All tools are designed to work together
Countries can select the tools that best meet their needs
Countries can apply ISPA tools periodically to track performance over time
ISPA tools are free & publicly available
Each tool falls into 1 of 3 categories:
What does an ISPA tool include
“What Matters” Guidance
- Lays technical foundation for assessment
- Provides good practices from international experience
- Provides instructions to gather information
- Describes how the assessment is organized
Questionnaire
- Gathers qualitative and quantitative information
Assessment Matrix
- Assesses against the agreed criteria on a four point scale
Country Report
- Presents the findings
- Highlights strengths and weaknesses in relation
to good international practice - Summarizes complex landscape of policies and institutions
- Provide policy options to be used as jumping off point
for future dialogue between stakeholders
Implementation Guidelines
- Outlines the process of application of ISPA tools from start to completion
ISPA ASSESSMENTS PROVIDE
An analysis of the state of the country’s social protection SYSTEM, a particular PROGRAM, or DELIVERY aspect.
Entry points on how to improve and strengthen social protection in your country.
Lessons for other countries to learn from about how to analyze and develop their social protection system.
Quality Assurance
All official ISPA products go through a rigorous quality assurance process at various steps in the implementation in order to ensure: technically sound results and credible findings as well as a standardized implementation process and methodology that allows for comparability of results over time.
Quality assurance protocols are applied to
- The terms of reference for the Assessment team that will carry out the in-country application of the ISPA tool(s),
- The overall ISPA implementation process and
- The country report produced by the Assessment Team (AT).
There is also a quality assurance protocol for ISPA tool development.
Only if the content and process of the ISPA assessment satisfies all the criteria in the first three protocols, will the ISPA Coordination Team formally endorse ISPA country reports by means of:
- Issuing a statement to the lead agency that the report is the end result of an ISPA assessment process that has met the ISPA quality assurance criteria;
- Authorizing the use of the ISPA logo on the report’s front page while displaying on the ISPA website the exact requirements for obtaining this stamp/logo.
- Prominently marking reports that have obtained process endorsement, which includes posting on the ISPA website with links to published report in the assessment database, on the status list of ISPA assessments (finalized).
How are ISPA tools applied
Contact
an ISPA Agency
Preparation
for ISPA Assessment
Data
Information and Collection
Assessment
Country Report
Policy Dialogue
Getting started with an ISPA assessment
ISPA tools may be implemented in three different forms:
Self Assessment – A Government may decide to complete an assessment on its own.
Demand-Driven – A Government may contact any of the international agencies involved in the ISPA initiative and request support for the application of tools.
Supply-Driven – A development partner may propose to support a government in implementing a particular tool.