MSI has embarked upon a 5-year organisational development programme, “Services for Contraception and Abortion Launched and Expanded” (SCALE), funded by a private U.S. Foundation.  MSI wanted to ensure its resources for organisational development, programme strategies and implementation during the SCALE programme were appropriately targeted and to demonstrate how MSI is currently functioning as a multi-national entity in providing leadership and support to Partners (MSI affiliates) across the global MSI Partnership.  They identified a need to:

• Establish an organisational baseline for MSI, including the development of recommendations for organisational development and transformation;
• Assess the monitoring and evaluation function of MSI relative to the SCALE objectives and make recommendations for its development;
• Assess external perceptions of MSI’s strengths and weaknesses.

MSI, through Options Consultancy Services Ltd (Options), commissioned a team consisting of Jacqueline Hill from J Hill Associates and Josselyn Neukom, a reproductive health monitoring and evaluation specialist from the US, to carry out a baseline analysis.  Jacqueline ran a workshop with Dana Hovig, MSI’s Chief Executive and a project team of support staff in London to envisage what MSI will look and feel like following 5 years of successful SCALE implementation.  The visioning workshop also identified the key stakeholders for SCALE, their level of involvement in the baseline, and the overseas MSI Partners that would participate in the baseline.  Jacqueline and Josselyn then used the 5 year vision to develop a detailed set of objectives and measures against which the MSI of today could be measured (the baseline), followed by visit and interview protocols to gather baseline information from both internal and external stakeholders firstly in London and subsequently in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.  Following a further week in London confirming their findings, Jacqueline and Josselyn drafted a report of their findings against each of the baseline objectives and measures along with recommendations for change. 

MSI now has a clearer vision of its aims and ambitions for the SCALE programme along with a better understanding of the actions needed to achieve them.  The process was as participative as possible within the time and budgetary constraints and the consultant’s report not only detailed findings and recommendations but also outlined the process used and learning gained so that MSI can develop similar analyses in the future. The use of external consultants ensured a level of confidentiality and challenge unlikely to be achieved using internal resources alone. Jacqueline and Josselyn were also able to bring their experience of working with other organisations.  The next step is for MSI to prioritise the recommendations and develop an implementation plan.

Dana Hovig, Chief Executive of MSI commented “I found Jacqueline and Josselyn outstanding professionals – responsive, client and results-oriented, and pragmatic in their recommendations.  The organisational assessment will be useful as MSI moves forward, improves, and evolves.  I would hire them again when the right consultant opportunity comes up….as I’m sure it will.”