Technical Services » Program Management

Futures Group has a long history of providing effective program management services, including

  • Project Management
  • Grants Management
  • Technical Program Design and Implementation
  • Managing Demand-Led Technical Support

These services are described in more detail below.

Project Management

Producing sustainable results requires effective management at each stage of the project lifecycle: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and close-out. For over 35 years, Futures Group has built up extensive experience in project management by successfully overseeing the start-up, implementation, and completion of 800-plus contracts, subcontracts, and cooperative agreements in over 100 countries. Futures Group is managing projects in over 25 countries for various multilateral and bilateral donors and health foundations.

Futures Group employs a dynamic approach to project management which incorporates the latest in knowledge and risk management into proven operational and financial reporting procedures and a robust contract management system. Frequent client communication is emphasized and our systems ensure an efficient flow of results and financial information between field offices, headquarters, and clients. We have dedicated field- and headquarter-based technical leads on each of our projects who provide quality assurance, undertake progress reviews, and regularly provide feedback to clients and stakeholders. In crisis and fragile environments, we create positive impact by adapting these established management practices to meet the unique needs of sensitive contexts. This flexible approach to project management contributes to Futures Group’s continued success in winning new contracts with clients.

Grants Management

Grant financing is an important means of contributing to local capacity and to the positive net resource transfers of donors. Futures Group uses well-established mechanisms to issue, monitor, and evaluate grants, and works closely with grantees to ensure capacity in financial management and fiscal responsibility is built by providing training on headquarter-field cost-control tools that aid in grant monitoring and link expenditure to specific deliverables.

In 2008, we issued over US$1.4 million in grants and have disbursed US$8.5 million over the past decade. On the USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1, we disburse an average of US$100,000 per year in small grants. Over the life of the project, we expect to disburse $500,000 as small grants.

On the POLICY II Project, the precursor to the Health Policy Initiative, we awarded 211 grants to non-governmental organizations, community organizations and faith-based organizations throughout Africa and Asia. On the DFID HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project in Kenya, we disbursed US$19.6 million in grants to civil society. In Nigeria, under the ENHANSE Project, we awarded 20 grants ranging from US$10,000 to US$60,000 in size.

By maintaining its strong grant management and grant capacity building activities, Futures Group ensures partners in developing countries are receiving and utilizing funds—effectively producing more sustainable results.

Technical Program Design and Implementation

Futures Group understands that program design and implementation that seeks to strengthen health programs are best led by local technical experts.

Under the POLICY Project we successfully put into practice an organizational model designed to build local capacity to guide and sustain policy change. Once a project office was established, POLICY began the process of devolving technical responsibilities for program design, implementation, and management to the local staff. Over time, POLICY devolved key project functions to the recipient countries and delegated authority for program design and implementation to local POLICY staff. Local country directors became the main project implementers in the field and were responsible for the majority of field support programs.

Supported by U.S.-based experts and managers, project operations shifted to the countries. Country management oversaw all aspects of local activities, including interactions with clients, program design, technical implementation, and local operations. We created a cadre of expert country directors and local staff to lead design, implementation and sustain policy change at the country level.

Today we employ this model with all of our program design and implementation. The empowerment of local directors and their staff plays a major role in the success of our projects and in the types, quality, and numbers of results achieved.

Managing Demand-Led Technical Support

Providing effective technical support requires that country-specific needs are met through locally appropriate solutions. Futures Group works hand in hand with clients to develop tailored solutions and supplies, manages, and provides quality assured short- and long-term technical assistance.

We ensure that our staff and consultants who provide the technical support are fully qualified to deliver locally relevant support. For example, on the DFID-funded HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project in Kenya, we simultaneously helped to develop the government’s institutional capacity to manage the strategic implementation and scale-up of the national response to HIV/AIDS while supporting quick and effective on-the-ground technical assistance projects focused on the most vulnerable populations. Similarly in China, with DFID funding we have established a technical support unit (TSU) to help develop China’s capacity to provide effective technical assistance for improved HIV/AIDS prevention and care.

Under the recently awarded, DFID-sponsored Technical Assistance Support Team (TAST) for the National AIDS Control Organization, Futures Group is providing technical assistance and management support to the India National AIDS Control Organization, National AIDS Control Programmes, and selected State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies. Demand-led technical support will strengthen capacity, facilitate policy formulation, and guide implementation to enable a decentralized response to HIV and AIDS focused on context-specific needs.

Futures Group’s technical assistance services are easily and rapidly accessed through a number of our indefinite quantity contracts (IQCs). For example, USAID/Washington and its missions can draw on our technical assistance through the USAID | Health Policy Initiative IQC and Project Supporting Evaluation and Research to Combat HIV/AIDS (SEARCH) IQC. On our IQC with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for Global Fund local fund agent task orders, we provide health expertise and monitoring and evaluation services through short assignments in a number of countries to compliment PwC’s financial oversight. Lastly, on the PEPFAR Grant Management Solutions Partnership, Futures Group manages short-term technical assistance assignments that provide governance, grant and financial management, and monitoring and evaluation services to country coordinating mechanisms through task orders issued through the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.