Category: Our Business Areas

Adressing Peace, Conflict and Fragility

 

 

Facing a core challenge

Two billion people live in countries affected by conflict and fragility. There is a direct and causal relationship between state fragility, violent conflict and low levels of development. In response, countries affected by conflict and fragility are increasingly the focus of international assistance.

Much of Scanteam’s work is in fragile and conflict-affected states, working with governments, civil society actors, bilateral donors, multilateral institutions and business, to identify implementable solutions to challenging situations. We adapt and innovate workable solutions for our clients according to the requirements of each assignment. Scanteam promotes collective action, between the international community, host governments, civil society and affected populations, and with the private sector.

Our Services

  • Analysis and risk assessment: Understanding context

    Every conflict has its own historical roots, economic and political causes, social and cultural consequences. Understanding factors at play, external and internal constraints that actors face when making choices is fundamental to assisting parties identify possible pathways forward. Scanteam works with local partners to develop realistic, implementable, constructive options.

  • Conflict sensitive programming: Understanding the role of interventions

    Scanteam assists clients to design conflict sensitive approaches to interventions in conflict and post-conflict areas, or assesses, reviews or evaluates conflict sensitive approaches.

  • Peace-building: Repairing broken social tissue

    Scanteam assists clients to design peace-building and reconciliation programs, or assesses, reviews or evaluates peace-building and reconciliation programmes.

  • Women, peace and security: Getting the women to the table!

    Scanteam helps ensure that interventions are based on thorough gender analyses that identify and address gaps and enable women’s active participation in peace-building, reconciliation and reconstruction phases, and provide necessary protection against gender based violence.

  • Rebuilding Society I: Developing Approaches, Designing Interventions

    Reconciliation and reconstruction are complex processes, ranging from local community rebuilding of trust, relations and livelihoods, to reconstituting the state, public services, public finances and the overall economy. Scanteam works at community levels with local organisations and traditional bodies as well as with national authorities and the international community to agree priorities, activities and the intended results and monitoring mechanisms.

  • Rebuilding Society II: Joint Funding Mechanisms

    Donors are allocating increasing shares of their aid to fragile, conflict and post-conflict situations, often relying on joint funding mechanisms like multi-donor trust funds, MDTFs. Scanteam has appraised, designed, evaluated and compared numerous MDTFs across Africa and Asia, helping improve efficiency, effectiveness, governance and local voice in these complex mechanisms.

Gender Equality

Across the world, men and women, boys and girls have different access to information, resources, decision-making and opportunities. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) stress the importance of removing the barriers to gender equality: “There can be no sustainable development if the tangible and intangible barriers that hold back women and girls are not addressed” (SDG Goal 5).

Our Services

Scanteam helps identify barriers to gender equality, at every stage of an activity.

  • We use gender-sensitive programme design methodologies. Scanteam works to ensure that girls and boys, women and men have equal access to the opportunities created by governments, international assistance, or by companies.
  • We help design monitoring and evaluation systems that generate gender disaggregated data, to support management and operational decision-making.
  • We conduct impact assessment, monitoring activities, mid-evaluations and final evaluations that document how opportunities, results and impacts are distributed between women and men, girls and boys.
  • We offer design, research and evaluation services on the UNSCR 1325-agenda on Women, Peace and Security to ensure active participation of women in ending conflict and defining peace, as well as set up protection measures against gender-based violence.

Our approach

The principle of equality is integrated into everything that Scanteam does; our values, approach to work and the methodologies we use. Our approach is multi-dimensional, targeting the many factors that may contribute to inequality. Gender, therefore, is crosscutting.

Sound and sustainable management of our natural resources

 

Responsible management generates positive social and economic returns while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, minimising waste, and maintaining biodiversity and vital ecosystem functions and services.

 

Our Services

We support clients to identify better solutions for managing, utilising and protecting the natural resources and ecosystems.

  • Renewable resources

    We advise public and private actors, as well as civil society stakeholder, on how to manage and sustainable use the renewable resources. This has a rights-based focus to land, biodiversity and water, while at the same time giving attention to sustainable investments, value chains and market-based solutions. Scanteam conducts reviews, evaluation and development of programmes that promote sustainable livelihoods in multiple resource areas, such as forestry, agroforestry, fisheries, ocean-based industries.

