NZAID

PMC Update | August 2007

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The Programme Management Committee (PMC) is responsible for the running of the KOHA and HAF funding schemes for New Zealand’s international development NGOs. It is aiming to produce an Update after each of its six meetings in the year. The Update will include information on decisions taken and issues of general interest to the NGO community. The PMC would be pleased to hear from NGOs about the usefulness of these Updates so please let us know what you think.

KOHA Update August 2007

Introduction

The August meeting of the Programme Management Committee (PMC) is the major meeting for the year. Over 3 days, the Committee considered the annual reporting documents from the Block Grant Organisations (BGOs), allocated KOHA and HAF (Humanitarian Action Fund) grants to BGOs for the next financial year, considered applications and reports from Individual Grant Organisations (IGOs), and concluded a half-day of HAF business as well. The Committee also met with the outgoing and incoming independent reviewers (see below) and discussed KOHA training courses with Rae Julian and Eleanor Doig of CID. The following is a summary of the main outcomes of the August meeting of the PMC and some other news of interest.

The PMC will be losing the much valued services of Ellie Sanderson after its September meeting. Ellie will not be standing for re-election at the Annual Meeting this year in anticipation of the arrival of her first child in early December. The PMC wishes Ellie all the very best for the future and is most appreciative of the skills and perspectives she brought to the meetings.

Adjustments of Bands for Block Grant Organisations

In light of the very welcome increase in funding for the KOHA-PICD, the PMC decided to adjust the size of the bands used for making block grant allocations. These bands are effective from August 2007, although the PMC recognises that all BGOs made their applications for 2007-08 grants on the basis of the bands already in effect. Those BGOs that had applied to move into a new band had their applications considered and decisions were taken on the basis of the bands in effect prior to the new bands being established. No requests by BGOs for moving between bands will be disadvantaged by these adjustments. The new bands are set in the following table. (Amounts are in NZ$.)

Block Grant Allocation Bands for Organisations
Current BGO band New BGO band
0 – 500,000 0 – 600,000
500,001 – 1,000,000 600,001 – 1,200,000
1,000,001 – 1,500,000 1,200,001 – 2,000,000
1,500,001 – 2,000,000 2,000,001 – 2,800,000
2,000,001 – 3,000,000 2,800,001 – 4,000,000
3,000,001 – 4,000,000 4,000,001 – 5,000,000

Adjustments of Bands for Individual Grant Organisations

The bands for individual grant organisations (IGOs) were also increased in recognition of the funding boost for the KOHA-PICD and to maintain the relative proportions of funds allocated to IGOs and BGOs. Adjustments to the IGO bands are as follows.

Block Grant Allocation Bands for IGOs
Current IGO Band New IGO Band
0 – 250,000 0 – 300,000
250,001 – 500,000 300,001 – 600,000
500,001 – 1,000,000 600,001 – 1,200,000

Extending Dates for Financial Reporting in 2008

The PMC acknowledges that the requirement for BGOs to report their financial balance sheet for the year ending 30 June in early July creates real difficulties for financial staff. After discussions with NZAID over the requirements for financial accountabilities it has been possible to push out the deadlines while still meeting the necessary financial accountabilities before the annual BGO allocations are made. Therefore, for the financial year ending 30 June 2008, the deadline for providing financial reports to the PMC will be the 21st July 2008. The block grant applications will also now be due on the 21st July 2008. Other narrative reports, such as AM&E and Annual Notifications, will be due on the 4th of July 2008. These deadlines for reports are still needed because of the considerable volume of narrative material the PMC needs to read and review before its July meeting (29-31 July 2008).

Organisational Reviews

The PMC considered the responses by Christian World Service and The Leprosy Mission to their organisational reviews. It also decided on its recommendations following the organisational review of ChildFund New Zealand. This was the last PMC meeting attended by the Sonja Easterbrook-Smith and Margaret Winn who have now completed their term as independent reviewers. Sonja and Margaret provided the PMC with two papers for consideration: “Lessons learned for NZAID and the PMC” and “Lessons learned for the NGO community from KOHA organisational reviews 2006-2007.” The PMC thanked Margaret and Sonja not only for these two constructive and helpful reports but also for the skills, insights and critical analysis they have brought to their work over the past 3 years. The PMC will be giving serious consideration to the “Lessons learned” report on its own performance and also looks forward to again exploring some of the recommendations in the “Lessons learned” report to the NGO community during the October annual meeting.

