Table Colombia Challenge

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For decades the field of international development has had a patriarchal vision based on a development model that began in the wake of WWII. In the 1930s as the war came to an end, leading countries created organizations to help stabilize the international economic system and help rebuild Europe. Afterward, it was born the idea of development organizations going into developing countries to build an economy in a neo-colonial fashion. In the last couple of years, experts in the field have criticized the development aid system for fostering these patriarchal relationships with developing countries. For example, historically, aid contracts included policies that developed countries imposed on recipient-countries, or restrictions for governments to hire local suppliers with international development funds. Research demonstrates that the conditions highlighted previously create aid dependency and put local markets at a disadvantage.

The consultancy field on international development has been part of that broken system. For example, as part of aid agreements, international consultants from foreign aid establishments come into the recipient countries to structure and evaluate aid programming. Studies show that often using external human capital disconnects the purpose of aid with the local vision and context of the communities served. In the last couple of years, there has been exponential awareness to change the system. Currently, aid stakeholders are encouraged to empower communities by building in-country partnerships, bringing the voices of affected populations, and employing local human capital. This trend creates an opportunity for SINNOK to support the aid system from within in recipient Latin American countries - especially in ensuring that program design and evaluation are relevant and pertinent to the context.

Moreover, in 2015, the United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) setting the global development agenda. The SDGs address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, prosperity, and peace and justice. Worldwide there is an interest in achieving the SDGs by 2030, which encourages organizations to understand, measure, and improve the impact of their programming towards the SDGs targets. This circumstance also creates an opportunity for SINNOK to help organization on that end.

The current global trend of international development is a unique opportunity for local consultancy firms to become strategic players in the field. At SINNOK, we support organizations on structuring, evaluating, and boosting social impact initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. We have a high-qualified team of local consultants with in-depth knowledge of the context to provide meaningful, relevant, and comprehensive tools to structure and evaluate development programming implemented in the region. Moreover, for that purpose, we use differential methodologies that are utilization-focused, participatory, and community-based.

At SINNOK, we have experienced the movement of the development field towards building local partnerships. In the last couple of months, we have received expressions of interest from a variety of consulting firms to present proposals for regional or multi-country bids in Joint Venture. Some of these organizations include Ross Strategic (USA), SmartStart (USA), Improve Group (USA), Key Consulting (France), Decent Work International (Denmark), Strategy House (Denmark), LM Pakta (Australia), and Traidcraft Exchange (UK) among others.

Market Size and trends

According to the OECD, foreign aid from official donors totaled USD 146.6 billion in 2017, of which Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) received USD 8.6 billion (5.87%). In previous years, the LAC region received USD 10.2 billion (2015) and USD 11.3 billion (2016). Moreover, Colombia has been the second-largest recipient of official development assistance (ODA) in the LAC region with a share of 11% – Cuba holds the first position (13%).

We evidence a market opportunity for SINNOK due to two main reasons. First, as explained previously, there is a global trend to utilize local knowledge to structure and evaluate aid programming. And second, the LAC countries receive an annual average of USD 10 billion in ODA, which means developing aid programming is continuously being implemented in the region.

Moreover, establishing SINNOK operations in Bogota turns out to be strategic per Colombia’s location that connects Central America with South America. Also, Colombia has a vigorous aid ecosystem due to the peace agreement implementation and the Venezuela migratory crisis - which are two pressing issues of global interest.

Risks

Potential risks include:

• Decrease of development assistance funds - In 2017, 84.5% of the ODF for the LAC región came from five donor countries: United States (37.7%), Germany (19.2%), France (12.2%), United Kingdom (8.2%) and Canada (7.2%). Changes in the international development policy of these countries could have major changes in the aid market of Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Lack of regulation - Implementers of international development funds are often local nonprofits. Colombia doesn’t have a regulation of the nonprofit sector that hold them accountable for their impact. Research demonstrates that program evaluation is a valuable tool for program managers who are seeking to strengthen the quality of their programs and improve outcomes (Metz, 2017). Even though assessing program activities and measuring impact provides strategic information to enhance social impact programming, nonprofits do not have the “pressure” of doing it so. Thus, the accountability portion of programming relies on the will of organizations, or the interest of the donor.
• Cultural gap – After conducting several interviews with stakeholders in the social impact field (including nonprofits managers, corporate social responsibility staff, aid assistance managers among other,), there are common themes in regards to knowledge and cultural bias that could represent a market risk: (1) lack of knowledge on how evaluation is strategical and beneficial to their programming, (2) performance of monitoring and evaluation activities with insufficient organizational capacities, (3) negative connotation of "evaluation" which is often related to an audit decreasing organization's motivation and interest, (4) cultural identity is reactive rather than proactive, and (5) program evaluation, if any, is conducted as a matter of an accountability checklist but not as a tool to improve programming.
• Burden of due diligence – Often, a party that wants to hire the services of a company has to conduct due diligence and take complicated procurement processes to celebrate a B2B contract. Thus, it is common in the field of international development that rather than contracting with a company, organizations prefer to hire an independent consultant. For example, the World Bank hires nearly 4000 consultants for its worldwide projects. Thus, it is common that significant development organizations or consulting firms from Global North employ independent consultants to conduct the work locally in the Global South.

LOCAL AND REGIONAL COMPETITION

In Colombia, there is not a robust evaluation ecosystem, such as the one in the United States or Europe. The same situation occurs in Latin America and the Caribbean, positioning the region at a “newborn” stage in the evaluation market. The organizations that evaluate social programming in Colombia are mainly universities, who focus on measuring the effects of public policies and programming. Also, there are consulting firms such as J-PAL LAC and Econometria that provide quantitative evaluation services primarily to public institutions, or firms such as ID Social that are focused on structuring and management of social impact initiatives. Moreover, there are firms such as Sentido Comun, or La Tercera Mirada that provide services to social and environmental organizations using a participatory-approach. In addition, in Colombia, there is not a professionalization on the field, so often people who conduct “evaluation” are not specialized in it. Thus, evaluation activities, if any, are mostly performed in-house by staff members that lack the technical expertise and training to conduct program evaluation. As a consequence, the rugosity necessary to provide comprehensive and meaningful tools to improve social programming is dismissed.

At the regional level, as mentioned previously, development organizations commonly hire independent consultants to perform local fieldwork. Due to the lack of development of the evaluation field, locally and regionally, it is challenging to track competitors - there are no networks that allow to map them easily. There are small consulting firms that evaluate social initiatives here and there but there is not a big player in the region.

GLOBAL COMPETITION

As mentioned previously, the organizations that provide services on designing and evaluating social development initiatives are mainly from the United States and Western Europe. Among the big players, there are firms such as Chemonics, Deloitte, Tetratech, and MSI (Management Systems International). Their main competitive advantage is their relationship and experience with significant donor agencies like USAID and the World Bank group.

IP PROTECTION

There are no particular concerns about IP protection. Some competitors might have their framework based on open-source design and evaluation tools.  SINNOK as a firm does not have a framework yet but instead use the knowledge and experience of consultants to design and evaluate social impact initiatives on a one-one basis.

Program evaluation has been performed since the late 1700s. However, its historical development is difficult to describe due to its informal utilization for thousands of years (R. Lance Hogan, 2007). Program evaluation wasn’t considered as a discipline until the end of the 20th century. However, in the past couple of decades, the evaluation field has matured, especially in North America and Western Europe. In those contexts, multiple government, nonprofit, and international development organizations* conduct program evaluation widely to ensure that social and development programs are accomplishing their intended purpose. There are thousands of articles that demonstrate how program evaluation contributes to the improvement of social development programming. However, in Latin American countries, the field has not been explored in-depth yet.

