MID-TERM REVIEW REPORT January 17 th, 2013

Transcription

1 MID-TERM REVIEW REPORT January 17 th, 2013 ATTENDEES Catherine Chazaly (ECHO, Brussels), Julianne Friedrich (ECHO, Nairobi), Roselyn Mullo (ECHO, New Delhi), Christophe Gadrey (ECHO, Brussels), Sabah Barigou (ECHO, Dakar), Jose Luis Alvarez (CMN Project Coordinator), Raquel Argibay (CMN Project Administrator), Morgan Kindber (CMN Project Intern), Uwimana Sebinwa (ACF-hosted RECO), Ines Zuza (ACF-hosted RECO), Beatriz Perez (HKI-hosted RECO), Sanjay Das (Save the Children-hosted RECO), Lovely Amin (Concern Worldwide-hosted RECO), Saul Guerrero (ACF Technical Adviser), Kate Golden (Concern Worldwide, Technical Adviser), Caroline Abla (International Medical Corps Technical Adviser), Issakha Diop (Helen Keller International Technical Adviser), Rachel Evans (Save the Children UK Technical Adviser), George Tiendrebeogo (Valid International) 1. GENERAL OVERVIEW (10 Mins) The CMN project has so far been highly successful and received a big demand from Nutrition Programs all over the world. So far the CMN have received requests from 54 nutrition programs in 28 countries supported by 11 different ingos. The following Coverage Assessment are scheduled for Additional requests are expected in Country Organization Country Organization Country Organization Afghanistan ACF-F Kenya ACF Senegal RC-F Angola WorldVision Kenya Islamic Relief Senegal ACF-S Bangladesh ACF Kenya Concern Sierra Leone ACF Burkina ACF Kenya IMC Somalia ACF Burkina ACF Liberia ACF Somalia IMC Burkina HKI Mali ACF-S South Sudan IMC Cameroun RC-F Mali RC-F South Sudan WorldVision CAR ACF Mali HKI South Sudan SC Cote d'ivoyre ACF Mauritania ACF-S South Sudan ACF-US DRC ACF-US Niger HKI South Sudan Concern DRC ACF-US Niger SC South Sudan IMC DRC Caritas Niger Concern Sudan Concern Ethiopia IMC Niger ACF-S Tchad RC-F Afghanistan ACF-F Nigeria SC Tchad ACF Haiti ACF-F Nigeria ACF-US Tchad Concern Haiti Concern Philippines ACF Tchad IMC India Tdh Found Rwanda Concern Yemen Merlin Kenya ACF Senegal ACF-S Yemen ACF

2 The fully assembled (and expanded) CMN project team will enable the project to meet the growing demand for support.these now include: 1 CMN coordinator overviewing the project 1 CMN administration and financial coordinator 1 CMN project assistant organising the logistics of field activities 1 financial controller to supervise the expenditures 5 Technical Advisors 4 Administrator (15% of time) to follow each partner s budget 6 RECOs to engage in field activities under result 2. In addition to the 4 national trainings scheduled in Kenya, Burkina Faso, DRC an Nepal, Nutrition Clusters in 4 additional countries have requested national trainings through UNICEF: Pakistan, Madagascar, Yemen and Sudan. Potential branch-off project with UNICEF may be developed by ACF to meet the growing demand for support (without overburdening the CMN project) In Kenya, the CMN is working closely with the Nutrition Information Working group, an interagency collaboration designed to carry out regular coverage monitoring activities. In Nigeria, the CMN will support the 1.5 million coverage monitoring project (led by ACF) and funded by the Children s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) The CMN has also organised meetings in Dakar and London with the ingo ALIMA and Valid International, to identify new areas of technical research in coverage, translate technical documents into French and produce papers for the Field Exchange Magazine (ENN) to raise awareness and support the use of coverage assessment methodologies. Much of the emphasis currently being placed on evaluating coverage of SAM treatment programmes. The coverage of MAM programmes should also be considered, in particular, to ensure that the effects of the presence/absence of MAM-treatment on SAM coverage are adequately understood. All participants emphasised the paramount importance of ensuring that increases in the quantity of the work implemented by the project does not affect the quality of the work carried out. 2. PROJECT PERFORMANCE BY RESULT (60 mins) 2.1. RESULT 1 (10 mins) Project Target: 4 Regional Workshops/On-the-job Trainings/After Action Reviews 50% of the activities in Result 1 have been achieved. These include Two (2) out of four (4) Coverage Workshops planned. The remaining two activities (50%) will be completed by mid- March Kenya: The CMN worked together with the Nutrition Information Working Group under the Nutrition Cluster. This group helped the CMN to select 14 key people from UNICEF, MoH and different NGOs to be trained under 1 SQUEAC in Merti district. Trained individuals now sit on

3 the Nutrition Information Working Group, who oversee all coverage assessment needs in Kenya. The group works closely with the CMN on all technical matters. Burkina Faso. The training was completed at the end of December The Burkina MoH, through the DN (Direction Nutrition), expressed an interest to become the reference point for coverage assessments in the region. Staff from other MoH in the region also attended. Several SQUEACs will be conducted during 2013 in different areas of Burkina. DRC: originally scheduled to take place in Nigeria (cancelled due to insecurity) the workshop, on-the-job training and after action reviews will now be carried out from January 24 th, 2013 onwards. Conducting these activities in DRC will also enable the project to cater for the growing demand for training from francophone countries. Regional representatives (from UNICEF, Red Cross and ingos) are expected to attend this training. Nepal, originally scheduled to take place in Bangladesh (cancelled due to government regulations on NGO expenditures) the workshop, on-the-job training and after action review will now be carried out from February 25 th, Regional representatives (including WFP staff) are expected to attend this training. Other countries have been following the national training with interest and national clusters (with the support from UNICEF) have also requested similar workshops. The CMN is working closely with the following countries to understand the local situation, number of Assessment to be implemented in those countries during 2013 and preparing workshops adapted to local needs. The CMN anticipates that similar trainings will be carried out in Pakistan, Madagascar, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia. These events are successful are catering for national-level demand, but have limited reach at regional level. Part of the challenge lies in the limited time given the potential participants (because of how long it takes to develop a finalised chronogram). Additional problems arise from the length of these events; the workshops (1 day) are too short, and the on-the-job trainings (3 weeks) are too long for most participants from the regions. The upcoming Nepal and DRC trainings will have greater regional participation, but the project will continue to make efforts to increase regional involvement RESULT 2 (40 mins) Project Target: 46 Coverage Assessments To date, the project has supported the Design, Planning, Implementation and Analysis of 8 Coverage Assessments Country Region Date Coverage Rate Main Barrier Senegal Matam Sept % Awareness Sudan Darfur, Merti Oct % Community mobilization Ethiopia Dolo Camps Oct % Community mobilization Haiti Port-au-Prince Nov % Stigmatization Ivory Coast Danané Nov % Stock Breaks

4 Rwanda Gisagara Nov % Distance SouthSudan Kapoeta Dec % Distance Yemen Dec2012 N/A N/A And remote support for the design and planning of coverage Assessments in Chad and Kenya Country Region Date Coverage Rate Main Barrier Chad Kanem Sept % Distance Chad Bahr-el-Gazel Oct % Distance & pastoralism Kenya Laikipia Nov 2012 N/A N/A Three dimensions of the experience so far: 1. The effect of Ministry of Health involvement the experience from Yemen (RECO for East and Southern Africa) 2. The effect of UNICEF involvement - the experience from Sudan (RECO for East and Southern Africa) 3. Multi-agency coverage assessments the experience from Haiti (RECO for West and Central Africa) SQUEAC is seen as a complex methodology. Questions were raised regarding the evidence demonstrating that once teams receive a single training they are able to replicate these assessments successfully and at an acceptable level of quality. The project staff argued that whilst the full body of evidence will only be available at the end of the project, some of the field trainings (in Ivory Coast for example) have already resulted in teams replicating the assessments with only remote support. ECHO would like the project to step up efforts to see the humanitarian sector appropriating coverage assessment tools and methodologies. ECHO would also like to see more support going to programmes not supported by the partner agencies, and in particular, ACF. The project will work more closely with the GNC to reach a wider audience RESULT 3 (20 mins) Project Target: 1 Website, 2 Policy papers, 2 Lessons Learned Workshop The website of the CMN project is now available on: The main purpose of the website is to become the single point of reference for all matters relating to nutrition programme coverage. The site offers a global view of the assessments carried out/supported by the project. A timetable also allows users to identify future trainings

