Organizational review of Digni

Digni is a diaconal umbrella organization for 19 Norwegian Christian faith-based organizations, churches and mission agencies that are engaged in development cooperation projects world-wide. Norad has supported Digni since it was created and the most recent grant covers the period May 2018 to April 2023. Digni, its member organizations (MOs) and partner organizations are in the process of developing new projects to be part of a Norad-application to be submitted in October 2022. As part of Norad’s management of the grant agreement, Norad periodically performs organizational reviews.

The purpose of this organizational review was to assess the extent to which Digni has complied with Norad’s requirements in the grant agreement and to identify issues that need addressing during the next grant agreement period beginning in 2023.

The review was focused on Digni and included analysis of the MOs’ and partner organizations’ compliance with the relevant requirements of the Norad-Digni cooperation agreement. The organizational review covered the following aspects: Organizational structure; Governance; Cost efficiency; Financial management; Results management; Partnerships, and Responsiveness. According to Norad’s ToR, specific attention was given to the following aspects:
• Digni’s role towards Norad and the MOs;
• Digni’s governance structure and membership criteria;
• Digni’s and its MOs’ implementation of procedures for preventing, revealing, handling, and following up and learning from financial irregularities;
• Implementation of recommendations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 19 from the 2019 Review of Digni’s Financial Management System;
• The usefulness and effectiveness of Digni’s GRF and the new PAT for gathering and presenting results data and informing and guiding planning, monitoring and learning, and;
• How MOs choose their partners.