The Rapid Results Method in Burundi

“We are charting a new course, whose aim is to promote dynamic leadership, for we must meet the challenge of good governance. This means revitalizing the national company for production and distribution of electricity and water (or REGIDESO for Régie de Production et de Distribution d’Eau et d’Electricité), organizing it to meet criteria of excellence and taking concrete steps that involve all staff for the next three years.” Célestin Nduwamungu, Director General, REGIDESO.

In this unprecedented context, REGIDESO has identified the rapid result method (RRM) as the tool for executing its programs to reach its objectives. To enable our readers to understand the remainder of this article, we must broadly explain what the rapid result method involves.

Methodology

The rapid result method is a tool for implementing the programs and projects of various organizations: governments, businesses, non-governmental and civil-society organizations. The rapid result method basically focuses on obtaining development results, by mobilizing stakeholders ranging from political support, to the use of coaches (trainers) and other strategic partners.

The RRM is a work method based on an empowered team supported by a leader and determined to achieve a performance objective (measurable result) within a short time, averaging 100 days. But what is the process, and what are the stages, for this 100-day period?

The RRM process comprises the following five stages:

1. Choosing rapid result initiatives (RRIs) based on priorities and challenges identified by the leader and the leader’s sector of activity. These priorities are identified based on a policy framework. This framework may be a national growth and poverty reduction strategy paper (GPRSP), a ministry’s sectoral policy, or an annual work plan for a company such as REGIDESO.
2. Forming an RRI team, with a memorandum from the leader outlining the challenges. The leader empowers and is committed to supporting the team by finding solutions to problems encountered in implementing the RRI. The challenge memorandum mobilizes stakeholders, as it were, around a common SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) performance objective.
3. Developing a work plan that specifies milestones and activities leading to achievement of the result after 100 days. The coach continually energizes the process, to ensure that the team follows the work plan and stays focused on the result.
4. Mid-term evaluation on the 50th day, to evaluate the progress of RRIs toward their results, and to adjust the work plan accordingly.
5. Final evaluation on the 100th day, to measure the result achieved in terms of the rate of achievement and the time required, and to identify lessons learned from the RRI implementation process.

Application

REGIDESO has been experimenting with the RRM since 2008. Its first initiative aimed to reduce the billing period from 90 to 60 days. By the 100th day, REGIDESO had achieved and even exceeded the established goal. The billing period was reduced to 55 days. Today, REGIDESO manages a portfolio of 15 rapid result initiatives.

Using the RRM is appropriate for REGIDESO, which has decided to institutionalize it in all departments, so that it becomes a day-to-day work method, as the Director General wishes.

The method has also proved effective in implementing World Bank-funded projects in Burundi. Thus, in March 2010, REGIDESO and the World Bank decided to apply RRM to expedite the implementation of the multi-sectoral infrastructure, water, and electricity project funded by the World Bank, to double its project disbursement rate (from 10 percent to 20 percent), and to benefit from an added US$17 million as at June 3, 2010.

REGIDESO is only one of several entities that have applied RRM in Burundi throughout that country’s leadership capacity-building program. In this regard, in the very near future, on the AfCoP site, we will publish the 2006–2009 report on this nation-wide program.

Cyprien Mbonigaba is Burundi’s national RRM coach.

This article was initially posted in French here.