states towards the end of the contract, with explicit ToRs to strengthen implementation of these specific solutions, rather than to continue the locally‐driven problem‐solving process more generally.

Part adaptive facilitator, part political hustler, the firm also wore a more traditional technical assistance hat at times, devoting considerable effort to sensitization, training and advisory tasks typical of more solution‐driven approaches. A large part of the firm’s work in the state was devoted to sensitization on the mechanisms and objectives of the SOML PfR (which ADG insists took up far more of their energy than originally anticipated), setting up and training on data capture solutions (specifically PIGEON) and strengthening the roll‐out of some pre‐selected health interventions (as encouraged by the Bank), such as the QISS and MNCH weeks.

In short, the firm’s approach might be best described as a hybrid, or merged TA approach, combining elements of old and new, with an accompanying tension, messiness and innovation all part of the package.

# 3. Findings 1: How context conditions the approach

The hybridity of the firm’s approach should not surprise us, nor should the fact that the approach exhibited weaknesses. Sometimes the obvious requires stating: adaptive approaches do not take place in perfectly insulated environments but rather in complex contexts comprising (by definition) competing incentives, varied skills, divergent mindsets and inherently imperfect mechanisms.

Firstly, the quality of the adaptive process is necessarily conditioned by the firm facilitating that process. Wild et al (2017, 25) note that “whether or not programmes are genuinely doing development differently depends on who is implementing them” and that “[s]ervice providers or implementing partners need teams and staffing with the right capacities, skills and experience to be able to manage programmes in new ways”. The scope of problems ADG was tasked with fixing was large and diverse to the point of being unmanageable; indeed, to some degree we consider it a reflection of their inexperience that they took on a performance‐based contract with these payment terms.<sup>19</sup> The firm also struggled to support effective monitoring of outcomes, with Bank staff expressing serious concerns about ADG’s ability to collect credible data and carry out quality data analysis. In the absence of the firm carrying out a household survey (as had been recommended in the ToRs), it was very difficult for Bank staff to monitor their progress. Our analysis of ADG’s reports also indicates that their reporting skills were weak – language was often convoluted and opaque, and there was little reflection on problems fixed, adaptations made, or assumptions revised.<sup>20</sup> The reports tend to follow a more traditional structure, focusing on inputs delivered. A failure to methodically capture collectively identified problems and their causes appears to have led to limited reassessment of assumptions and reduced the quality of ongoing learning. Adaptation was certainly encouraged and incidents of it during implementation are evident, but it only got going latterly, shortly before the TA itself ended altogether.

Some Bank staff and federal level actors questioned whether ADG had sufficient technical understanding and expertise to carry out their assistance role. According to the federal level actors (with whom ADG had an unfortunately antagonistic relationship), ADG implemented technical solutions in the states that were ineffective and not based on a good understanding of what interventions would have the best results. Partly, this critique reflects a more traditional best‐practice

> 19 It is worth noting that the other bidding firms had substantially higher cost proposals, suggesting they did not judge the performance payment aspect worth the risk.

> 20 To some extent this is because the Bank staff also struggled with how to monitor and evaluate this work and found it difficult to give ADG a very clear or manageable framework to guide their reporting.

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