September 2007

Glossary of terms
frequently used in SNV

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Actor
An actor is a person who acts and gets things done. SNV defines actors as
organisations, groups, networks or individuals that are related to a specific area
of work (such as a specific value chain or basic service sector).

Actor constellation 
An actor constellation is a grouping of interrelated actors that are involved in or linked
to a specific area of work. Together such actors and the diverse interactions that occur
between them can be viewed as a system.

Actor constellation map

An actor constellation map is a graphical representation of actors in a specific
constellation and the various connections and interrelationships between them. The
objective is to have an accessible, well organised and contextualised overview of
relevant actors in a given area of work and their interrelationships including with SNV.
An actor constellation map also includes a brief description of the dynamics of, and
between, actors. The actor constellation map is thoroughly reviewed once a year.

Advisor
An advisor is a person who provides advisory services to a single actor or multiple actors
to equip them with the skills needed to formulate development goals and to achieve
them. A SNV advisor can also have activities in the other three delivery channels.

Advisory services
Advisory services is one of the four delivery channels of SNV.
Advisory services entails the provision of professional advice to individual actors or
multiple actors to assist them in their efforts to continuously improve their performance
in specific areas of endeavour. Advisory services embrace a range of working forms,
including for example advice, process facilitation, brokering of relations, execution of
pilot projects, training and coaching.

Advocacy
Advocacy is one of the four delivery channels of SNV.
In SNVs practice advocacy entails the use of information, communication, lobbying and
awareness-raising to influence the thinking, decisions and actions of key national and
international players in favour of making effective investments in local capacity
development for impact. SNVs advocacy efforts are explicitly focused on contributing
towards poverty reduction in the specific sectors and value chains it is involved in, as
well as towards strengthening the quality of, and enabling environment for, local
capacity development in general.

Assignment
SNVs capacity development work across its four delivery channels is done through
assignments. An assignment is a set of directly connected activities designed to address
a specific need of a client or a group of clients. Each assignment is designed to achieve
specific objectives and to contribute towards the strengthening of specific capabilities.
Assignments are organised in time units of days, weeks or months (up to a maximum
of one year). In the case of a longer assignment (4 months or more) it is advisable to
make an assignment plan that includes milestones and monitoring moments to enable
both SNV and its clients to monitor progress.

Assignment agreement
An assignment agreement is a contract between SNV and one or more of its clients.
It formalises the expected results, content, terms and conditions, division of tasks,
responsibilities and resources needed for conducting an assignment.
 Please note that terms printed in italics are defined elsewhere in this glossary
 Several other terms have been coined including stakeholder map (which would confine it to stakeholders only) or
network (which suggests a relationship between the actors). SNV needs a broader concept that captures actors
that do not necessarily have a relationship with SNV or even with each other.

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Basic Services
Basic services include the delivery of safe water, sanitation, waste management, social
welfare, transport and communications facilities, energy, health and emergency
services, schools, public safety, and the management of public spaces. The lack of
adequate basic services exacts a heavy toll on human health, productivity and the
quality of life.

BASE Impact Area

Access to Basic Services (BASE) is one of the two impact areas in which SNV has
chosen to focus its efforts. Within this impact area SNV concentrates on four sectors,
namely education, water & sanitation, health and renewable energy.

Capacity
Capacity is the power of a human system (be it an individual, organisation, network of
actors or a larger system such as a sector) to perform, sustain itself and self-renew in
the face of real-life challenges. Capacity is not a specific ingredient, but an emergent
property of a human system. It is usually determined by a combination of factors.
There are various ways of specifying dimensions or elements of capacity. For example,
the ability to self-organise and act, the ability to produce results, the ability to learn
and adjust, the ability to maintain relations and operating space and the ability to come
together and direct.

Capacity development
Capacity development (or building) is the deliberate effort to increase a human
systems capacity to perform, sustain and renew itself.
In SNVs practice capacity development usually combines elements of empowerment of
actors concerned, and improving their delivery of development results (poverty
alleviation and improved governance). As such capacity development is not valueneutral but involves changes in relationships within the social, political and economic
realm. Capacity development can address a range of levels including individuals,
organizations, and institutions.

