Posted by
Mattia Prayer Galletti
Thursday, August 29, 2013
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Hi everybody! This is the first post regarding my forthcoming special leave to Berkeley. Fyi, I still need to get familiar with the blog reporting system but I committed to Henock (whom I want to thank for his constant support and advice) to report on this experience. I am told I am a pioneer and I am eager to do my best to pave the way for similar experiences by other colleagues in different Universities around the world.
Three weeks from now I will be going. Everything is ready except a minor detail, the accommodation. I am told not to worry but still….Anyhow, I started working on the Bspace, i.e. the Berkeley web space that enables each instructor to interact with her/his participants (it seems there are no teachers nor students at Berkeley…). I also started receiving feedback regarding their experiences and expectations. Extremely happy to see their desire to get hands-on experience on development matters. This is indeed the rationale of my invitation there. I think this is enough as a
first post. Let me see how it works now. Stay tuned! Mattia
Posted by
Benoit THIERRY
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
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IFAD Nepal Country Programme Workshop Day 4 (Closing)
26 August 2013
By Kaushal Shrestha, Benoit Thierry
The fourth and last day of the workshop began under the sun ( finally) with a video, though much humorous, also reflecting the poor relationship people have with mathematics – “25 divided by 5 equals 14.”
Videos were a deliberate tool used in this workshop to introduce new concepts and practical innovations to the participants without boring them. Thus, Benoit used a short eight-minute film on WUPAP and remittance to begin conversation about the new project “Rural Micro-enterprises and remittances.” The major focus of this project would be capital formation, not only for returning migrant workers, but the entire community.
Similarly, conversation on a new ASAP funded project, entitled AIMHE (Adaptation in Mountain and Hills Ecosystems), also began with short hard-hitting clips on climate change and its harsh impacts, especially in the developing world.
As portrayed by the videos, the projected impacts of climate change are severe, and the necessary responses are urgent. Tackling such a global issue, according to Peter Situ, the project design team leader, is a massive challenge for a country like Nepal and its people. Therefore, in order to soften the impacts effectively in particular in the agriculture sector, interventions must consider a number of issues to increase efficiency and improve impact.
Utilization of existing resources is among the major issues. AIMHE intends to make maximum use of available services, knowledge and expertise, government and non-government institutions, for greater efficiency and to eliminate duplication of activities and resources in the field. In this process, the project will work towards the capacity building of service providers engaged in climate change adaptation activities (livestock insurance, food banks, renewable energy etc), be it government or private. Further, AIMHE is intended as an add-on component to existing IFAD funded projects, seeking climate smart activities and scaling up best practices with thousands of existing farmers groups. This last day of the workshop was the first step of this intention, introducing AIMHE to the current projects, and exploiting the years of ground level experience of project members to seek ideas and potential activities.
Practicality was another important factor voiced by the experience of participants. All members of current IFAD-funded projects collectively agreed on the importance of site-specific agriculture and business models. While members of LFLP promoted agroforestry and silvopastoral systems, they also noted the necessity of contextual planning – for example, using market led approach in promoting particular products, or simply not promoting plantation of ginger on sloped lease lands.Inclusive targeting was also regarded as a practical way of action for the project. While the project will definitely focus on the most vulnerable, especially women, Peter was clear to mention – “There will be no divisions.” And the project will therefore focus on social inclusion.
Even more stress, perhaps, was on the participatory design of the project. As it is the vulnerable that are most aware of their own local realities, the inclusion of the community for organizational and technical input is only logical. Thus, AIMHE will actively adopt bottom-up participatory strategies to simultaneously improve the management of natural resources, including agriculture, reducing vulnerabilities and increasing resilience of local communities to climate change impacts (through the LAPA system).
The closing ceremony was organized in the afternoon. Key speakers emphasized that this workshop/retreat enhanced family spirit among IFAD funded projects, and will produce nice synergies. Others noted the workshop as the first step to improve programme performance, with more to come in the future to deepen technical activities. The roadmap produced during the workshop will be a key tool to monitor this progress. Finally, in the concluding remarks, words of thanks were addressed to participants, organizers, facilitators, and the workshop management team.
Rendezvous: August 2014, to continue the new tradition of the country programme workshop !!
Posted by
Ann Turinayo
Monday, August 26, 2013
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Derived from an interview with Jasper Hatwinda, Rural Finance Project,
Zambia
IFAD
provided a three-year grant to IFADAFRICA towards integrating knowledge
management and learning in IFAD supported projects in Eastern and Southern
Africa. Through this grant, projects were brought together and began to explore
how to improve project performance and create greater impact for project
beneficiaries.
