Technical Services » Strategic Consulting

Futures Group’s work in strategic consulting spans

  • Donor Coordination and Harmonization
  • Management Consulting
  • Strategic Planning
  • Systems Design
  • Technical Assistance

These services are described in more detail below.

Donor Coordination and Harmonization

Alignment, ownership, accountability and harmonization are the underpinnings of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. To achieve these objectives and ensure that the ultimate goal of improved service delivery is met, government resolve and national leadership must be strengthened. Futures Group is helping to improve donor coordination and program harmonization, and build more sustainable and equitable national health systems by strengthening the stewardship function of government, improving resource use, and empowering civil society.

On the DFID-GF China HIV and AIDS Project, we support the government to improve national coordination mechanisms and integrate vertical HIV activities under the wider health system umbrella. In Malawi, Futures Group supports the national NGO Banja la Mtsogolo and its harmonized funding partners—the Ministry of Health, DFID, Norway, World Bank, the National AIDS Commission, UNFPA, and Marie Stopes International—to design long-term prevention and service delivery activities that are fully aligned within the health sector-wide approach. Through these and other projects, Futures Group is improving donor coordination, and ensuring the effective scale-up of primary health care and integration of vertical systems in national health systems.

Management Consulting

To produce long-term results, improving the management performance of national organizations is critical. Futures Group works with national and international organizations in a facilitative way to develop results-oriented strategies, plan for current and future challenges, and build overall management capacity. Specific services we provide include conducting human resource reviews, providing organizational planning services, helping build recruitment capacity, and building financial competence.

Futures Group has provided extensive management consulting on a number of its DFID, EC, and USAID projects. For example, on the DFID HIV and AIDS Project in Kenya (2003-2008), we played the lead role in restructuring the National AIDS Control Council by conducting an extensive human resource review, helping recruit senior and middle management, and training staff in managing fiduciary risk and human resources. As a result of these efforts, the National AIDS Control Council’s credibility and capacity to efficiently coordinate the national response to HIV and AIDS has been vitally enhanced.

Strategic Planning

Developing successful strategic plans requires stakeholders jointly framing the right questions and identifying critical issues in health systems and programs. Futures Group facilitates this process and helps governments to plan and develop policies that enable better health outcomes for the longer-term by addressing regulatory frameworks, improving resource availability, analyzing barriers to service delivery, and improving community involvement.

On the USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1, Futures Group is assisting over 15 countries to strategically plan, prioritize, and adopt policies that improve equitable and affordable access to high-quality services and information; improve allocation of resources in health; and establish multisectoral partnerships to design and implement successful health programs and activities. On this project and others, Futures Group recognizes the fundamental importance of quantitative and qualitative data in formulating strategic decisions and considers “real-world” issues such as gender and stigma in addition to operative political, economic, and cultural factors.

Systems Design

Under the AIDSRelief project, a PEPFAR initiative, Futures Group has designed and implemented nationally-recognized electronic patient monitoring and management systems to meet country, donor, and clinic requirements. We build and strengthen monitoring and evaluation capacity at medical clinics to collect, manage, and analyze strategic information using both paper-based and electronic patient monitoring systems.

To date, we have helped to establish longitudinal paper records at 244 clinics in nine countries that meet the standards established by the local governments. AIDSRelief has taken an iterative approach and the paper-based system changes to meet the needs of the clinics. Facilitated by Futures Group, and in collaboration with other consortium members, clinics are using patient management tools to improve patient care and program management.

Futures Group has developed three main informatics solutions to meet and support the needs of the clinics. Collectively, these tools are known as IQSolutions and consist of IQCare, IQChart, and IQTools. IQCare is a robust and comprehensive data capture and reporting system with patient management tools designed to measure patient outcomes. IQCare helps clinics collect and make use of accurate longitudinal patient data and is currently in use at over 100 clinics in four countries—including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Technical Assistance

Through our technical assistance operations, Futures Group implements projects at global and country levels that improve the institutional capabilities of governments and private sector institutions, formulate reproductive health policies, promote the transfer of health data, and foster regional cooperation.

As a direct result of our technical assistance provided under the USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1 and the POLICY I and II projects, many of the leading HIV advocacy groups in Kenya have been formed and strengthened including, but not limited to, NEPHAK, KENEPOTE, and KENERELA+. Our strengthening of people living with HIV networks and community service organizations has increased their visibility, enhanced recognition of the rights of people living with HIV and other vulnerable populations, and has led to the representation of people living with HIV networks on all of Kenyan National AIDS Control Council’s key committees and task forces.

In India, for the Innovations in Family Planning Services II Technical Assistance Project (ITAP), Futures Group developed state health and population policies in Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, where we reviewed the current situation of TB programs, identified a new set of objectives, and suggested future strategies to improve program effectiveness. Under the PEPFAR initiative, AIDSRelief project, we provide technical assistance to facilitate the development and implementation of a data management system that responds to the needs of physicians, hospital administrators, U.S. government/donors, and project needs. Through technical assistance, and the application of continuous quality assurance, Futures Group builds capacity in compiling required indicators while also promoting data use culture at clinics.