The objective of this assignment was to independently monitor the BRACE Programme implementation for informed and timely decision-making, for contributing to ongoing learning, and for supporting the achievement of the envisaged BRACE Programme results and sub-results.
The overall objective of the BRACE Programme was “to support the Government of Balochistan in reducing the negative impact of economic deprivation, poverty and social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, and to turn this into opportunities to build and empower resilient communities participating actively in identifying and implementing socio-economic development activities on a sustainable basis in partnership with local authorities”. The specific objectives of the Programme were:

• to empower citizens and communities and provide them with means that enable them to implement community-driven socio-economic development interventions, foster private development and entrepreneurship in rural areas, and increase voice and capacity to influence public policy decision making through active engagement with local authorities for quality, inclusive, and equitable service delivery, and civic oversight; and
• to foster an enabling environment for strengthening the capacities of local governments/ authorities to manage and involve communities in the statutory processes of the local public sector planning, financing and implementation process. A copy of the Action Document is attached with these Terms of Reference for further information.

The Programme had three key components:
1) Community Empowerment through social mobilisation and social & productive assets creation and social and productive assets and infrastructure,
2) Development and implementation of a community-led development policy framework, accompanied by technical and institutional capacity-building interventions, and
3) Public Finance Management reform.

• Monitored processes (real time) to inform Programme management and other stakeholders about the actual implementation of the Programme components and activities in the field
• Tracked progress of the Programme’s targets to assess if time-critical activities were taking place in accordance with Programme timelines and recommended remedial actions
• Monitored performance of the Programme’s envisaged outcomes/results and objectives (progress on implementation of activities, delivery of outputs, achievement of results and impacts and use of resources) including assessment of “value for money”
• Monitored arrangements of implementing partners, assessing their quality/capacity with a view to identify capacity-building needs and ensure quality implementation, and made recommendations for improvement.
• Investigated incident reporting, conducted extensive interviews and forensic accounting analytics.