IFAD social reporting blog

For those who missed out at the APR but heard about the 'Romeo and Juliet' session, you can get a better session of the offerings that Romeo Grant and Juliet Loan had to give each other in this short video clip.

On going RPRP is planned to be completed before the completion date. All available funding has been budgeted to be utilised within this year. This year, project effort will focus on project completion process especially on KM and CPR. ENRAP will support KM and communication officers financially and technically through out the year.
M&E support was provided by China country team member early this year. Input focussed on logframe and completion survey. Follow up input will be provided towards latter half of the year.
Supervision mission will focus on the project completion process, including SA reconciliation, completion survey, PCR, KM process. It is planned to coincide with inter Aimag meeting. Supervision mission by cluster CPO's is being discussed, providing opportunity for cross fertilisation within country cluster.
Rural Finance Component has been most problematic component, in terms of out reach and group lending. Discussion was held with APRACA in order to receive their input to the programme. CPM will support PSU in following up with participating banks.

Newly proposed Natural Resource Management Imitative builds up on one of the activities undertaken by RPRP. RPRP will provide input and support during design. Regarding the MARPP project, RPRP will implement pilot projects in 3 aimags. It is envisaged that learning from these pilot project will also be taken into the finalisation of MARPP design.

Ongoing Post Tsunami project is establishing foundation for project implementation. IFAD CPM will closely follow the process and provide necessary support.
(1) The project is currently recruiting M&E consultant to establish M&E system. CPM will request the regional RBM officer to backstop M&E consultant from HQ. A short input from Philippines CPO will be provided in late May.
(2) The project is preparing for the first withdrawal application. CPM will liaise with the project closely and provide necessary support.
(3) MTR for the project starts from 21st March. During this MTR, re-designing of components, reallocation and cancellation of fund will be decided.

The new project FADiP is awaiting for effectiveness. Current effectiveness deadline is 15th April. If the government successful meets effectiveness conditions, start up workshop shall be conducted either in June or July. During the workshop phase, loan administration and M&E training will be conducted for both projects and government staff.

The main issue of Maldives Country Programme is severe lack of local capacity for project implementation. CPM will provide information on trainings by other IFAD country teams in the sub-region.

The link below brings you to an interview of Thomas Rath on climate change with tasty social flavor added by Mattia...

http://blip.tv/file/1850651

The APR was brought to a close by Thomas Elhaut, who promised free massages to those who would listen to his speech :-)

Instead of summarizing the APR, Thomas highlighted what he felt were the main points of change that IFAD needs to act upon:

• Agriculture is back on the agenda: we have to do it much better this time around in the context of a food /financial crisis and the key agricultural productivity and research
• Direct supervision: we are aiming for improved administration and shorter turnaround. Many projects are at risk, so we need to help each other. We have to move towards implementation support - facilitation, mutual accountability and support each other's learning. We heard good ideas to improve DS, such as through peer reviews, reviewing the timing of missions and empowering missions through their composition (involvement of government,grant managers and local stakeholders)
• Grants in country progammes: we have limited resources so let's use them strategically. They are a foundation for KM and we are underexploiting that. We need stronger linkages; loans have to be greared to grants at the project design stage...why wait for marriage? (as Tung put it ;-))
• KM: we made big progress in demystifying KM. We now know that KM is about learning and sharing, keeping it simple and innovating, with support from others, giving a shoulder to cry on. We need to be selective in what we do around KM, be evidence-based, resist standarizing and be gender/culture sensitive. ENRAP helps with this, bringing together people face-to-face and with technology; EMachina will help us with technology in the next phase. Remember that IFAD's identity is rural poverty reduction and innovation. Cassandra and her team will share this with the rest of the world
• Managing country programmes for results: need to have simplicity and clarity. The starting point is the log frame but we need to have clarity of objective, to decide where you want to go before you try to get there. Monitoring and evaluation is a management tool; be selective, simple and concrete, collect what you need, need what you collect. We have to mainstream further by identifiyng M & E resource people in country
• Financial: we have improved procurement but we still have some way to go. We will organize procurement trainings, but also trainings on fraud and corruption. We plan to organize a financial event with aid agencies and finance ministries to look at trying to find funds for KM and to simplify procedures. We will have more money to address global issues next year but we know that you are already confronting them on a day-to-day basis and are finding solutions for those constraints
• Productivity issues: we need to have more talks about it... this was the first time we sat down with John Skerritt
• Climate change: need to desgn with more flexibility, have coping strategies, policy responses and earmark funds for women to deal with climate change
• Sustainability: it is the other side of climate change and the food crisis, the economic and social dimension. There needs to be ownership of the identity agenda at the project design and keep it on the radar throughout
• Private sector: it is an important player, we have to start working with them as partners. We want to bring them along at the next APR meeting so we will be doing some prep work
• Knowledge market: it was remarkable, many thanks to all for sharing about your work
• Blog: I want to see the results from the exercice on country team work reported on blog. What are you going to do? I would love to see 2-3 changes as consequence of this workshop. Let's keep the blog alive, as least until the next workshop

