Regional project implementation workshop in Western and Central Africa

THE DOUALA ACTION PLAN

DOUALA ACTION PLANWORKING GROUP –NIGERIA, GHANA, SIERRA LEONE, THE GAMBIA

Douala, Cameroon27-30 January 2009

THE DOUALA ACTION PLANANGLOPHONE Working Group - Terms of Reference

• Essential elements needed to increase impact and sustainability, and improving implementation and learning at the level of individual projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia

• Recommended support and changes to the roles of IFAD and national staff and regional grants; and

• Complete the implementation and supervision programme for 2009, by individual projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia

DISCUSSION POINTS

• (i) Lending and Grant Programme 2009/2010

• (ii) Loan Administration and Implementation Support

• (iii) Monitoring and Evaluation, Impact, RIMS and Sustainability

• (iv) Partnership, Knowledge Management and Innovation

(i) Lending and Grant Programme 2009/2010

2009 2010

• Number of loans to be prepared 8 2

• 2009 Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia TOTAL USD 30.25 mil

• 2010 Ghana, Liberia TOTAL USD 40 mil

COSOP – NIGERIA Executive Board December 2009

(ii) Loan Administration and Implementation Support

ISSUES

• Delays in loan effectiveness• Low disbursement;• Annual Work Plan Budget not fully implemented;• Complex procurement procedures; • Inadequate counterpart funds.• Qualified Audit reports• Project management staff (high turnover)

(iii) Improve Monitoring and Evaluation, Impact, RIMS and Sustainability

ISSUES• Weak M&E Systems• Inadequate training and capacity of staff• Too many Indicators;• Inadequate benchmarking and validation of monitoring data;• Limited contribution of project data to national data base or

poverty reduction observatories;

• INADEQUATE REPORTING OF RIMS

• SUSTAINABILITY of some activites is of concern

(iv) Partnership, Knowledge Management and Innovation

ISSUES

• Greater attention to expanding and deepening partnerships;

• Not enough priority given to sharing knowledge more effectively within and between projects; and involving FIDAFRIQUE, IFAD, and Government institutions to screen innovative work

• Improved access to internet and web based facilities

(iv) Partnership, Knowledge Management and Innovation (continued)

• Inadequate tools and systems to scout for and capture innovations

• Limited engagement to champion innovative activities and on and the up-scaling of innovation in projects and in-country programmes

• Increased attention of research grants to field level challenges and ensuring participatory processes for field testing of innovations

Given the issues of concern the main Areas to be addressed in Douala Action Plan are:

Improvements in

(i) Project management and dedicated human resources of projects

(ii) Meeting effectiveness conditions; Disbursement rate; availability and timeliness of counterpart funds; Quality of accounts and audit reports; procurement planning according to national and IFAD procedures

(iii) Performance of M&E system

(iv) Knowledge management

Timeliness in loan effectiveness

1. Identify (and involve) key project staff early during project design to ensure prompt effectiveness

2. Resolve effectiveness conditions during project design and appraisal (except legal opinion and ratification)

3. Increase country ownership and commitment; ensure continuity of investment programmes by dovetailing closing projects with new ones

4. IFAD introducing changes to the Loan Agreement leading to fewer conditions of loan effectiveness

Increase disbursement

• Realistic work plans and budgets with good reliable service providers

• More effective procurement planning and using as much as possible national procedures wherever these are found to be effective and acceptable to IFAD

• Selective in choice and type of project, avoiding complexity and minimising risks in civil strife countries

• Timeliness of availability of counterpart funds; and• IFAD changes to general lending conditions making

some taxes and duties eligible for financing

Quality of accounts and audit reports

More attention given to finalisation of annual financial statements at year end

Timely recruitment of auditorsTimely submission of audit reportsPrompt attention and follow-up of auditors

recommendationsFor risky projects with weak financial management

capacity more frequent use of external accounting support

Performance of M&E system

Improve quality in design with more attention given to M&E,

Undertake baseline surveys early after project start-up and RIMS introduced into policy discussions

• Strengthened monitoring and evaluation capacities within project

Performance of M&E system (continued)More involvement of beneficiaries in M&E and

increasing participatory M&E

Reduce number of indicators and ensure they are SMART (simple, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely)

Recruiting specialists to undertake exhaustive data collection activities; project staff to concentrate on Reporting Results, and Impact

Knowledge Management and Innovation

• Mechanisms and Regularity of Results-Oriented Knowledge Reporting

- development of a lessons-learnt communication strategy where results-oriented knowledge can be placed;

- Mandatory reporting with accuracy, completeness and regularity on knowledge (good practices);

- Each project should mainstream KM starting at design stage.

• Strengthening Capacities: Ways to capture good practices – tools

- External KM experts linking up with regional or country grant-financed activities to support capacity building; with Technical equipment suitable to the respective target audience

Knowledge Management and Innovation (continued)

• Linking up to policy level- start at operational level and communicated to policy level before they

are shared externally. Ghana, for example, has a national information sharing platform for the agricultural sector which is integrated into a policy framework.

- Good practices obtained in a project should be available also after project closure. The establishment of national KM platforms should be encouraged and be linked to regional fora such as Fidafrique

• Collection of Information- Supervision missions should identify good and results-oriented

practices to be promoted this model should become part of the TOR of Supervision missions (example: first test in Nigeria RTEP in March 2009).

- Management of Knowledge reporting: the easier management and mainstreaming of regular KM reporting from operations.

- Further types of knowledge: Good practices as well as failures should be reported to avoid bad practices in ongoing and planned operations

Recommendations on support needed to improve performance

The Portfolio Management Unit for loan administration providing support to CPMs and direct supervision of projects

Emphasising Country ownership / engagement during design / implementation

Greater emphasis on In-country programme management teams and support to local project management capacity and knowledge

Significant increase of IFAD supervision and increasing CPO presence

Foster Innovation and learning: Fidafrique, Innovation Fair, Supervision Mission scouting for innovations...

Recommendations on support needed to improve performance (continued)

Greater Strategic use of grants to strengthen capacities: Work planning budgeting and financial Management, M&E

More effective and strategic use of research grants to ensure direct relevance to field level operations

More pilot initiatives to upscale promising activities. The pilots could be supervised with particular attention given to upscaling promptly.

ALL THE RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE FOLLOWED-UP

• FAR greater and regular feedbacking by CPMs on Project Status Reports and Country Programme Issues to Projects and counterpart

• DURING SUPERVISION AND WILL BE INCLUDED IN TERMS OF REFERENCE OF ALL MISSIONS

• REGULAR REPORTING ON PROGRESS BEING MADE IN IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS