Quality Management

The overall objective

Building synergies among EU donors in the field of quality assurance in order to provide better aid.

Foreseen results and activities

The Working Group is expected to identify 'best practice' in the following areas:

1.   knowledge management systems (including IT tools), to:

• exchange information on quality management methodologies and guidelines
• exchange experiences on best practice from projects/programmes financed by each EU donor;
• set up a structure to store documents on quality management and experiences and  raise awareness on their existence; and
• use this forum to consult the different participating organisations on the development/revision of quality related methodologies.

2.   in line with what is internationally recognised as the 'reference terminology' in particular OECD/DAC, exchange information on the terminology used in the field of quality management and ensure that quality managers understand the terminology in relation to the organisational structure in which it is applied;

3. quality aspects to be appraised focused on the different needs and requirements of:

• phase of the project/programme cycle (identification/formulation, implementation or ex post); and
• aid delivery modality (project approach, sector wide approach and budget support).

4.   exchange of information on results indicators (relevant and measurable) with a view to having them applied in a  coherent way.

• exchange of ad-hoc indicators; and
• set up a simple data base of best practices in terms of selection and follow-   up of indicators. 

Structure of the Group

Lead: EuropeAid (Mr. Nicolas Leroy)

Participants (tbc) : ADA (Austria), Irish Aid (Ireland), MFA of Italy, MFA of Latvia, PR of Malta to the EU, Centre for International Cooperation and Development (Slovenia), SIDA (Sweden), DFID (UK), Lux Développement (Luxembourg), EuropeAid