FCDO 4D Data Improvement Project

Award notice for the Provision of Consultancy Services for the FCDO 4D Data Improvement Project.

The requirement was tendered using CCS Framework RM6187 - Management Consultancy Framework 3 (MCF 3).

Additional information: Introduction and Background to the requirement

On 2 September 2020 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was established. In order to meet our ambition for FCDO to be a data-driven and delivery focussed organisation, the Data Driven Diplomacy and Development (4D) transformation programme is identifying and delivering the skills, resources, capabilities, processes and culture changes required to "put data, evidence and analysis at the heart of all our work".

Background

4D will achieve its vision to "put data, evidence and analysis at the heart of all our work", over several years, by making fundamental changes to the skills base of the FCDO; to its culture around the use of data, evidence and analysis; to the governance, tools and platforms it employs to enable and encourage a data-driven approach; and to the way we deploy the UK's data expertise externally to do good in the world. The 2021 Integrated Review commits the FCDO to put "greater emphasis on using insight and analysis from around the world to target our diplomatic interventions overseas more effectively and to inform the full breadth of domestic policy."

We need to bolster the small 4D programme team's skills to match the programme's ambition: to deliver the two workstreams described below, working alongside wider FCDO data and analysis teams and Directorates.

FCDO currently has data and analysis specialists in a range of central teams as well as embedded in key areas throughout the business. Some analytical functions are well established, such as the FCDO's Economics profession. This dispersal risks inefficiencies and fails to reach many areas of the department. To address this, we have recently brought some specialists together in one function, referred to the Central Analysis Function in this document. However the organisational design and operating model of the Central Function remains driven by the historical approaches taken across the two organisations, and the interaction with other analytical teams across the department needs to be agreed.

4D is a strand within the post-merger FCDO's Transformation agenda. The 'Delivery Framework, Role of Data & Evidence' transformation strand sits alongside eleven other major initiatives to define the way the FCDO operates. Most pertinently to the 4D programme, these include a Future Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) strand; a People Strategy; Organisational design; a Culture and Values strand; and an Expertise, Learning and Capability strand.