Capacity development services

SNV distinguishes between four categories of capacity development services:
diagnosis and learning
organisational development
inter-organisational development and partnership building
institutional change
In the near future, this logic will be refined and applied, as appropriate, across the four
delivery channels.

Client
A client is an actor or group of actors to whom SNV provides advisory or knowledge
brokering services on the basis of a contract. The contract can be a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) or an Assignment Agreement.

Client engagement
Client engagement is the process through which a potential client expresses demand
for capacity development services from SNV and in which both parties reach agreement
on the terms and conditions that will govern their relationship. In most cases, once an
actor, or group of actors, has been identified as a potential client, the following steps
are taken as part of the engagement process:
Selection
Developing a shared vision
Diagnosis
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding

 Engel and Morgan

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Client selection document

A client selection document justifies the selection of (a) specific client(s).
It lists all the selection criteria and guides portfolios through the process of:
Selecting promising local actors for capacity development;
Formulating a valid and convincing justification for the selection of a specific actor(s)
and articulating how the relationship will contribute to the envisaged impact;
Establishing a baseline for the capacity development effort that will follow.

Corporate trajectories
Corporate trajectories are all activities aimed at contributing to the continued
development of SNV practices and institutional policy, including its corporate strategy,
knowledge development and partnership building. Such activities usually bring together
staff from various regions and the Head Office.

Delivery channels
SNV has categorised its ways of working into four channels:
advisory services
knowledge brokering
advocacy
strengthening local capacity development funding mechanisms
These four delivery channels are the means by which SNV works to achieve its overall
goal: the capacity development of actors to improve their individual or collective
performance in contributing to poverty alleviation and improved governance. The
delivery channels are designed to be complementary and mutually reinforcing.

Demand
Demand is the expression by a (potential) client of the kind of support the client would
like to get from SNV.

Donor
SNV defines a donor as an actor that provides grants or soft loans to other actors in
order to achieve specific development goals.

Effectiveness
Effectiveness refers to the extent to which actual performance compares with targeted
performance; the extent to which the objectives of the development intervention have
been achieved or are expected to be achieved.
In SNVs result measurement framework the term effectiveness is also used to describe
the extent to which outputs lead to outcome(s).

Efficiency
Efficiency is the measure of how economically resources and inputs (including funds,
expertise and time) are converted to results. Efficiency is often expressed in a cost/
benefit ratio, with the efficiency increasing as the ratio decreases.

Employment
Employment is engagement in an activity that generates income.

Empowerment
Empowerment is the process through which an individual, group, organisation or larger
system acquires the power to think, behave, take action, control activities, and make
decisions. It primarily involves enhancing the ability of an actor to steer and shape
one's own development.

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Enabling environment
An enabling environment is a set of interrelated conditionssuch as the legal,
institutional, fiscal, informational, political, economic, social and cultural environments
that impact on the capacity of actors to engage in development processes in a
specific work field or around a specific topic in a sustained and effective manner

Evaluation
Evaluation is the systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of a person,
activity or process.
Within SNV, evaluations are used to appraise geographic or thematic programmes in
terms of their relevance, efficiency and effectiveness.

Gender equity
Gender equity refers to the fair and just distribution of opportunities, rights,
responsibilities and benefits between women and men in social, economic, cultural,
legal and political domains. It relates to freedom of choice and equitable power-sharing
between men and women.

General Budget Support (GBS)

General Budget Support is financial aid to governments that is not earmarked for
specific projects or expenditure items. It is disbursed through the recipient
governments own financial management system. However, such funding is
accompanied by other agreements, conditions and measures. These include: the
conditions on which funding is provided and procedures for dialogue between
government and donors; donor efforts to harmonise their aid and align it with national
policies and procedures; and measures to support capacity development, including
technical assistance.