After
three years, Jasper Hatwinda shares what he has learned and how the Zambia
portfolio has benefited from the KM initiatives, what they have achieved, what
they are doing differently, and what they would like to do differently when it
comes to integrating KM in projects and institutions.
To have relevant KM initiatives, there is need
to start by identifying existing bottlenecks, setting objectives and coming up
with an action plan on how to change the situation
Jasper Hatwinda, shares the Zambia KM experience
After
the first KM workshop, the Zambia team sat and agreed on what the priority
areas would be. The starting point was what they wanted to see changed. They
agreed that what they wanted to see was: 1) more government ownership of
projects initiatives and improved policy environment, 2) Enhanced project
design that was more inclusive, and 3) Meaningful Country Programme Management
Team Meetings.
For
each of these, the team identified the entry points or existing opportunities.
For instance, the existence of a Programme Reference Group for Rural Finance
provided a good opportunity for making project design more participatory and
inclusive. This Group made it mandatory for projects to share lessons learned
and with time, these lessons had to be utilized in future designs. With the
knowledge management initiative, the mandate of the PRG for Rural Finance to
ensure that projects are put to task to share lessons learned.
The
policy dialogue initiatives have been useful in responding to the need for
improved delivery of rural financial services in Zambia. Consequently, a Rural
Finance Policy has been developed. This is one of the concrete results of the
understanding of what Knowledge management, learning and sharing involves, and
how it enhances delivery of results.
What
are you doing differently?
To
this question, Jasper’s response is an explanation of the various small, subtle
but very crucial things that they do in what to him is a more effective way.
First has been the requirement that all projects include ‘lessons learned’ in
the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB), as well as in the Annual Report. The
projects also started holding workshops to share the AWPB, to review these
plans and tease out the lessons learned and what can be done differently to get
better results. These workshops have served as accountability forums and they
make each participant think through what they have done, what they are going to
do and how to improve. In these meetings, there is an opportunity for peer
review and critiquing, which makes clearer the issues for improved
implementation.
Knowledge management and learning opened our
eyes to see what we were not doing very well, what we could do better
As a
result of the awareness created in us by the KM&L forums that we could do
things differently and better, we took an initiative to take a study visit to
Uganda and Tanzania to learn about the policy environment and structures for
putting up functional rural finance policy. In Malawi the Community Based
Financial Institutions Promoters learnt about the Village Savings and Loans
Associations and upon return streamlined the savings and credit approach across
all partners and adopted the VSLA methodology comprehensively. In particular
expansion initiatives were included where the Village Agent and Cluster
Committee framework later assisted the RFP to increase its coverage, efficiency
and sustainability, says Jasper.
Enhanced
project design is another key benefit for Zambia, which has directly resulted
from the awareness and integration of KM&L. Before, project design was
entirely a preserve of IFAD consultants and the IFAD country office. Project staff
and government participation was limited, and including project experiences was
not desired as part of the design formation and conceptualisation. However, with the KM&L initiatives,
projects started to push for the inclusion of lessons learned from
implementation of other projects in new project designs. An in-country design
team, led and chaired by the line ministry is mandatory for the design of new
projects. This has so far worked well for the design of the new Rural Finance
Expansion Programme, which is based on the lessons learned from the Rural
Finance Programme.
The
Zambia team also sees a difference in the way Country Programme Management Team
(CPMT) meetings are conducted. Previously, these meetings were held in a hotel
in Lusaka and participants relied on stories that various project teams shared.
They were mostly ceremonial but did not include discussion of the real issues
faced in day to day implementation. With the lessons derived from the KM&L
initiatives, the country team decided to hold these meetings in the field while
visiting respective project sites. Project teams were required to collect and
document lessons learned between meetings, and these lessons were used to write
an official communiqué to ensure that those issues that needed follow-up could
be followed. KM&L changed the face of CPMT meetings. Currently, there are
greater synergies between projects as a result of sharing of experiences,
lessons and challenges. The most important change is the now clear
understanding by project teams that there are ways of doing things differently,
it is okay to try these different ways, and that even when something does not
work, there is a lesson to learn.
The day started with the recap of the previous day
when the project staffs developed solutions for the implementation issues
identified on the first day of the workshop.
