Review of grant-aided institutions in Zambia

Grant-aided institutions represent a significant cadre of public organisations in Zambia. This project aims to review the modalities used to execute and finance the public functions undertaken by these institutions. It is a response to a request from the Budget Office under the Ministry of Finance to review and assess the cost-effectiveness and appropriateness of the current institutional arrangements.

This study seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• Develop a typology of grant-aided institutions in Zambia.
• For each grouping, assess whether the functions could be undertaken by the private sector.
• For the grouping that should remain in the public sector, evaluate how institutional arrangements can be improved to ensure accountability and cost-effectiveness.
• Develop practical recommendations for the largest 3 on how these reforms could be implemented.

For this project, primary data will be collected from public institutions using a standard set questionnaire. The questionnaire has a provision for financial data that ranges from 2013 to 2017. Included in the questionnaire is a section on monitoring and evaluation of the institution. The project will provide specific reform recommendations to ensure the functions that are undertaken by grant-aided institutions are done in a cost-effective and accountable manner.