General action points:

1. IFAD - Project - Government supervision missions should ensure that terms of reference are sent well in advance;
2. The Provincial People's Committee should be informed of the Mission and requested participation, particularly to participate in the field visits;
3. Ministry of Planning (MPI) and Investment and MoF should participate in the missions;
4. Provincial wrap up meetings would be help at the end of each supervision mission;
5. One national level workshop (country programme review) bringing together the findings of the supervision missions would be sufficient in Hanoi chaired by the MPI;
6. Follow up missions would be made based on request; and
7. Capacity needs to be built of the project M&E teams to develop M&E systems and analysis of data.

The following specific plan was discussed and timeline agreed upon with the Project Directors:

Supervision Missions:

• 9 March - 17 March - travel to Tuyen Quang, RIDP Supervision Mission
• 30 March - 9 April - travel to Ha Giang, DPPR Supervision Mission
• 12 April - 21 April - travel to Quang Binh DPPR Supervision Mission
• 26 - 29 April - travel to Bac Kan province, Start up workshop for the 3PAD
• 1 May - 10 May - travel to Ha Tinh IMPP Supervision Mission
• 12 May - 22 May - travel to Tra Vinh IMPP Supervision Mission
• 25 May - 2 June - travel to Ben Tre DBRP Supervision Mission
• 8 June - 17 June - travel to Cao Bang DBRP Supervision Mission

M&E:

• 20 - 24 April - M&E Mission in Bac Kan province
• September - M&E follow up mission to build the capacity of the M&E units

Knowledge Management Events:

• Mid July - IFAD provinces Pro-Poor Commodities Trade Fair in Ha Tinh province
• August - Country Programme Review
• 1st day - performance evaluation from MPI
• 2nd day - project status evaluation IFAD
• Mid October -Field immersion (Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre)
• 1st week of December - Knowledge Management Fair
• 1st day - media event and knowledge sharing
• 2nd day - Provincial People's Committee day

1. improving knowledge management; and


2. enhancing the capacity of project management.

In knowledge management, the country team wants to adopt and/or improve appropriate processes for Creating, Capturing, Communicating and Carrying Out knowledge and best practices with the help and active participation of the members of the country programme management team and its development partners, as well as of concerned stakeholders within the country and beyond. In project management, the focus will be on building the capacity of the staff of the ongoing programmes and projects, with special emphasis on the areas of Monitoring and Evaluation, Procurement, and Financial Management. During the year the following key activities under these two headings will be carried out:

• In the area of improving Knowledge Management: (a) establish a Knowledge Bank of Good Practices; (b) publish two IFAD-Philippines Special Newsletter Issues; (c) set-up a national website; (d) conduct the 3rd Knowledge and Learning Market; and (e) identify and train Knowledge Management champions for better knowledge sharing.