Governance
Governance is the system of values, policies and institutions by which a society
manages its economic, political and social affairs through interactions within and among
the state, civil society and the private sector. It is the way a society organises itself to
make and implement decisions achieving mutual understanding, agreement and
action. It comprises the mechanisms and processes for citizens and groups to articulate
their interests, mediate their differences, and exercise their legal rights and obligations.
It is the rules, institutions and practices that set limits and provide incentives for
individuals, organisations and firms. Governance, including its social, political and
economic dimensions, operates at every level of human enterprise, be it the household,
village, municipality, nation, region or globe.
Governance is at the heart of SNVs work and cuts across all that SNV does: good
governance principles guide our work. In stimulating good governance SNV pays
particular attention to gender equity and the social inclusion of marginalised groups.

Governance for empowerment

Governance for empowerment is a concept used by SNV to underscore the value
it places on the empowerment of poor and marginalised groups as the basis for
sustainable development. In SNVs view and experience, the effectiveness of
governance systems in ensuring development for all depends to a large degree on their
ability to achieve the equitable empowerment of citizens individually and collectively.

Good Governance (principles)

Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable.
It is also effective, efficient and equitable. And it promotes the rule of law. Good
governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad
consensus by all groups of actors within society and that the voices of the poorest and
the most vulnerable are heard in decision making over the allocation of development
resources.
 UNDP (2004) Strategy note on Governance for Human development

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Impact
The desired development impact in SNV terms is defined as the improvement of access
to good quality basic services and income, production and employment and the related
improvements in the well-being of poor people.

Impact areas
SNV has identified Production, Income and Employment (PIE) and Access to Basic
Services (BASE) as the two impact areas on which it will focus its activities. These
impact areas help focus SNVs strategies and efforts in the countries/regions in which it
works. Thus, they also orient SNVs result measurement and accountability.

Income
Income is the money or its equivalent received in exchange for labour, services, the
sale of goods or property, or as earnings on investments.

Input
Input refers to the financial, human and material resources used to deliver a particular
service or implement an activity or intervention.

Institution
An institution is defined as a complex of norms and behaviours that persist over time,
usually serving collectively valued purposes. Institutions may be formal arrangements
in a society, such as legal systems and property rights, budgetary processes, or
organisations with established roles in society. They may also be informal arrangements,
for instance moral standards. These arrangements or institutions operate at different
levels, ranging from an international level (such as trade arrangements) to national
(governance systems etc) to community and individual levels (for instance, the norms
and values that determine the way in which people interact with each other). Donors
sometimes refer to this level as the enabling environment.

Institutional Development
Institutional development involves fundamental social change, or the transformation
of patterns of behaviour that are specific to a society. It entails achieving better
output from organisations and institutions in order to benefit their stakeholders.
Institutional development is a multi-level and multi-dimensional undertaking. Often
institutional development is also used as the wider societal or system dimension
of capacity development, thus encompassing levels such us network development,
organisational development or human resources development.

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators are a set of key measures designed to assess the
qualitative and quantitative performance of an organisation.

Knowledge Development, Brokering and Networking

Knowledge Development, Brokering and Networking is one of SNVs delivery channels.
The channel is referred to as Knowledge Brokering (KB) in short.
KB activities include knowledge development, sharing and learning with, and for,
constellations of actors and broader audiences (thus not for individual clients only).
KB activities can be specific to a basic services sector or a value chain, but can also
relate to cross-cutting themes such as governance and capacity development.

Knowledge Network
A Knowledge Network is a grouping of professionals around a certain issue or field of
work for the explicit purpose of exchanging knowledge and experiences, and innovating
and developing knowledge. SNVs internal Knowledge Networks hold three key functions:
a) improving the quality of advisory services, including product development;
b) contributing to and learning from knowledge brokering activities; and c) profiling the
professional identity of SNV in the areas of work concerned.

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Local capacity builder

A local capacity builder is a national (sometimes regional) organisation that provides a
significant volume and quality of non-financial capacity development support to mesolevel organisations. Local capacity builders can be drawn from the public, civil society or
private realm. Their services can include a variety of roles and techniques, such as
training, advice, organisational development, change trajectories, coaching, multi-actor
processes, institutional and policy development work, knowledge brokering and learning
programmes.

