy. Community centric programming. Community focus is practical. [Box: Focal Point for Development – A Wrong Idea]. Getting to know about a community. [Box: Village People Know About Their Communities]. Information. Good place for performance metrics. Collecting community information. Metrics of community progress. Establishment of trust. Financing. Types of financing. Local financing. [Box: My Yei Experience in South Sudan]. Community ... and the municipality. [Box: When New York was in Financial Trouble]. Organizations in the Community. Governance. Religious organizations. Business organizations. Self Help Groups (SHGs). Health Organizations. Schools. Water committees. Other Elements. Networking between communities. Informal and formal linkages.

35. The Organization View – Part 1
Introduction Introduction. The main vehicle for economic activity. Improving organizational performance. Organizations in the “north”. Organizations in the “south” Organizations that are in “north” and “south”. [Box: The Kuwait Fund]. New organizations are needed. Virtual organizations, networks, etc.

36. The Organization View – Part 2
Official Organizations Introduction – Official Organizations. What are the official organizations? Multilateral organizations. Need for reform. Power of PR. The United Nations System. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). [Box: Impressions of UNDP]. The Breton Woods Institutions. The World Bank Group. [Box. World Bank Cannot Change]. [Box: World Bank for Public Finance]. The International Monetary Fund (IMF). Governments in the “South”. Difficult if not impossible goals. [Box. Nurses, Teachers ... Soldiers]. Central Banks. Ministry of Finance / Treasury Department. [Box: My Experience in Barbados]. Government accounting and budget control. Planning development at the national level. [Aid Coordination ... The Quality of Projects]. Projections. Budget execution and control. Project accounting. [Box:Project Accounting Outside the Government System]. [Box: Single Treasury Account]. Audit. Governments in the “North”. What does the public know? What the public deserves to know. Bilateral aid agencies. Trade issues. Subsidies. Policies and relief and development. International treaties.

37. The Organization View – Part 3
Private Sector Private Sector. Make-up of the private sector International NGOs. The backbone of “north” intervention. [Box: What Donors Want]. Information about “north” NGOs is limited. [Box: What Determines? Performance or Policy]. Making “north” NGOs more effective. Mobilizing what “north” NGOs know. [Box: Changing the Mindset]. Big “north” NGOs with short reach. Small “north” NGOs. “South” NGOs. Many entities ... but how much potential? Community organizations. Registered NGOs. Information about “south” NGOs. Some “south” NGOs are liked to “north” NGOs. Briefcase NGOs. Conference Centric NGOs. Public Multinational Corporations. About stockholder value and profit above all else. [Box: BP ... Beyond Petroleum]. Associations of big corporations. Corporate social responsibility. Private Multinational Corporations. Some big companies, and growing. [Box: Caisse Noire]. Smaller closely held companies. The “South's” Enterprise Sector. Social entrepreneurs. Cooperatives. Public Private Partnership (PPP) [Box: Public Private Partnership in New York]. Informal sector. Academic Institutions. Academic institutions in the “north”. Academic institutions in the “south”. Cooperation. Professional Firms and Organizations. A critical part of society. In the “south”. Mobilizing the accountancy profession. The legal profession. Banking and Finance Organizations. Microfinance organizations. Investment clubs. Community finance. Community currency organizations. Networks. Unlimited potential. [Box: Clubs and Networks]. Network for knowledge sharing. Network for getting data inputs. The value of network. [Box: The Value Potential of Networks]. Advocacy Groups. Advocacy for relief and development sector reform. [Box: Principles of Physics 1]. Advocacy for debt relief. Advocacy for transparency. Letter writing ... and more. [Box: Bread for the World]. [Box: Principles of Physics 2]. Other Structures. New structures are needed. Community Development Finance Organizations. Universal Public Accounting Consortium.

38. Improving Projects and Programs
Projects. A critically important modality for implementation. The project cycle can be tweaked. Oversight and measurement. Mitigating shortcomings of the project cycle. Terminate non performing projects. Build on success. [Box: Replication of Success ... or Failure]. Oversight of the development project portfolio. [Box: Analysis of a Development Portfolio]. Project accounting and accountability. Project financing. Action plan to improve project performance.

39. The Sectors
Sectors. Hundreds of sectors. Multi-sector linkage. [Box: The Power of the Telephone]. Sector expertise. Sectors [Table – Sector Overview].

40. More on Sectors
More ... But Still Not Much. Introduction. Academic sector. Agriculture sector. Banking and finance sector. Construction. Education sector. Employment or jobs. [Box: Productivity]. Energy sector. Enterprise sector. Fisheries sector. Governance and administration. [Box: Costs for a Legal and Justice System]. Health sector. Infrastructure sector. International trade sector. [Box: Where is Ghanaian Chocolate]. Legal and justice. Luxury sector. Manufacturing. [Box: My Experience in Madagascar]. Military and security sector. [Box: Worry About the Power of a Big Army]. Mining sector. Natural Resources. Productive sector. Professional sector. Public sector, private sector. Relief and development sector. Retail sector. Social sectors. Tourism sector. [Box: From London to Cape Town]. [Box: From Berbera on the Red Sea to Addis Ababa]. Transport. Wholesale sector. [Box: Wal-Mart].

41. What Success Will Look Like
It is personal ... it is what you make it. My community is a better place. Less of war and violence. Less of human rights abuses. Less of poverty. Less of hunger. Less of strength and anger. Add it all up.

42. Afterword
Can We Have Success? Certainly ... but only if. What's in it for me?