5 and assessments, fostering participation. All coverage assessment reports and documents are compiled in a dedicated reference section. The website also links directly with the EN-NET forum, ensuring maximum synergies with other websites. The focus of the Policy Papers has been developed, and a Terms of Reference (ToR) for both has been created. The papers will look at two interconnected elements; the first will focus on the factors affecting the coverage of current CMAM programmes. The second will focus on the future of CMAM, and how/what changes will be needed to address these barriers. The research for the paper will consist of two parts: a literature review of all available evidence and a second phase of primary data collection that will review innovation in CMAM programmes (from amongst CMN project partners) including field visits. The project anticipates that the first Policy Paper will be finalised by April 2013, and the second will be available in October The project has also made an executive decision to use some of the funds originally allocated to external technical consultants to be used for the translation of the SQUEAC/SLEAC Technical Document into French, to better support Francophone countries and programmes. FANTA, who originally developed the document, have given their approval. The Lessons Learned Workshops (in Dakar and Nairobi) are still planned to take place in the fourth quarter of The potential for doing a Lesson Learned Workshop in Europe (to complement the regional events) was raised, and will be further explored later in the year. ECHO also committed to sharing the ToR for the Policy Paper(s) with their technical advisors for feedback. 3. CHANGES IN CMN PROJECT TO DATE (15 mins) Financial Changes: the underspent in the Personnel line (resulting from differing salary scales amongst the partners and late recruitment of some staff) has been identified, and partners have agreed to contribute to a centralised underspent fund. This fund has already been reallocated, with the large majority going to the creation of new roles (see below) and some funds going to the development of Activities (including Policy Papers) and support costs (travel, etc.) and material (e.g. laptops) for the newly recruited staff. Human Resources: two new positions created with the centralised underspent fund; a sixth RECO position (hosted by ACF) and a Project Assistant (hosted by ACF) to support the implementation of key project activities. Field Activities: as already noted, the only significant change in project activities was the relocation of Result 1 activities in Nigeria and Bangladesh to DRC and Nepal respectively. No other changes are anticipated. All changes had been previously communicate to ECHO and will be documented in the Interim Report (to be submitted by January 31 st, 2013).

6 4. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (Q&A) WITH ECHO (15 mins) The question of the overall geographical focus of the project (i.e. primarily in Africa) and the global conclusions that would be extrapolated as part of the papers was raised. ECHO suggested that the project take more proactive action to promote the project in Asia, and countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. A joint approach in countries like Bangladesh (with ECHO promoting the project at national level, and the project approaching the Cluster via the Global Nutrition Cluster) was proposed. Greater communication with ECHO Desks in Brussels and national ECHO offices was also encouraged. The issue of the longer-term impact of SQUEAC assessments on project management was also raised. There is a desire to encourage, document and learn from the manner in which coverage assessments influence decisions for steering nutrition projects, as this remains perhaps the most valuable aspect of these assessments. The need to reach a less-technical audience (within ECHO) was also raised. It was agreed that the project would produce a project brief with a non-technical audience in mind. In addition, opportunities to engage project staff in future ECHO-hosted events in Brussels will also be explored by ECHO. ECHO address the issue of the Joint Monitoring Mission and the desire to carry it out in the next few months and to include OFDA as part of it. The project committed to liaising further with OFDA to explore their participation. To facilitate the planning, ECHO agreed to provide a timeframe during which the JMM could be carried out. The project will then propose potential locations based on planned work during that period. The project is currently building a new coverage database to compile and analyse coverage data produced by the project. Preliminary analysis will be shared with ECHO and all project partners over the next couple of months.