Local Capacity Development Funding mechanisms

The stimulation of Local Capacity Development Funding mechanisms (LCDF) is one of
SNVs four delivery channels. This channel aims at fostering the establishment and
development of funding mechanisms that increase access to local capacity development
support, stimulate demand-supply dynamics and strengthen the quality of local supply
and thus empower local actors, allowing them to acquire tailor-made services geared
towards their needs.

Memorandum of Understanding
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a framework agreement with a client or
partner or a group of clients/partners, covering a period of one to three years, in which
signatories:
Express their commitment to contribute to achieving specified objectives at impact level;
Agree on the desired end state of the collaboration at outcome level (described in
SMART objectives);
Outline the types of activities and the corresponding outcomes that are required to
achieve the desired outcome (activities still need to be specified and planned in more
detail in assignment plans or in a work plan attached to the MoU);
Make estimates about the resources both parties intend to contribute;
Agree on an exit strategy.
A MoU sets the overall framework for cooperation and expresses the intention and
willingness of the parties involved to collaborate. Under a MoU more specific
arrangements are detailed in assignment agreements or other more specific documents,
such as programme or project documents.

Macro-level
The macro-level refers to actors, processes and institutions at the national level, such
as central government, parliament, national laws, the government policies, trade
unions, umbrella organisations of NGOs, or the national media. It may also include
supra-national institutions, dynamics and forces of change.

Meso-level
The meso-level refers to the actors, processes and institutions that shape the layer
between the micro and macro level. It is the social space where district and provincial
governments operate, where economic chains between local producers and their
national and international markets are organised, and where civil society organisations
coordinate service delivery and social change processes. It is the place in society where
national policies, institutions and programmes interact with local realities and take
effect. The meso-level is the focus of SNVs work.

Micro-level
The micro-level refers to actors, processes and institutions at the community level.
Actors at this level include for example village councils, community-based
organisations, primary schools, local entrepreneurs, health clinics, small-scale producers
and individual households.

Micro-macro gap
The micro-macro gap, also known as the macro-micro divide, refers to a situation in
which macro-processes and frameworks are not in tune with local realities. This implies
that formal policies are not sufficiently informed by what really works on the ground
and that national policies are not sufficiently translated into workable approaches.

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

National development strategy

A national development strategy (NDS) describes a countrys macro-economic,
structural and social policies and programmes to promote development and reduce
poverty, as well as the associated financing needs. National development strategies are
based on nationally determined priorities and are frequently aligned to the Millenium
Development Goals, or MDGs (hence the term MDG-based).

Network
A network is a group of individuals and/or organisations with a shared concern or
interest who voluntarily contribute knowledge, experience and/or resources for shared
learning, joint action and/or to achieve a shared purpose or goal, and who rely on the
network to support their own objectives

Organisation
An organisation is a complex of people and/or groups that strives to realise one or
more preset objectives in accordance with commonly agreed rules and procedures.

Organisational Development
Organisational development is the process of improving the performance of an
organisation. Organisational development has also become a professional field in its
own right, with a body of theory and practice.

Outcome
SNV defines outcome as the improved performance of (groups of) client organisations
or sector as a whole, in terms of delivery of basic services and value chains for the
poor, and its related improved enabling environment.
Outcomes are assessed against the objectives of the MoU in relation to an overall client
relationship. Such assessment can take place at key moments during the relationship
and/or at the end.

Output
Output refers to the quality and quantity of SNVs services. Each assignment is
assessed in terms of its outputs in qualitative and quantitative terms. The quality
dimension indicates what has changed in the specific capabilities of the client (not in
theory but in real-life daily operations).

Ownership
At the most general level, ownership in the development assistance context is the
degree of leadership and influence exerted on development cooperation by the relevant
actors in developing countries and the extent to which they assume responsibility for
development.

Partner
A partner is an actor with whom SNV has a partnership relation. Partners include local
capacity builders, donors and national or international organisations with which SNV
shares knowledge and/or organises advocacy campaigns.

Partnership
SNV defines a partnership as a strategic relationship between SNV and other actors
that are committed to work collaboratively to achieve development impact by a
balanced pooling of resources and sharing risks and responsibilities. SNVs contributions
to a partnership are usually in kind (rather than cash), in terms of outreach, network
of contacts, office and logistical facilities and/or time (person hours).

Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Performance
Performance is the process or manner of functioning or operating. It is often used to
describe the degree to which actors realise their efficiency and effectiveness targets
with the aim of improving their ability to deliver goods and services and prosper in the
environment in which they operate. Performance can also be addressed in other
dimensions such as relational ability, learning, etc.

PIE Impact Area

Production, Income and Employment (PIE) is one of the two impact areas in which SNV
has chosen to focus its efforts.

Portfolio
SNV defines a portfolio as a geographic or thematically organised business unit within a
country in which SNV operates. Each portfolio works with a variety of actors in one or
more specific areas of work, aiming at contributing to impact targets, as defined in
national development strategies.

Positioning choices
SNVs positioning choices signify the more specific choices that SNV countries and
regions make within the two broad impact areas Access to basic services and Income,
production and employment in order to guarantee a critical mass of SNV expertise,
quality, outreach, external profile and meaningful contribution to impact.
In positioning itself in a country or region SNV makes two interrelated choices:
Specific positioning choices for basic services sectors and for value chains, in which it
wants to make a significant contribution to change, and;
Specific impact and governance targets (within national strategies and agenda) to
which it wants to contribute.

Poverty
The concept of poverty encompasses different dimensions of deprivation, including a
lack of basic human needs, capabilities and freedoms. In general, it relates to the
inability of people to meet economic, social and other standards of well-being. Poverty
includes the lack of income and employment and access to basic services, as well as
inequality and inequity, social injustice and the prevalence of vulnerability, insecurity
and conflict.

Poverty line
Poverty is commonly measured in terms of income or consumption levels. A person is
considered poor if his or her consumption or income level falls below the minimum level
necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually referred to as the
"poverty line". What is necessary to satisfy basic needs varies across time and
societies. Therefore, poverty lines vary in time and place, and each country uses
thresholds that are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)

PRSPs describe the macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes that
a country aims to pursue over a period of several years to promote broad-based growth
and reduce poverty. PRSPs also detail external financing needs and the associated
sources of financing. PRSPs are prepared by governments in low-income countries
through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders and external
development partners.

Primary process
The primary process is the process through which SNV identifies, engages with and
supports its clients and other actors with the purpose to achieve impact. The Triple AAA
model outlines the essential steps of the primary process. It does so at three levels:
strategy level, client level and assignment level.

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Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Product
A product is a package of approaches, methodologies, tools and expertise that SNV
offers to its clients. Products combine SNVs expertise in general capacity development
services and governance for empowerment with specific thematic and sectoral
knowledge.

Production
Production is the act or process of manufacturing products, in particular the act of
generating articles that will be traded, sold commercially or used for ones subsistence.

Relevance
Relevance refers to the extent to which the objectives of a development intervention
are consistent with the requirements of its intended beneficiaries, as well as the needs
and priorities of the recipient country, global strategies and the policies of donors and
SNVs partners.
In SNVs result measurement framework the term relevance is used to indicate the
extent to which SNV outcome plausibly leads to impact.

Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy derived from sources that are regenerative. Renewable
sources of energy include wood, waste, geothermal, wind photovoltaic and solar
thermal energy. Conversely, fossil fuels are non renewable sources of energy.

Resource mobilisation
SNV defines resource mobilisation as any financial income streams received by SNV to
finance its primary and support process costs to realise the impact it strives for.
Finances for the primary process include resources for internal and external advisors,
subcontracted local capacity builders and direct assignment (programme) costs.

Result
Results are changes in a state or condition that derive from a causeeffect chain.
SNV distinguishes three types or levels of such changes set in motion by a development
intervention: the output, outcome and impact. Results can be intended or unintended,
and positive or negative.

Sector
A sector is a set of interrelated activities at macro, meso and micro levels, usually
within a defined institutional and budgetary framework, for which the government has
typically formulated a policy or a set of policies.

Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps)

A SWAp is a process in which funding for a sector whether derived from local
resources or from donors supports a single policy or expenditure programme for
which common approaches are adopted across the sector. It is generally accompanied
by efforts to strengthen government procedures for disbursement and accountability. A
SWAp should ideally involve broad stakeholder consultation in the design of a coherent
sector programme at micro, meso and macro levels, and strong co-ordination among
donors and between donors and the recipient government.

SNV-EKN complementarity
Complementarity occurs when different activities reinforce each other or contribute to
the same overall results. Achieving SNV-EKN (Embassy of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands) complementarity is an explicit goal of SNVs country-level activities. It
entails carrying out a joint selection process to identify specific sectors or themes to
work on, and discussing how the activities of each party will reinforce the work of the
other, or contribute to the same overall results. In a DGIS partner country at least 50%
of the volume of SNVs work that is paid from the core subsidy will be undertaken in
such jointly agreed sectors or themes.

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Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

Social Inclusion
Social inclusion refers to the reduction of inequalities between socially disadvantaged
groups and the rest of society by closing the opportunity gap and enabling them to
participate more equitably. It is the act or method of increasing equal participation in
processes that advance well-being and that shape equal freedom and room for people
to pursue their own development.

Strategic plan
A strategic plan indicates the general direction in which an organisation intends to
move. In SNVs practice a strategic plan at the level of a region or country consists
of a description of:
a context and internal analysis
main strategic choices
positioning choices in the two impact areas
set targets
choices regarding clients, delivery channels, local capacity builders and partners
choices with regards to the internal organisation, internal capacity and resources
required

Strategy
A strategy is an integrated set of orientations and approaches that intends to achieve a
particular purpose or result. The development of a strategy involves arriving at an
understanding of the issue or goal at stake, elaborating ways of achieving the intended
results and making broad but clear choices between different possible options of what
to do and how to go about it.
In SNVs working context a strategy for a topic or field of work is thus the combination
of a) an analysis of the issue/work field; b) some broad directions in addressing it; and
c) a set of major choices, focused on maximizing SNVs impact in terms of reducing
poverty and improving governance. These choices address for example:
The (sub-)sectors and value chains in which SNV aims to achieve impact;
The results that SNV aims to achieve within these (sub-) sectors and chains in order
to contribute to the national impact targets (as defined in the National Development
Strategy);
The geographic areas in which SNV should have a presence in order to make a
substantial contribution to the development of the (sub-) sectors and chains;
The types of relevant actors working in those sectors and chains that SNV will
especially try to support and collaborate with as clients and partners.

Sustainability
Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a
certain level indefinitely. Sustainability relates to the continuity of economic, social,
institutional and environmental aspects of human society.
Sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.

Triple AAA model

The Triple AAA model provides a conceptual framework and set of guidelines for the
implementation of SNVs primary process.
The Triple AAA model outlines the essential steps of the primary process that are critical
for a quality capacity development practice, which is focused on results. It does so at
three levels:
a. strategy level: how we develop, implement and update our strategy in a basic
services sector, value chain or country as a whole;
b. c
 lient level: how we start, maintain, review and end a client relation;
c. assignment level: how we prepare, execute and review specific work assignments.
By treating these three different levels as mutually interactive, the model provides for
an adaptive working logic, in which results and lessons at the various levels can
influence each other.

 Brundtland Commisison (1987)

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Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007

For each level the model distinguishes three basic steps:

1. Analysis & planning,
2. Action & monitoring and
3. Assessing results & evaluation.
Linked to the model are a series of formats and prescriptions for documents,
responsibilities and accountability mechanisms, and result measurement logics.

Values
SNVs values are respect and trust, equity and quality and diversity and peoplecentredness (refer to SNV Contours and Principles). These core values reflect SNVs
vision on development and orient how SNVs teams are composed and behave.

Value chain
A value chain is a functioning whole assembling a variety of tasks, functions and
activities for bringing a product or service to the end-use market. A value chain
perspective emphasis the institutional set up of economic transactions and social
relationships; it looks into interdependencies and how these are coordinated and
governed.
For SNV the pro-poor perspective of a value chain is of main importance.

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Glossary of terms frequently used in SNV, September 2007