• In the area of improving Project Management Capacity: (a) hold a focused annual country programme review with special attention on Monitoring and Evaluation, Financial Management, and Procurement; (b) facilitate loan administration and financial management training with the help of carefully selected specialists; (c) facilitate the cross visit of staff from the NMCIREMP to IFAD project(s) in the Asia and the Pacific region's portfolio; and (c) enable the staff of all projects and programmes to participate in the APMAS training, once funds under that grant are released.

We have discussed the common work for all three projects - Tsunami project, dry zone project and the plantation project. The following are our major common events in 2009 where all the projects and some government participants will participate:

1. M&E and RIMS training programme is planned to be held in end of March. Lando and Susan will help us as the resource persons. All three projects are very enthusiastic about the workshop, may be after the APR. This is a 2 and 1/2 day residential workshop. The objective is to prepare the M&E plan with M&E indicators and identify RIMS indicators. The individual projects will finance their cost and IFAD will fiance the resources persons cots from a SIS budget. This is a novel way of having joint funding to conduct a training workshop.
2. FAO and the World Bank with the Dry Zone project participation is organising a workshop to bring the producers, processors and traders to initiate a value chain for the project participants. The cost of the 2-day residential workshop is funded by FAO and the WB is facilitating it. IFAD project is benefiting by getting their participants to learn about processing and value addition.
3. The Start-up workshop for the SPEnDP is scheduled for the end of March 2009. This is again a 2-day residential workshop and the total cost will come from IFAD. Although it is late we are finally getting all partners together to have this workshop.
4. The first stakeholder workshop will be held in April to share the COSOP formulation process with the key stakeholders. This will be a residential 2-day workshop with the participation of the IFAD and GOSL key officials including the private sector.
5. A 2-day workshop will be held in the 1st week of June to discuss the initial steps of Knowledge management strategy for Sri Lanka. The Tsunami project National Coordinator very kindly agreed to organise the workshop which will be fully financed by either IFAD or ENRAP or both. Shalini will guide us and also Chase will give us the top level guidance. The out come expected is the ingredient to formulate the KM strategy and some concrete actions.
6. There will be Loan Admin Training Workshop for all the three project participants. This will be a 4-day workshop fully financed by IFAD and Neomi is to be contacted as the resources person.
7. The first Country Portfolio Review workshop will be held in September. This will be a 3-4 day workshop with full participation of all the project and project lead agencies. The Dry Zone Project Coordinator kindly agree to organise the workshop and the full cost will be born b IFAD.
8. In addition to these common work the following implementation support and supervision Maison (ISS) are planed: (a) Light mission for PTCRrMP in March; (b) Design mission for the NADeP in May; (c) Mid-term Review Mission for DZLisPP in June; (d) Light mission for SPEnDP in July; (e) 1st ISS mission for the Grant project for Anuadhaura Rural Foundation in August; (f) Full ISS for PTCRrEMP in September; and (g) full ISS for SPEnDP in December.

The China country team reviewed the achievements of last year’s action plan and acknowledged that last year plan was a bit ambitious, as result about 50% target was achieved. This was also due to the fact that the government focal agency would ultimately need to be consulted and not all actions were fully endorsed. This year’s plan was made with PMOs but also with leadership given by the government representative. The focus will be on improving knowledge management and project implementation quality:

Knowledge management

• Strengthen knowledge collection and dissemination in project management.
  
• Increase awareness of KM
  
• Diversify the composition of the direct supervision mission.
  
• Enhance the role of ENRAP website (system upgrading and enlarge the number of users)
  
• Improve South-South cooperation in aspect of KM
  

In light of the discussions of the PI Annual Performance Review workshop, the Pakistan country team has fine tuned the country programme AWPB for the following 5 key areas:

1. Managing for results
Project level

• All projects to focus more on RIMS, with more regular / consistent reporting on RIMS indicators
  
• Project management to have contingent plan for ensuring continuity in occasions when M&E officers are transferred
  
• PPAF to organise 6-monthly review meetings with POs on results of MIOP & PRISM
  

• To strengthen capacity of country office to back up / assist projects on M&E in general and RIMS in particular
  

Recorded by Sana F. K. JATTA and Ayurzana Puntsagdavaa

The lunch session on co-financing was held on 4 March 2009 with the following purposes:

• to reflect on experiences of project and programme managers of IFAD-assisted projects in the Asia and the Pacific region on co-financing and;
  
• to extract lessons learnt to help improve partnership frameworks in the future.

