One of the greatest needs of any institution engaged in development is appropriate assistance to address technical issues as they arise in program implementation. Often times, this assistance is not available in a timely fashion, or the consultant does not understand the institution and/or program well enough to provide useful advice. Another problem involves the use of consultants in an on/off fashion so that there is little continuity in the advice given. Finally, it is difficult to find a consultant with the skills required to provide advice on the full range of issues that an institution is struggling with in various development initiatives.
To avoid these shortcomings, TANGO will pursue the following strategy. First, TANGO will work with an institution on a long-term basis. This is to ensure continuity in the support given and that the institutional learning curve is minimal. TANGO will work with its partners to develop detailed implementation plans to determine the type of assistance needed, the timing, and duration. On/off consultancies will only be done for strategic learning.
Second, TANGO will draw on a cadre of core staff that have complementary expertise in a range of disciplines and development issues. When an institution works with TANGO, it gains access to this wide body of expertise. It is clear that different sets of skills will be required at different stages of program and project cycles. For example, the skill sets needed for planning may be different from those required for diagnosis, design, monitoring and evaluation. TANGO will ensure that these sets of skills are distributed among its core staff and group of consultants that it draws upon.
Third, TANGO will be selective in the number of activities we support. We seek, of course, financial viability but profit is not the primary motivation for TANGO’s existence. Our desire is to provide close, personal attention to our clients so that they have the best chance of succeeding with their programs.
Fourth, TANGO aims to provide the best technical support possible to its partner institutions. To do this, it must keep abreast of current literature and best practices. Therefore, literature reviews and state-of-the-art reviews will be built into most long-term assignments.
Fifth, to ensure that out-client institutions benefit fully from TANGO’s work, efforts will be made to capture the lessons learned from each of the activities carried out. This will allow other parts of the institution to benefit from experience of each individual country or regional program that TANGO supports.