This day 3 was dedicated to planning, targeting,
monitoring and evaluation and communication.
IFAD consultant Ms. Monique Trudel made a brief
presentation on Livelihood and Development Challenges. The first working group
exercise in the morning session was based on this presentation and following
questions on targeting and inclusion:
How to make sure that
development actors take into account « social inclusion »
meaning not only women but different groups – disadvantages group, youth
elder in the value chain?
How can who measure the
flow of benefits best, when and how?
How can our
“beneficiaries” shape and profit from the KM and learning and innovation
agenda?
The groups worked together for 30 minutes and came up
with constructive answers, including ways to avoid elite capture during
implementation. The prioritized outcomes were incorporated in the road map.
As the day’s theme focused on Learning, Knowledge
Management and M&E, the project M&E Officers elaborated the findings of
their community of practice which has been active for the past 18 months.
Linked to the theme of
M&E, Mr. Krishna Thapa from HVAP presented about the HVAP’s tablet based
management information system. A revolutionary system which will help shortening
and improving the management information system by entering data directly from
the field. See specific post.
The day’s agenda ended
with a detailed presentation of the Country Programme Road Map (based on the
outcomes from working groups) points by Mr. Bashu Aryal (CPO) and IFAD senior
yeti Mr. Rudolph Cleveringa. The roadmap is divided into 5 key chapters
grouping a set of 25 recommendations for action. Each project will now deepen
the CPRM to adapt it to project specifities and set deadlines and
responsabilities.
For the presentation on the Road Map. 1. strengthen project management 2. streamline fiduciary aspects 3. enhance M&E, KM, innovations and communication 4. prioritize field outreach ad technical implementation 5. expand national and international partnerships
Before closing the day, the ASAP project design mission arrived and was
introduced to the plenary. The 4 and last day of the workshop will be dedicated
to the ASAP design brainstorming. More tomorrow on this blog !
Posted by
Benoit THIERRY
Sunday, August 25, 2013
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By Lorina Sthapit, Bashu Aryal, Yvonne Diethelm,
IFAD Nepal Country Programme Workshop Day 2
24 August 2013
On the second day of the event, the participants worked in thematically composed groups to find self-identified and self-monitored solutions for the project implementation issues identified together on the first day
-The planning and monitoring officers worked on sustainability and monitoring and evaluation related issues;
-The implementers worked on Institutional Development and Scaling Up (Policy and Dialogue) related issues;
-The project managers worked on staffing and fiduciary issues and
-The technical staffs worked on issues related to business Inclusion and implementation modality.
The group works were conducted through the world café method where the group members had to change tables on rotation basis and exchange ideas. The solutions envisaged by the working groups were presented on flipcharts and metacards, which will be incorporated in the Country Programme Road Map and translated into policy dialogue agenda for country portfolio.
In the afternoon session, SNV’s Senior Technical Advisor Mr. Piet Visser made a presentation on Partnerships elaborating the following points:
Building examples of Agro-Enterprise Centers (AEC)
How SNV partnership works
Components of SNV: Value chain Development (SNV/AEC), Inclusion and Support for Value Chain Initiatives (GoN/SNV) and Project Management
Role of business linkages
Capacity strengthening of value chain actors
Mr. Visser also talked about their efforts in mentoring the Agro-Enterprise centers from Federation of Chamber of Commerce so that they (AEC) can take over SNV role after three years.
Likewise, Benoit Thierry (CPM) addressed the Governance aspects of the IFAD funded projects in Nepal highlighting the significance of effective project design, project implementation and completion evaluation for the success of the project.
The following aspects were discussed under the three components:
Mr. Thierry also underlined the role of various documents such as the Letter to the borrower which contains the project financial management aspects and the Project Implementation Manual/ Manual of Operation, which contains Admin and financial procedures, Implementation modalities and M& E system. Similarly, he also highlighted the fiduciary aspects: Financial software, Procurement, Register of assets, Registry of staffs, Registry of contracts and Withdrawal Application.
Towards the end of the day’s agenda, Bashu Aryal (CPO) discussed about the initiation of the Country Programme Implementation Support Unit (CPISU). The unit will be called ‘SahaYatri’ which means ‘companion’ in Nepali or “walking together with a same goal”.SahaYatri will bring together experts from each project to support problem projects and develop synergies. Mr. Aryal, commenting on the issues and solutions identified by the working groups, suggested to build close connection among the projects, IFAD and the Government through CPISU as this could solve the correspondence issues raised.