*Such as the United Nations and the World Bank group

The business model at SINNOK consists of helping organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean on structuring and evaluating social impact initiatives through a community-based and utilization-focused approach. Our services would help managers and decision-makers on strengthening the quality of their programs, improve outcomes, and measure their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. We focus on bringing the voices of program stakeholders and beneficiaries to the table and using quantitative and qualitative methods that help clients understand the strengths and challenges of their programming thoroughly. We count with a high-qualified team of local consultants with in-depth knowledge of the context to provide meaningful, relevant, and comprehensive tools to structure and evaluate development programming implemented in the region.

In the consultancy field, clients often have challenges to implement consultancy findings once the consultancy job comes to an end. Thus, to foster our customer relationship, we offer free post-consulting support. Additionally, our clients might prefer to manage particular evaluation processes in-house. Hence, through our consultancy work, we make sure to build institutional capacity so that staff members gain knowledge to conduct specific evaluation activities themselves.

For our go-to-market strategy, we would like to attract our potential customers using inbound marketing and word-of-mouth. We acknowledge that there is a lack of awareness and knowledge of program evaluation and its benefits for social impact programming. Thus, we want to use inbound marketing to attract clients through informational content in our social networks (especially LinkedIn) that creates awareness and brand recognition. Moreover, we want to be a reference in the development market for conducting program design and evaluation in the region. Thus, we dedicate efforts to networking activities and attending conferences and events related to the social impact field as a platform to build reputation and foster word-of-mouth. In the future, we would also like to conduct a public relations strategy. Finally, submitting proposals in joint venture with North American and Western Europe firms increase our likelihood to obtain contracts from major development players. Thus, we are fostering relationships with international consultancy firms for potential projects.

Business Model Canvas

Key partners: Evaluation networks, nonprofit networks, corporate social responsibility networks, international development networks, international development consultancy firms and embassies.

Key activities: Program design, program evaluation, and community training and learning

Key Resources: Human capital (consultants) and website.

Value propositions: Community-based approach, utilization-focused processes, participatory methods, technical expertise, methodological rigor, and local consultants.

Customer Relationships: Free post-consulting support, institutional capacity building, personalized consulting services

Channels: Website, word of mouth, conferences, and networking events

Customer segments: Nonprofits, international development organizations, consultancy firms, corporate social responsibility programs

Key Performance Indicators

COP revenues, COP and % profits, MoM growth in revenues, # of partnership contracts, # of potential client visits/calls, # of networking meetings, # of proposals gained/submitted, # of conferences and events attended, client satisfaction. We consider these are KPIs that are important to measure but we haven’t found a way to track them efficiency – we are currently keeping record in an excel sheet and often forget to put all the corresponding information in the sheet.

Maria Camila Villarraga – SINNOK Founder and Consultant (Unique Owner)

Industrial Engineer (Universidad de los Andes)

Master of Development Practice (University of Minnesota)

Over eight years of combined experience in the fields of program evaluation and financial management in Latin America and the United States. She has worked in program design and evaluation for non-profit organizations, government agencies, and consultancy firms worldwide. She provides comprehensive resources to maximize results, accelerate progress, and develop knowledge through participatory and community-based approaches.

Andrea Martinez – SINNOK Consultant

Political Science and International Relations (CIDE México)

Master in Human Rights (University of Minnesota)

Human rights professional, with over seven years of experience in the field. She has worked in building organizational capacity and managing multiple relationships with stakeholders on politically sensitive issues.

Lina Duarte - SINNOK Consultant

Literature (Universidad de los Andes)

Certificate in Design Management (Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano)

Seven years of professional experience in editing and qualitative research. In her work, she interrelates and synthesizes blocks of information to identify patterns and propose solutions that benefit communities. She mainly uses design methodologies with a participatory approach.

Lily Osborne – SINNOK Consultant

Political Science (Gonzaga University)

Master of Development Practice (University of Minnesota)

Multisectoral professional with nine years of experience in the design and management of social and environmental impact projects of corporations, foundations, non-profit organizations, and public institutions.

