Innovation Advisory · Framework 11
5 questionsThe Handover Canvas
Five questions to sit with before a programme changes hands — from implementing NGO to government, from parent org to spin-off, from founder to team, or from a pilot cohort to the next.
Who is receiving the programme — and did they ask for it?
Handovers to a government department that had no say in the design fail more often than handovers to a partner who was in the room from year one. If the receiver was not a co-author of the programme, the handover is really a handoff of somebody else's problem, and the receiver will treat it as such.
Who runs the programme on day one after handover — and are they on the receiver’s payroll?
The frontline staff who made the programme work are often on the implementing NGO's rolls. If they are not absorbed into the receiver's structure by handover date, the receiver inherits an empty chassis. Name each key role. Name the person in each role. Name their employment status six months from the handover date.
Is there a budget line in the receiver's next fiscal year for the programme?
A programme without a budget line at the receiver is a programme that will be re-invented under a new name within eighteen months. The line has to exist, in the right head of account, with the right authorisation level, before the handover paperwork is signed. If it does not, the handover is a press release, not a transfer.
What has the receiver learned from the programme that they can articulate without you in the room?
Ask the receiver's programme officer to explain the programme to a stranger, in three minutes, without notes. If they cannot, the knowledge has not transferred, only the paperwork has. Fix that before handover, not after.
What is your role on day thirty-one — and what happens if the receiver asks you to stay longer?
Handovers get soft-extended when the receiver asks for one more month of hand-holding, then another. Each extension weakens the receiver and delays the moment they own the programme. Write down the exit date. Write down the two decisions that would justify extending it. Refuse the third one.
What the five questions are doing
Question one is a legitimacy check — did the receiver ask for this. Questions two and three are structural — can the receiver actually operate the programme (staff and budget). Question four is a knowledge check — has the receiver internalised what makes the programme work. Question five is a discipline check on the giver — will you actually leave.
A programme that fails a handover almost always fails on questions two, three, or five. The politest failure is question five: the receiver quietly outsources back to the giver, month by month, until the programme is a permanent contract instead of a transferred operation.