The manual that follows was prepared by Geert Balzer and Uwe Jens Nagel at the request of the Technical Advisory Committee of the CGIAR (TAC). It aims to help CGIAR centers with the introduction of the logframe approach, in particular, those centers new to logframes. Balzer and Nagel were involved from the beginning in the preparation, vetting, and testing of the CGIAR logframe and, beyond that, have a considerable experience with management systems in a number of environments.
Rather than providing formal guidelines, the manual is intended to assist centres to implement the framework. It calls attention to a logframe's contribution to transparency and credibility and notes its compatibility with such critical management tools as planning, budgeting, reporting, human resource management including performance evaluation, monitoring, and impact assessment. It goes on to offer examples of the various concepts employed and lays out a critical path approach to constructing and introducing a center logframe. Not only will the manual help centers to bring the format into play, but it will promote comparability and consistency among the centers and between the center and System formats. An earlier version of the manual was field tested at ILRI, then initiating a strong move to more fully incorporate the logframe approach. Staff of IPGRI and ICLARM also provided useful comments on an earlier draft.
As Balzer and Nagel make quite clear, the manual, indeed the entire logframe whose introduction it supports, is at best seen as a work in progress, constantly adapting to experience and to new circumstances. What remains constant is the concept of a contribution to management through systematic emphasis on the need for: specific objectives tied to the requirements of identified clients, a perception of the external environment, clear connections between activities and objectives, and formal monitoring of progress and impact.
Those involved in the effort trust that you will find the manual useful and hope that you will help improve it by sending comments to Geert Balzer ([email protected]), Uwe Nagel ([email protected]) and Guido Gryseels at the TAC Secretariat ([email protected]).
Don Winkelmann
TAC Chair