• Co-financing promised during design sometimes did not materialize;
  
• Even where co-financing promised during design did end up materializing, they sometimes were on terms and conditions different from those agreed;
  
• Lack of synchronization of resources mobilized by co-financiers;
  
• Complexity of resource mobilisation, especially when many co-financiers fund 1 specific activity or component;
  
• Managing different co-financiers demands a lot of time from project directors / managers;
  
• Donors demand co-financing sometimes for their own internal corporate requirements rather than that of borrowing governments;
  
• Sometimes mobilization of Government counterpart funds pose such a hassle for project directors that they are forced to use donor’s funds, which subsequently creates accountability problems and problems with withdrawal applications; and
  
• Lack of harmonization of strategic objectives and operational procedures of donors poses difficulties during implementation.
  

• Co-financing agreements should be completed, finalized and well documented prior to submission to the Executive Board of IFAD;
  
• Programme design should build in sufficient flexibility such that lack of co-financing resources during implementation will not have a major impact on the whole project;
  
• Avoid many co-financiers funding the same component where possible;
  
• Different cofinanciers should be assigned different geographic area or component or activity to fund such that each could be self contained;
  
• Target co-financing of different programme activities based on comparative advantages of individual co-financiers with the hope of managing or capitalizing on knowledge they have and on their corporate comfort levels;
  
• Carefully selecting cofinanciers can be very useful e.g. in debt-swaps; and
  
• When mobilizing co-financing ensure that co-financiers explain clearly their procedures for mobilizing their funds to ensure project managers know exactly what they have to do from the beginning of the project.
  

A meeting of the Nepal Country Team was held in the context of the APR workshop in Bangkok.

The Nepal team (with a special guest from the Pacific Islands) reviewed potential for improving the role and focus of the CPMT concept with an objective making this a more useful mechanism for managing knowledge, improving performance and enhancing policy linkage.

The main agreements coming from this meeting are as follows:

Objectives and Focus of CPMT
The objectives for the CPMT would be sharing of knowledge to improve performance and policy influence.

It was agreed that the in-country CPMT would be more effective in achieving these objectives if the participation remained small and focused. Where appropriate, additional stakeholders will be included (for instance during design, supervision, COSOP review processes etc...)

It was agreed that the CPMT will not be "Rome" driven or dependant. It was further agreed that the annual COSOP review process will be integrated within the Government system with other development partners in Nepal.

Composition
It was agreed that the a "core" CPMT consisting of Project Directors, Grant Coordinators, Key Line agency and Ministry Officials and IFAD staff will be formed.

Frequency
The core CPMT will meet systematically on a trimester basis to align with national planning processes. Meetings/ events will be held each year during the 3rd week of December, last week of April and last week of August. The December meeting will be considered an annual meeting and be larger in participation coinciding with the Annual Cosop review. Training side events will be held around the fringes of the August CPMT session.

The first meeting will be held in April 2009.

Thematic Focus
Suggestions for initial issues and themes for discussion during the CPMT range from micro finance, M&E, gender, climate change and ecosystem services, and KM.

Country Team meeting held on day 3 of the workshop.

Present: Nigel Brett, Hashib Alam, Niaz Apu, Sheikh Mohsin, Jebun Naher, Khalil Rahman, Fazlul Kader, Abdur Razzaque, Shankar Kutty, Chase Palmeri, Mel Posadas.

Minutes as follows.

1. Design:

PSSWDP: Appraisal of PSSWDP in March 2009, EB presentation in September 2009. Effectiveness in early 2010.
New projects: 3 concepts for future projects currently under review by IFAD. Most likely that an inception will take place in May 2009 for an integrated coastal zone project in partnership with Netherlands.