Reflections from the Independent Reviewers

"Over the past three years, along with various PMC liaison people, we have undertaken reviews of twelve New Zealand NGOs approved to access KOHA funds for their international development work. Although the primary focus of the reviews has been to ensure that the practice of these organisations is consistent with KOHA requirements, we have worked to ensure that the reviews promote learning in the organisations themselves, the wider NGO community and in the PMC itself in the operation of the scheme. And we have also learned a great deal from the reviews.

Our term as reviewers coincided with the evaluation of the VASS and the launch of the KOHA scheme. Although it was a busy and often frustrating time for NGOs, the PMC and NZAID, we see that a more robust scheme has emerged from all that effort, with a clearer focus on community development and on improving the lives of the people in the communities where KOHA-supported projects are located.

We have had interesting and enjoyable times with the New Zealand NGOs that were reviewed and with their partners in the field.  Being reviewed is inevitably stressful, and we would like to thank those organisations for all their efforts in proving information and organising our field visits on top of their already busy work schedules.  We wish you all the best in your future KOHA work."

New Reviewers Appointed

The PMC has appointed Dr Hilary Smith and Terry Butt as the independent reviewers for the next 3 years. Both Hilary and Terry have had an extensive involvement over many years with Volunteer Service Abroad.  Hilary Smith is a language and linguistics teacher, and researcher. She has worked in Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Lao PDR, and Indonesia. Terry Butt has travelled widely in his VSA roles and has also been extensively involved with the International Red Cross.

Allocations to Block Grant Organisations

The annual allocations for BGOs for 2007/2008 were decided for both KOHA-PICD and HAF funds. Most BGOs received increased allocations over the previous year, which reflected the increased allocations to both Funds.

KOHA Applications Approved August 2007

  • ChildFund NZ

    Emali Project Design Phase, Kenya

  • Christian Blind Mission International

    Partnership with Central East Asia Region CBMI

  • HETA Trust

    • Bia Hula Reclamation, Timor-Leste and
    • Aileu Primary School Development Partnership, Timor-Leste

  • HIDANZ

    Rural Water Supply, Health, Nutrition and Sanitation Education, Cambodia (approved conditionally pending further information)

  • International Needs NZ

    Prevention and withdrawal of children from commercial sexual exploitation, Ghana

  • Livelihood International

    Alay Buhay Community Empowerment Programme, Philippines

  • NZ China Friendship

    Partner Capacity Building and extension of rural cooperatives in Shandan County, China

  • NZ CTU

    Labour rights training and support for Burmese migrant workers, Thailand

  • Pax Christi

    Partners in a Culture of Peace, Indonesia

  • Rotary NZ WCS

    Mwika Community Dairy Development Project, Tanzania

  • Save the Children New Zealand

    Project Knowledge System, New Zealand

  • SurfAid International

    • Mentawai Core Health Project, Indonesia
    • Malaria Free Mentawai Programme, Indonesia

  • Toraja

    Toraja rural development, Indonesia (approved conditionally pending further information)

  • UNICEF

    Enhancing girls education through schools sanitation and hygiene promotion, Laos PDR

  • VICALSN

    Evaluation: Primary maternal and child health care, Laos PDR

HAF Applications Approved August 2007

  • Mahitahi

    Shortland Islands, recovery project, Solomon Islands

KOHA Annual Reports and Notifications

The eight major BGOs provided annual notifications for a total of 139 projects, ranging from 8 to 28 projects depending on the BGO. The average length of a notification was 4.4 pages which meant a total of just over 600 pages of reading and analysis for the PMC. For the statistically minded, the notifications varied between averages of 3.3 to 5.8 pages long depending on the BGO. The length of the notification reports was not correlated with the number of projects an NGO is managing. BGOs provided a further 119 pages in total describing 'Key Issues' in their AM&E reports. These reports included some very useful 'lessons learned' which the PMC intends to extract and make available to readers at a later date. To manage the work load of assessing notifications and leading the discussion, the four elected PMC members each have lead responsibilities and back up responsibilities for specific BGOs.

HAF Annual Reports and Notifications

The PMC also considered the smaller number of annual notifications from seven BGOs that are funded from the HAF. There were 21 annual notifications in total, averaging 3.6 pages. There were also five AM&E reports. In total, the HAF responses provided a further 100 pages of reporting for the PMC to consider during its August deliberations.

