NCA's total turnover for the reporting period was approx. NOK 2.75 billion. Norad remains NCA’s single largest donor, although during the period NCA has diversified its funding sources decreasing Norad and MFA's share. For 2018, 18.3% (NOK 169 million) of NCA's annual turnover was from non-Norwegian grants, against a 14.8% baseline (2015). At the end of 2018, NCA managed 13 country representations, two regional offices and eight humanitarian operations. NCA also has a presence in an additional four countries through joint offices led by other Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance members.

Lasting Impact

The diverse contexts NCA works in are characterised by complexity, but also provided opportunities for impact. Between 2016-2018, NCA and partners made significant lasting contributions to communities’ health status as 6.2 million people gained access to safe water supply, and more than 1.3 million people improved their sanitary conditions. Organised civil society structures supported by NCA have played a key role in communities’ ability to resist, absorb and recover from climate change. To illustrate, more than 41,000 households adopted better agricultural practices. NCA and partners were also able to secure people’s rights to basic services such as water, health and education by enabling local community structures to hold governments accountable and ensure implementation of public projects.

True to its mandate, NCA continued to support the most poor and marginalised, with specific attention to the needs of women and youth. Working on both prevention of and response to gender-based violence, NCA and partners were able to change dominant social norms and provide 99,000 women and children with medical and psychosocial support and care. NCA and partners' focus to increase women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding produced results in challenging contexts (e.g. Afghanistan, Mali, Pakistan and South Sudan). Promoting a market-based approach, partners contributed to the establishment of 28,000 micro and small enterprises ensuring women and youth a viable livelihood. See our global programmes for a broader selection of results from NCA's six global programmes achieved.

Partnerships for Change

Partnering with civil society actors, including faith-based actors (FBAs), is NCA's main approach to fulfil its mandate. In the programme period 2016-2018, Strengthening Civil Society was a cross-cutting issue, addressed within each of the six global programmes. Through a tailored partner capacity development programme, NCA’s country offices have increased their core partner's capacity as civil society actors. NCA has also strengthened the vibrancy of civil society by equipping partners with the skills, outreach and networks needed to hold authorities accountable through contextually tailored advocacy initiatives. It has also increased coordination and cooperation with local and international members of the ACT Alliance, through national ACT forums and international arenas. The programme period witnessed an increased ability to partner with private sector actors for greater and more lasting change.

Innovation and Advancement in Digitalization

During the period, NCA has invested in more human resources dedicated to both innovation and digitalisation. Results from this investment include a digitalisation strategy launched in 2018, a portfolio of new digitalisation projects and a ‘Digi Board’ to govern implementation, and the development of an internal innovation fund set to be launched in Q3 2019. Results presented in the programme pages and on Results Based Management, demonstrate the uptake of these agendas in NCA’s programmes and system development over recent years.

NCA provides humanitarian assistance and works for long-term development. NCA work where needs are greatest, with no intention of influencing people’s religious affiliation. Through decades of work in varying contexts, NCA has developed partnerships and positive experiences together with people and organisations rooted in diverse religions and beliefs. In order to address the root causes of poverty, NCA and its partners advocate for just decisions by public authorities, businesses and religious leaders. Through these various working approaches, NCA contributes to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Committed to international ecumenical cooperation and development effectiveness, NCA is affiliated with the World Council of Churches and is a member of the ACT Alliance. The ACT Alliance is a coalition of churches and affiliated organisations working in over 140 countries. It was founded in 2010 to increase impact, coordination and learning among its members and to avoid duplication.

2018 was the penultimate year of NCA’s 2016-2019 cooperation agreement with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). In looking back at NCA’s experience over the past three years, key lessons learned were identified from the implementation of NCA’s global strategy, Faith in Action. NCA’s strategy envisions two long-term goals: Save Lives and Seek Justice, and NCA’s faith-based partners have a particular responsibility and potential to contribute towards achieving these goals. The results that NCA has achieved together with its partners during the reporting period have inspired the new programme framework for 2020-2030, and a selection of results and lessons learned are presented in the programme pages.

NCA implements programmes through civil society organisations that promote human rights and deliver crucial services to marginalised groups. NCA also develops the capacity of these organisations through programme implementation and targeted capacity development initiatives. This partnership approach ensures sustainability, greater impact and contextual relevance of NCA’s programmes. NCA also supports the efforts of its partners to open up political space for citizen engagement in governance and to use existing room to hold governments accountable to their constituencies.

Cost-efficiency

During 2016-2018, NCA’s efforts to utilise resources to improve its impact has produced results. Guided by the key performance indicators (KPI) institututionalised in 2016, progress on NCA’s cost-efficiency metrics continued in 2018, while maintaining programme quality.

• Partner portfolio reduced to 10-15 core partners per country programme.
  In 2018, zero NCA country offices had more than 15 core partners. Down from one in 2017.
• No projects with budgets under NOK 250,000.
  Only five Norad funded projects were below this threshold in 2018, comparted to six in 2017 and 19 in 2016.
• Maximum of four finance staff per CO.
  Most of NCA’s country offices have achieved this.
• No more than 30% of a country office’s Norad general grant can be used to finance the country office budget.
  All but two of NCA’s COs have achieved this. Same as the year before.
• Increased amount of Norad General funding transferred to partners.
  In 2018, NCA budgeted for 54% of Norad General funding to be transferred to partners. Actual expenditures show that 56% was transferred in 2018. This is an increase in two percentage points from 54% in 2017.

 

Innovation

To ensure NCA capitalises on opportunities to improve the efficiency and quality of its operations and programming, innovation and digitalisation have been on top of the Senior Management Team’s agenda in this period. Both were included in the 2018 revision of Faith in Action and have been part of annual organisational strategic goals to ensure top level leadership and roll out. NCA has invested in more human resources dedicated to both innovation and digitalisation. Results from this investment include a digitalisation strategy launched in 2018, a portfolio of new digitalisation projects and a ‘Digi Board’ to govern implementation, and the development of an internal innovation fund set to be launched in Q3 2019. NCA’s investment in the Humanitarian Innovation Platform (HIP) since 2017 has leveraged increased innovative thinking and understanding of innovation processes across member organisations including NCA. It has also equipped members with tools to manage innovation processes and provided a platform for joint advocacy on innovation and digitalisation, such as joint input to Norway’s Digital Strategy for Norwegian Development Policy. It has established an innovation community in Norway which has hosted annual humanitarian innovation days, represented HIP at national and international innovation and digitalisation events, and developed joint projects to respond to pressing sectorial problems such as the Innovation Norway funded Dignified ID (DIGID) in Cash Programming project. Results presented in the programme pages and Results Based Management, demonstrate the uptake of these agendas in NCA’s programmes and system development over recent years.

Incoming resources

In 2018, NCA's turnover was NOK 927 million, making the total for the whole period approx. NOK 2.75 billion. Norad remain NCA’s biggest single donor granting NOK 333 million in 2018. With a total grant of NOK 210 million, Norwegian Ministry Affairs (MFA) is NCA’s second largest funding source. Through the period NCA continued to diversify its funding sources in line with its commitment from 2016. For 2018, 18.3% (NOK 169 million) of NCA's annual turnover was from non-Norwegian grants, against a 14.8% baseline (2015). With NOK 161 million, funding from private donors represented approx. 17% of NCA's income.

Expenditure per programme