2. Supervision:

Direct supervision of MFTSP (Oct), MFMSFP (Oct), FEDEC (Nov), SCBRMP (Jan), MIDPCR (March).
World Bank supervision of NATP (Jan).
Main supervision agenda for 2009 - improvement in financial management and procurement, KM and impact.

3. C0untry Grants

New IFAD country grants to Bangladesh include a grant to research arsenic contamination in crops and livestock, and a grant to research saline tolerance in rice in coastal areas to mitigate for climate change. Both grants will have a start-up workshop in 2009 and are being managed by IRRI Dhaka Office.

4. IFAD President visit:

Possibility of a visit by IFAD's new President to Bangladesh in 2009. Such a visit is not yet confirmed, but if it goes ahead it could include field visits to see microfinance groups and mini hatcheries in MFTSP, or microfinance for farmers in MFMSFP. Other possibilities could be LCS groups in MIDPCR, or fishing groups in SCBRMP.

5. KM agenda in 2009

Apu is now in-country KM facilitator.
Monthly KM meetings for country programme network, chaired by Apu.
6 monthly portfolio review meetings chaired by CPM.
Maintenance of BD page on IFAD poverty portal.
2 six monthly newsletters.
2 bangla editions of the newsletter.
Identification of agenda for documentation by projects through supervision missions.
ENRAP follow-up events - possibly refresher write-shop.

6. Procurement agenda in 2009.

Major improvements are needed in procurement management in the country programme. Activities that will be supported include:

• training of project staff in procurement by Sudhir (focus on FEDEC, SCBRMP)
  
• training of project staff and also district level staff in procurement by Amar Mishra and/or Sudhir (focus on MIDPCR).
  
• specific training in community procurement and waterbody development procurement is needed in SCBRMP.
  
• big increase in lead time for procurement - IFAD will be alerted at least 3 months in advance of any prior review - to avoid last minute rushes and delays.
  
• any corrections in data sheets that are not recorded in opening sheets will be automatically be re-tendered.
• in the case of MIDPCR, Amar will review the documents in-country for all cases of IFAD prior review(as opposed to sending full sets to IFAD) in view of the huge bulk of documentation involved. Amar should review financial capacity, technical capability, past experience for responsive bids. Amar will then inform Shankar of the outcome of the reviews. The only docs that are sent to IFAD in these cases are the 5 page evaluations.
• However for any case of over USD 100,000 all docs should to be sent to Shankar in IFAD for all phases of procurement review.
• LGED will send a letter to IFAD outlining the process of procurement at district level and pointing out that only the top 3 responsive bids are sent from the District to LGED HQ.
• In SCBRMP, in cases where there are discrepencies between IFAD and GOB procurement guidelines, the project should follow IFAD guidelines.
• In the case of SCBRMP - advance payment of LCS women is ok.
• In the case of SCBRMP - while any splitting of lots for roads is in line with the Govt guidelines under certain circumstances, IFAD require expanations from the PD for all these cases.
• In SCBRMP, it was explained that in remote areas, only 5 contractors are present, and that this automatically leads to the same companies bidding for the large number of roads that are financed.
• IFAD will not approve any cases where works begin before contracts are signed.

• TOT training by Dewan Alamgir is needed for FEDEC - 3 batches in 2009.
  
• Refresher results based AWPB training is needed - Maria Donnat will be approached to see if this is feasible.
  
• IFAD format for results based AWPB will be provided to the new PD of NATP.
  

• Software adaptation for Dhan Foundation for SCBRMP.
  
• FM software adaptation for MIDPCR
  

Thomas Elhaut tells us about the three things that he has observed so far:

In Wednesday's morning session, Dhrupad Choudhury, Coordinator of the Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction Programme stressed the importance of learning from and strengthening community adaptation measures to climate change.

Check out the link to the video below:

Click To Play