  • Non-renewable resources

    We offer advice, evaluations and reviews of extractive sector issues, applying value-chain approaches to identifying governance and management improvements. Scanteam has carried out global evaluations of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Norway’s Oil for Development program, and carried out studies on ocean plastic pollution; promoting improved governance and solutions for better company-community relations.

  • Climate change and eco-system management.

    Scanteam evaluates climate change related programmes and advise on climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as climate finance mechanisms. We offer studies related to the complexity and interlinked topics of climate change, such as land and water management, disaster risk management, ocean management, carbon sequestration and REDD+, renewable energy, and food security.

Public Sector and Finance Management

 

Predictable framework conditions and good public financial management (PFM) are key to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. These remain challenging issues in many countries. To address these, Scanteam applies Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA), Political Economy Analysis (PEA) and other internationally recognised tools.

Our services

  • Public Sector Management: Improving Predictability

    Scanteam can support the analysis and implementation of public sector reforms; we have managed public sector reform processes; reviewed local authority and decentralisation policies: assessed governance in sectors such as oil and gas, and for private sector development.

  • PFM: Getting Core State Functions ‘Right’

    Scanteam can assist in the planning and implementation of PFM tasks; we have managed PFM reforms and taken part in PER and PEFA studies, fiduciary risk assessments and World Bank or IMF-led financial reviews; and evaluated a range of donor funding arrangements such as budget support. Scanteam consultants are short-listed by the World Bank as quality assurors for PEFA studies.

  • Health Sector Management: Addressing Health Outcomes

    Scanteam supports improved delivery of public health care services through research and writing of public health care policy and reform; improving monitoring and evaluation frameworks; providing capacity development through advice and training; and mainstream gender issues into health programmes, addressing gender equity concerns.

  • Accountability: Corruption in Context

    Scanteam applies vulnerability analyses along value or delivery chains to identify actors, issues and resources for better performance; has reviewed national anti-corruption bodies; and assessed anti-corruption measures for projects, programs and sectors.

  • Development Effectiveness: Putting External Resources to Best Use

    Scanteam has long experience with addressing development effectiveness through reviews and policy advice, including of various multi-actor mechanisms for better funds management in fragile- and conflict-affected situations, and with the design and evaluation of mechanisms for external funding coordination.

 

Responsible Business

Responsible Business Advisors (RBA) assists companies, policy- makers and multistakeholder initiatives promoting responsible business conduct in emerging markets and developing countries.

Our services include risk analysis, human rights due diligence, policy development, tailoring of tools and measures to reduce risks of human rights breaches as well as evaluations, reviews, studies and facilitation of collaborative processes.

Our work is guided by international standards, guidelines and legislation, like the Norwegian Transparency Act and EUs proposed Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence.
Our team consist of senior Scanteam partners and a network of external experts in a number of countries.

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Strengthening Governance

Scanteam Governance

 

Weaknesses in governance structures, practices and performance remain common challenges. Improving governance through greater transparency of decision making, more accountability for results, and fairer distribution of benefits, lie at the heart of Scanteam’s governance work.

Our services

  • Rethinking Governance: Collective Action and Social Contracts

    Local contexts require different approaches to building legitimate and lasting social contracts/ governance models. Building on local legitimacy structures yet addressing larger societal concerns may require hybrid constellations of private, public and civic actors. Scanteam has experience in analysing and facilitating the development of such approaches under differing circumstances.

  • Human, Indigenous, Minority and Labour Rights: Advocating Basics

    All societies face challenges in ensuring that all groups have a fair access to society’s benefits. Scanteam has experience in identifying solutions to competing claims by differing right-holder groups, whether this is in the public or private sectors.

  • Civil Society Development: Key for Democracy and Voice

    Civil society is expected to play a key role in societal development yet depend on political space and external resources for organisational growth and development. Scanteam partners have long experience working with non-state actors in the North and South, advising on achievable targets and strategies.

  • Democratic Transition: Challenging Processes

    The dissolution of the Soviet Union (peacefully), Yugoslavia (militarily), “the Arab Spring” all had unforeseen outcomes, yet some lessons can be applied to reduce dangers and enhance chances of success. Scanteam is involved in several processes, in partnerships with academic institutions and political actors, looking at how parties can improve chances of achieving their hoped-for objectives.