In the evening a Marketshare fair was organized by Procasur where all the five projects presented their evidence-based best practices and innovations, scaling up approaches and tools, multiple stakeholder approaches and new KM and communication strategies. Marketplaceisa public space where people supplying and demanding knowledge meet to "negotiate" the exchange of ideas and innovative practices, as well as tools and approaches with high potential for up scaling.
HVAP’s innovations on multi-stakeholder platform, ‘respiration check’, data management framework and value chain analysis bagged 26 votes in a total of 50 and became the winner of the Marketshare. The leader of the team will receive a full schalorship to attend the Learning Route in Thailand in October.
Posted by
Benoit THIERRY
Saturday, August 24, 2013
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Beginning of Day 2 - IFAD Nepal annual retreat:
All the participants were seen more enthusiastic to participate in the working groups on the second day of the event with the objective to improve project delivery.
The work was conducted through the world café method where the groups had to rotate tables and exchange their ideas for the solutions for the project implementation issues identified on the first day. The group formation was by their functions and speciality. There were four groups with 8-10 participants per group: Project managers and Accountants, Implementers, M&E and Planning Officers and Technical staff.
Most of them did not know about the world café’ method, however it was welcomed with much eagerness and excitement. Some of the participants were so interested and gripped to their own groups that they didn’t want to change tables !!!
LOVE SONG and portfolio performance: During the retreat, the project participants had nice entertainment sessions in-between intensive group works where they sang traditional Nepali love songs. Listen to this one of Deuda style from the far-western part of Nepal which starts with: “You were beautiful, well dressed and went to the temple with me. You adored me, put your hands on my head … and your love tainted my heart".
Soon after work resume with presentations of priorities for projects performance improvement. More tomorrow with the country programme road map.
Flying Tiger reports from the Himalayas. (formerly known as flying cpm).
Posted by
Roxanna Samii
Friday, August 23, 2013
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IFAD Nepal Country Programme Training/ Workshop
22-26 August 2013
Hotel Chautari, Nagarkot
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), together with the five on-going Projects/Programmes under IFAD portfolio in Nepal: Western Upland Poverty Alleviation Programme (WUPAP), Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme (LFLP), High-Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas (HVAP), Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and Kisanka Lagi Biu-Bijan Karyakram/Improved Seeds for Farmers Programme (KUBK-ISFP), has jointly organized a five-day (22-26 August 2013) workshop/training program at Hotel Chautari, Nagarkot. The fundamental objectives of the event are to:
improve the performance and delivery of each project thereby contributing to the performance and delivery of the whole country portfolio
strengthen the capacity building aspects of the country team in various aspects of project management and synergies.
This is the first time such event is organized in Nepal gathering key staff of all projects under implementation.
22 August 2013
The workshop/training started with an evening reception on 22 August where the 70 participants from five IFAD-funded projects participated in an interactive introductory session. Participants are coming from all regions of Nepal, from remote districts in mountain and mid-hills.
23 August 2013: Morning session
The first day of the event focused on Project Performance and Country Programme Improvement aspects. Mr. Rajendra Adhikari (Joint Secretary Ministry of Agricultural Development) and Mr. Benoit Thierry (CPM) inaugurated the event by watering the Kisanka Lagi Biu-Bijan Karyakram/ Improved Seeds for Farmers Programme’s (KUBK-ISFP) potted plant.
Mr. Rajendra Adhikari (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agricultural Development), Mr. Benoit Thierry (CPM), Mr. Naba Raj Poudel (Foreign Aid Division Office, Ministry of Finance), Devendra Yadav (Livestock Coordinator, LFLP), Mr. Uttam Prasad Nagila (Project Coordinator, WUPAP), Mr. Rajendra Bhari (Project Manager, HVAP) and Ariel Halpern (Procasur) chaired the opening session.
Mr. Naba Raj Poudel (Foreign Aid Division Office, Ministry of Finance (MoF)) delivered the opening remarks on behalf of MoF. He highlighted the potential impact of the workshop in improvement of IFAD-funded project performance and claimed that this workshop could be a baseline for similar events. Mr. Poudel also talked about National Project Performance Review (NPPR) annual and quarterly meeting for evaluation of donor funded projects commenting that the capital expenditure is very low.