HAF Administration Update

The decision was made earlier to appoint a person, working 20 hours per week, to take over all administrative functions relating to the operation of the HAF. This position was duly advertised and an appointment was made in late August. The appointee will report to the PMC and has kindly been given office space with the Council for International Development. Ms Amanda Holdaway will start work in September. This position will reduce the growing administrative workload that Claire-Louise McCurdy has been carrying as the administrator for both KOHA-PICD and HAF as the funding levels and amount of activity from both funds has steadily increased. Action is also underway to improve the HAF and KOHA database in conjunction with NZAID staff.

BGO Meeting on the 'Programme Approach'

Concerns were raised by BGOs during their June 5th meeting with the PMC over how the approach to programme activities was covered in the KOHA Handbook and the associated reporting requirements. The PMC proposed a separate meeting with BGOs to discuss these issues specifically and a meeting was duly held in Auckland on 14 August with 5 of the 9 BGOs attending. The meeting was chaired by the Independent Chair, with three other PMC members participating. Parts of the Handbook that could benefit from re-wording were identified and reporting issues that needed clarifying or changing were also raised and discussed. It is anticipated that these changes will be drafted in time to go to KOHA members for discussion and approval at the annual meeting in October.

Making amendments to important operational aspects of the KOHA scheme through such processes as we followed here is in line with the approach outlined in the 2005 review of VASS. In commenting that five years was too long a time to wait for making changes, the review envisaged "…built-in, low-key, informal assessments on a more frequent and routine basis as being important for the [PMC] to undertake, manage and communicate… Realistically, this would only be possible with additional administrative and analytical support." (VASS Review, 2005, page108).

Discussion Paper on GFBOs

For the past few meetings the PMC has considered the topic of the Guidelines for Faith-Based Organisations (GFBOs). A workshop on these issues was part of the 2006 annual meeting and participants asked for a discussion paper to be prepared on the topic to help advance the discussions within the sector. It has been an issue raised consistently for several years by the independent reviewers. Ellie Sanderson has drafted a paper that was discussed at the August meeting of the PMC. It covers: the current GFBOs in the KOHA Handbook, concerns expressed by the last two sets of reviewers, GFBOs in the context of international development and practice, and concludes with suggestions for a way forward.

The PMC asked Ellie to revise her discussion paper to more explicitly outline a process for 'where to next'. The proposal is to send this paper out in advance of the annual meeting with a request for feedback of experiences from KOHA members. This reflects the conclusion in the paper that what the sector needs first is a more collective understanding on how the different partnerships can be represented within the KOHA-PICD programme. Then solutions may well emerge that reflect those experiences rather than continuing to debate competing options around GFBOs. Depending on the feedback the PMC receives, subsequent steps could include a compilation of that material, followed by the establishment of a working group.

Notice from NZAID

NZAID would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its appreciation to members of the PMC for the time, energy and commitment they put into the management and development of the KOHA-PICD and the HAF; and to affirm the agency's confidence in the robustness, objectivity and fairness of the arrangements for the management of both schemes. The systems and processes of the Programme Management Committee have been evaluated in independent reviews and through the Government's audit process and have been found to function very effectively. NZ NGOs may be interested to know that the VASS was used as a case study of good practice in risk management by a recent set of guidelines published for the public sector by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG).

Chair's Comments

After 8 months in my role of Independent Chair for the PMC I am pleased to report that the job is stimulating, rewarding and very satisfying to me personally. Having an independent chair for the PMC has had two immediate advantages. Firstly, it has meant the elected PMC members now all contribute equally to deliberations and decision-making. This has had the effect of spreading the growing work load between the NGO members. The PMC is also getting through the agendas more quickly and having more time for discussion of policy issues. With more time for 'big picture' issues the second advantage of having a part-time, independent chair is highlighted. Specifically, I am able to follow-up issues between meetings that have been raised. This helps improve the effectiveness of the Committee without making further time demands on the voluntary input of the elected members. This part of my job is working well. In this role I believe I am meeting the intent of having an independent chair for the KOHA scheme as envisioned by the reviewers who saw this position as "…serving, rather than taking away from, NGO ownership [of the PMC]" (VASS Review, 2005, page109).

While I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of people involved with KOHA during the major training hui in March or at the three regional meetings, I am looking forward to meeting more people from the NGO development community at the annual meeting in October.

Best regards, Wren Green

Page Last Reviewed: 29 October, 2009

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