Melanie Aleman – SINNOK Consultant

Public Communications (Loyola University New Orleans)

Master of Development Practice (Emory University)

Over nine years of combined experience in the fields of public communication, sustainability, environmental conservation, and community development. She has supported projects that focus on promoting sustainable livelihoods and environments, human rights, and social enterprises that have a local focus and a global impact.

Camilo Casallas – SINNOK Consultant

Literature (Universidad de los Andes)

Master on Creative Writing (Universidad Nacional)

Six years of experience in editing and content creation. He seeks to understand political, cultural, and ecological realities of Colombia and Latin America using tools such as creative writing, digital content, and data visualization.

Founded in January 2019, SINNOK dedicated the first months of work on the website design, market research, validating the business model, and understanding the market niche. In the last couple of months, we have been working on networking, relationship building and presenting proposals to potential clients (ACDI/VOCA, Semana Rural, Fundación Soy Doy, Fundación Red Fútbol, Fundación Smurfit Kappa, Fundación Corona, Switzerland State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Key Aid Consulting, International Federation Red Cross, Pacto Global among others.)

As an organization, SINNOK hasn’t had any revenues yet. However, Maria Camila (founder) has conducted some independent consultancy with IMPAQ International - an American consultancy firm - to evaluate USDOL (United States Department of Labor) programming in Colombia. Those contracts are valued on approximately US 20,000 corresponding to 60 days of consulting services.

Based on this information, we forecast the following revenues, profits, and capital needs:

Year 1

Revenues: US$ 5,000

Profits: US$ 1,000

Capital needs: US$5,000 (website and administrative systems and software)

Milestones to reach: First paid contract with a local organization, the start of inbound marketing strategy, connect with 50 international partners, reach out to 100 potential clients, and settle at least US$5,000 in contracts.

Year 2

Revenues: US$ 25,000

Profits: US$ 5,000

Capital needs: US$5,000 (evaluation software)

Milestones to reach: Consolidate the inbound marketing strategy, build recognition in Colombia for program design and evaluation of development and SDGs initiatives, connect with 50 international partners and with the main international development agencies, reach out to 400 potential clients and settle at least US$25,000 in contracts.

Year 3

Revenues: US$ 60,000

Profits: US$ 12,000

Capital needs: US$15,000 (IT)

Milestones to reach: Obtain recognition in the region for program design and evaluation of development and SDGs initiatives, start building a network of evaluators for LAC region, connect with 100 international partners, establish 10 partnerships with the main international development agencies, settle at least a worth of US$60,000 in contracts.

SINNOK has an impact in my community a variety of angles:

Strengthening social programming – Program design and evaluation allows organizational decision-makers and stakeholders to ensure that programs are accomplishing their intended purpose by assessing their processes, procedures, and outcomes (intended and unintended). Thus, through the services provided at SINNOK organizations will be able to have timely information to improve their programming and create a greater social and environmental impact in the communities served.

Create organizational capacity – At SINNOK, we are interested in building in-house capabilities in organizations to conduct evaluation activities competently. Through organizational capacity on assessing social impact programming, we are equipping staff with the skills and tools to leverage accountability, accelerate progress, and build knowledge within their organizations.

Evidence for funding - To access to additional funding it is essential that social organizations demonstrate with evidence the impact of their programming. Through SINNOK services, organizations will be able to have relevant information about their impact which could help them gain additional funding to scale their programming.

Consolidating the local evaluation network – In Latin America, there are modest initiatives to create a regional evaluation network. As early-stage efforts, these regional professional networks are still in the process of consolidating and gain recognition in the development field (i.e., CLEAR-LAC, ReLAC, RedLACME). On the other hand, in Colombia, there is no network for monitoring and evaluation professionals. Through SINNOK, we will partner with the regional evaluation networks and be pioneers on creating opportunities to exchange knowledge and practices in the evaluation field locally. As we expand in different countries, we hope to foster these opportunities regionally as well. Moreover, we would like to support the consolidation of a regional and local evaluation network for recruiting and networking purposes.