About the Hewlett Foundation’s TPA strategy 2015–2020
The Hewlett Foundation has supported government transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) interventions in lower-middle income countries since its Global Development program began in 2005.
The first decade of TPA grantmaking focused on advancing global norms of governmental transparency, especially about revenue, budgets, expenditures, and contracts with mining and oil companies. Two program officers based in California focused on global grantmaking and two program officers in Mexico City focused on advancing the TPA agenda in Mexico.
By 2015, the Mexico City office had closed and the portfolio of Mexican grantee organisations was incorporated into a refreshed global strategy, which was released in December, 2015.
The new grantmaking strategy shifted emphasis from advocating for disclosure of information, to learning about (1) how civil society, policymakers, and journalists use government information to improve public service delivery, and (2) which channels are most effective for citizens to engage with government to address their needs and problems with public services.
Throughout 2016 and 2017, the foundation consulted with members of the TPA field to develop more detailed approaches to pursue the new strategy and guide our grantmaking.
Five years had passed since the foundation’s last strategy refresh in 2015 and it was time again to reflect intentionally on what has been learned along the way, how the context has changed, and whether/how to adapt.
Theory of change
The Hewlett Foundation’s 2015–2020 TPA grantmaking strategy’s ultimate aim or outcome was for citizens to have improved quality of life supported by improved and high-quality public services.
Improved public services rely on increased government responsiveness, and this demands greater transparency, participation and accountability.
The Hewlett Foundation theorises that government accountability is enabled by government transparency and citizen participation. When civil society, citizens and media have access to information and ways of participating with their government, then they are able to hold their government to account, which reinforces or supports better public service quality.
To advance this ultimate outcome, the Hewlett Foundation supported grantmaking in four immediate outcome areas, referred to in the TPA strategy as ‘grantmaking activity areas’ in the theory of change.
The TPA theory of change was created with ITAD as part of a formative evaluation in 2017.
Four sub-strategies
In 2016, the foundation organised the portfolio of TPA grantees into four sub-strategies. The evaluation team sampled grantees across the four sub-strategies which is expanded on in the following chapter on the evaluation methodology and approach.
1. Fiscal governance objectives: (1) To promote effective country-level implementation of international norms, standards, and processes as well as national policies that foster greater government transparency and responsiveness. (2) To create and reinforce an environment that minimizes the outflow of tax revenues and enhances integrity in public financial management.
2. Governance channels objectives: To support research, innovation and advocacy that strengthen the effectiveness and inclusiveness of new and existing channels for citizens, media and civil society to help governments improve the delivery of public services.
3. Service delivery monitoring objectives: To contribute to a more equitable and better-quality services in health, education, water and sanitation, especially for women, girls, lower income groups, and other marginalised sectors of society.
4. Field learning objectives: To support learning that advocates, practitioners, and policymakers can use to increase transparency, participation, and accountability between governments and their citizens to improve the delivery of public services like water, health, and education
- Go to About the evaluation
- Go to Outcomes and impact
- Go to Strategy implementation
- Go back to the beginning
