The overall objective of this assignment, which was implemented under the Malawi Agricultural Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp), was to conduct a functional analysis of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) in order to identify core functions for the Ministry to deliver and those to be outsourced, decentralized and delegated; and assess the impact, required capacity developments and associated risks in the delivery of services to the population.
Furthermore, the following aspects were covered by the Core Functional Analysis:

• Analysis of functions/roles which the Ministry’s technical departments were undertaking at the time and identify those that could more effectively and efficiently be carried out if outsourced to the private sector or CSOs, decentralized to districts or other sectors, and delegated to other sector actors.
• Assessment of the impact and risks of those functional changes (outsourced, decentralized and delegated) on the Ministry’s effectiveness (capacity to fulfil its strategies, service delivery, working relations, team work and staff morale) and came up with mitigation strategies for such risks.
• Recommendations for improvement and institutional reforms to be considered in the MoAIWD and other related sectors, for example, Industry and Trade, Local Government and Rural Development and Economic Planning and Development.
• Development of a concrete, realistic and distinct capacity development plan for the Ministry to ably manage the public, private sectors and community groups and deliver its core functions services effectively.

The functional review and institutional assessment used the approach developed by Particip for organisational reviews, which is based on the principles of Quality Management and the Balanced Scorecard approach.