Mr. Rajendra Adhikari (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agricultural Development) marked the closing of the inaugural session by delivering his remarks on behalf of Ministry of Agricultural Development. Mr. Adhikari mentioned the new Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) highlighting the importance and impact of public-private partnership and the significance of marketing and effectively utilizing the agricultural production to ensure subsistence. He also said that Nepal needs subsistence agriculture for which the farmers need to be integrated into value chain. “This event should find the such communication mechanism to share our knowledge,” he said emphasizing the use of communication as the major key.
23 August 2013: Afternoon session
Benoit Thierry (CPM) made a presentation on the new Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) and upcoming Country Programme Integrated Support Unit (CPISU). His presentation highlighted the following points:
Country Programme Evaluation conclusions
Portfolio results and Expenses Analysis
Indicators of Annual Performance based Rating
Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) goal and objectives
Each project made a brief presentation on the factors impeding project performance and proposals to resolve the problems.
After the presentations, the participants were asked to vote the implementation issues on the basis of prioritization. The following issues were identified
Sustainability: 20 votes
Implementation in design: 14 votes
Monitoring and evaluation: 11 votes
Gender and inclusion: 9 votes
Staff: 9 votes
Aptitude to agribusiness: 9 votes
Fiduciary: 8 votes
Coordination at local level: 8 votes
Rural finance: 5 votes
Longer project time needed: 3 votes
HQ planning to field implementation: 2 votes
Expectation management: 2 votes
Nutrition: 1 vote
Time management: 1 vote
After a brief tea break, the participants worked in four different groups split by projects to find answers to the following questions:
How to retrofit the existing portfolio into the new COSOP RMF (Result Management Framework)?
How does the RMF affect our individual projects?
How to improve synergy, learning exchange and cooperative behavior?
After a 40-minute group discussing the project groups came up with constructive outcomes that will be incorporated in the Road Map at the end of the workshop. The roadmap shall be jointly agreed in policy dialogue agenda for country portfolio.
By Benoit Thierry, Yvonne Diethelm and Bashu Aryal
Warm Greetings from IFAD Nepal! We are pleased to announce that we have begun planning for the upcoming IFAD Nepal Retreat/Training to be held from August 22-26, 2013. The event will gather 60 people from IFAD-funded projects and government of Nepal.
The retreat will be held in Hotel Chautari in Nagarkot, 2 hours drive from Kathmandu. Getting away from regular workstations will be a great opportunity to relax as well as plan for constructive ways to improve project performance.
As we are all aware, performance level of IFAD funded projects in Nepal is below the regional average. We need to gear up, sharpen our focus and reflect on the gaps in order to improve our performance. Thus, the fundamental objective of this event is of three folds:
improving the performance and delivery of each project thereby contributing to the performance and delivery of the whole country portfolio;
capacity building of the country team in various aspects of project management
Posted by
miriam
Thursday, August 22, 2013
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Pass On What You Have Learned, ESA Projects Urged
By Betty MwakelemuTole, Documentation and Learning Officer, IFADAFRICA
The
four-day IFADAFRICA East and Southern Africa (ESA) Annual Knowledge Management
Workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya, drew to a close on the evening of 16 August
2013. Helen Gillman, IFAD’s Knowledge
Management Coordinator in her closing remarks, captured the mood of the
workshop. “We now understand knowledge management and learning is about
changing the way we work in order to achieve results. Take your commitment to
monitor, assess and document what you are doing seriously, and pass on what you
have learned,” said Ms. Gillman. Ninety-five Project Coordinators, Monitoring
and Evaluation (M&E), Knowledge Management and Communication Officers of
over 40 IFAD-supported projects, as well as few government and IFAD Country
Programme Officers from ESA region attended the workshop. The workshop
was facilitated by Jurgen Haggman and Edward Chuma, of PICOTEAM, and Miriam Cherogony,
the IFADAFRICA Project Coordinator.
Narciso from RFSP, Mozambique presents his learning
The
workshop agenda gave project officers an opportunity to share their
achievements and challenges in integrating knowledge management and learning
(KM&L) in their projects in the last one year using mini workshops and open
space. The methodologies used enabled other participants to learn, critique and
understand what other projects were doing and also explore new ideas to address
challenges in implementing KM&L. The projects reported increased awareness
of project results amongst the target audience, enhanced focus on result-based
M&E, integration of lessons learned in the formulation of Country Strategic
Operational Plans (COSOP), increase in allocations towards KM&L activities
in budgets and workplans, and mainstreaming of KM&L in the design of new
projects, among other practices.
