Performance and Accountability Framework

Performance and Accountability Framework (PAF) was established at the request of private donor and Member States as a means for formalizing a clear set of accountability mechanisms and reporting processes.

The CERF secretariat, and by extension the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), uses the PAF to clarify performance expectations and management accountabilities among different actors. It will report according to the mechanisms established in the PAF.

Among other things, the PAF specifies three to five country-level reviews of CERF’s value added per year. The reviews are commissioned by the CERF secretariat and conducted by independent evaluation experts.

The purpose of PAF is to ensure that the flexibility and straightforward nature of the Fund is complemented by an appropriate level of transparency and accountability.

The PAF makes use of a logic model approach as a means of clarifying accountability and performance expectations around a set of agreed CERF outputs, outcomes and impacts.

The development of the PAF has helped to identify gaps in the information being collected, and to provide options for filling these gaps.

The PAF indicators are regularly reviewed and updated and the latest indicator set can be found here.

PAF Review

In 2013 the CERF secretariat commissioned an independent consultant to review the PAF.

The review took stock of over three years of experience in the PAF’s use and examined the extent to which the PAF meets the management requirements of the ERC and the CERF secretariat, information needs of donors to CERF, as well as whether agencies can readily comply with the provisions of the PAF through their own monitoring and evaluation systems.

The review also assessed whether, based on experience gained since the PAF was launched in 2010, the indicators outlined in the PAF are still the right ones.