At
both project, and country level (as members of the Country Programme Management
Team of IFAD-supported projects), participants shared the challenges they are
grappling with in mainstreaming KM&L in government, facilitating KM&L
at grassroots level, making Communities of Practice (CoPs) work, setting up and
managing a learning oriented M&E, developing capacity of KM&L, and
documenting and disseminating knowledge. In groups, participants held
discussions on how some of them have addressed these challenges and came up
with new suggestions.
Aileen Ogolla of Practical Action shares their KM experience
To
enhance further understanding of KM&L, Jurgen Hagmann, Picoteam took the
participants through the integrated knowledge management system, which
highlights the five interconnected functions that form the foundation of
KM&L system. These include learning and adaptation, monitoring and
evaluation, internal and external communication, innovation and
experimentation, and information management. In addition, the framework for
putting KM&L into action, as outlines in the 11 cornerstones for
integrating KM into projects and programmes was also discussed. Knowledge
management partners, Practical Action and Arid Lands Information Network
(ALIN) presented their work on the use of “Practical Answers” which is their
focus on knowledge management and Maarifa Centres or community information
centers respectively that provide knowledge harvesting at the local level.
Elizabeth Ssendiwala, IFAD Regional Gender Specialist, ESA did presented on
gender mainstreaming and use of KM using the case of Bukonzo Joint Cooperative
in Western Uganda using visioning to address cross cutting issues of
gender and land.
Mosarwe from ASP, Botswana presents their action plan
Ms.
Miriam Cherogony made a presentation on facilitating online CoPs. This was an
important activity for IFADAFRICA, which will assist in the continued KM
discussions in between the face to face meetings. Most of the CoPs discussion
was drawn from the recent online facilitation training by Nancy White, Fullcirc
focusing mainly on value proposition, tools and stewardship of the CoP. Edward
Chuma, Picoteam led the participants in a discussion on KM strategy
development. This was based on requests from a number of projects who have
planned to undertake this activity in the coming months. Participants
eventually developed country action plans for continuing implementation of
KM&L.
Reflection and Way Forward
·Although there
has been marked improvement in the understanding of KM&L among the projects
there is still need for hand holding through coaching and mentoring to provide
assurance that they are in the right direction.
·A number of
projects are keen to pursue some sort of documentation of their experiences and
are interested in support of institutions such as Practical Action and Arid
Lands Information Network (ALIN) who demonstrated good hands on experience and
possible linkage. IFADAFRICA will develop a documentation template to ensure
proper harvesting and documentation of knowledge products for sharing and to
populate the website (www.ifadafrica.org)
·The annual face
to face meetings are too far in between to make them effective hence the need
for the online facilitation and development of CoPs for the ongoing discussion.
The priority areas focused on documentation, learning oriented M&E and KM
at the community level.
·There is an
urgent need to address the online facilitation platform to enable the CoPs to
flourish. Several suggestions were put forward that the platform must be user
friendly, interesting and linked to some of the attractive social media like
Face book and tweeter.
Paulo from Mozambique leads participants in appreciation of presenters
·The use of open
space and mini workshops was very effective in getting the participants to
share their experiences. In future this should be encouraged and primed
properly to ensure interesting cases are shared. The invitation of other KM
institutions such as ALIN and Practical Action added quite some flavor to the
discussions.
·There was a
strong push to develop some simple monitoring and evaluation indicators for
KM&L to enable Projects and IFADAFRICA to know whether they making an
impact or not. PICOTEAM promised to complete the KM&L Performance
Framework started in Phase I to enable IFADAFRICA to select some key indicators
to monitor KM&L at all levels. This will be discussed and shared with
the projects.
·Due to
time constraint the participants only managed to develop their country action
plans. There is need to do immediate follow-up and ensure the project plans are
completed. IFADAFRICA coaching and mentoring will be provided to ensure they
are implemented.
·For IFADAFRICA to
maximize the limited resources there is a strong case to focus on the new
projects with both KM in the design and old staff from closed projects that are
fully sensitized to ensure they mainstream KM&L.
·The commitment of
the Country Programme Manager remains important to projects mainstreaming
KM&L. IFADAFRICA to champion discussions with the CPMs and Regional
technical experts based at the Regional Office to ensure we come up with a common
strategy to ensure KM&L are supported to take root in projects and ensure
results.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided grants and low-interest loans to programmes and projects that have reached several hundred million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agriculture hub.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The designations employed and the presentation of material in this blog do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IFAD concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The designations “developed” and “developing” countries are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.
