NZAID

KOHA / HAF Programme Management Committee (PMC) update
August 2009

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The Programme Management Committee (PMC) is responsible for the running of the KOHA-PICD and HAF funding schemes for New Zealand's international development NGOs. It is holding five meetings during 2009, and each meeting will be followed by an update. These updates will include information on decisions taken by the PMC at its most recent meeting and items of general interest to the New Zealand NGO community regarding the two schemes. The PMC welcomes your feedback on the updates and any suggestions you have for their improvement.

As well as being posted on the NZAID website, this update is also sent directly to people within KOHA-registered NGOs. NZAID welcomes other names from your NGO to add to the distribution list. Just send the names and email addresses of people you would like to receive updates directly to the koha-picd administrator and we will oblige, starting with the next update. You can view the latest KOHA-PICD and HAF update here.

KOHA & HAF PMC update | August 2009

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Introduction

The PMC met over three days (28-30 July) for its annual ‘big meeting' when we considered annual notifications, reports and budget allocations for both KOHA and HAF. Michael Vujnovich joined us, representing NDRF, and for HAF business on the Wednesday afternoon. The reviewers, Hilary Smith and Stephen Haslett attended to discuss matters relating to recent and upcoming reviews.

The main outcomes of the July meeting are summarised below along with related items of interest for the community of New Zealand's development NGOs.

Organisational profiles

The PMC received three organisational profiles from organisations seeking KOHA registration. Two were declined and the third was not considered as it hadn't included all of the required documentation.

Changing dates for Individual Grant Organisation (IGO) and Block Grant Organisation (BGO) meetings

Just a short reminder for you, carried over from our June PMC update, of the re-positioning of the dates for the annual get-togethers for NGOs to discuss topics of relevance to them and the PMC. To smooth out the schedule of meetings brought about by the switch to five meetings a year for the PMC instead of six, the PMC decided to hold the Individual Grant Organisation (IGO) and Block Grant Organisation (BGO) meetings earlier in the year in 2010, on the following dates:

BGO meeting | Tuesday 16th February, Wellington

IGO meeting | Wednesday 17th February, Wellington

One major advantage of earlier meetings is that NGOs will be able to raise policy issues which can be worked on through the year, discussed at the regional meetings and, possibly, approved at the NGO/ NZAID annual meeting that same year. Please note these dates in your diaries if you have not done so.

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IGO to BGO and visa versa

The PMC approved a well-documented application from ChildFund New Zealand to move from IGO to BGO status. It also approved an application from Family Planning New Zealand to move from BGO to IGO status which more accurately reflects its level of engagement with KOHA. The net result is that the number of BGOs in the scheme remains at nine.

BGO annual notifications and reports

The PMC considered annual notifications on 124 projects (84 percent accepted, 16 percent tabled) compared with 148 in 2008 and 139 in 2007. The drop in the number of projects is probably due to the move by some BGOs to a programmatic approach which now includes a number of what previously would have been separate projects in new $200k+ programme initiatives. The PMC accepted several informative reports on programmes that BGOs are now undertaking. The AM&E reports again included a lot of information and will provide useful ‘lessons learned' for wider sharing with the community. The PMC is still working on ways to communicate these lessons more widely.

Allocations to BGOs

There has been no increase in the budget for KOHA or HAF schemes by Government for 2009-2010. This was taken into account when the PMC set its budget allocations for the annual block grants to BGOs and the allocations for future IGO projects. Consequently most allocations for BGOs stayed the same as for last year. Of these, 50 percent have been released to BGOs so far and release of the remainder will follow when the Minister of Foreign Affairs confirms the budget for the second half of the current financial year. This decision is expected in September.

KOHA-PICD reports

Reports accepted from Individual Grant Organisations were as follows: BANZAid (Chandpur total community development centre, Bangladesh); GO Trust (Early childhood education – sanitation for Matigara village, India); INNZ (Prevention and withdrawal of children from commercial exploitation, Ghana; Ruhwaku community water supply, Bougainville); NZCTU (Dalit workers rights and development project, India); RESPONSE (Te Au o te Moana, Fiji); Salvation Army (Water and nutrition for life, Tanzania; Rural women's empowerment, Malawi); SurfAid (mararia free Mentawai Programme, Indonesia); UNICEF (Enhancing girl's education through school sanitation & hygiene promotion, Laos).

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KOHA-PICD applications approved for IGOs | July 2009

  • ARENA | Trade union rights in the Mactan export processing zone, Philippines. PfD
  • HIDANZ | Rural water supply, health, nutrition and sanitation education, Cambodia. GEN
  • Kyrgyzstan NZ Rural Trust | Poverty alleviation follow-up support project, Kyrgyzstan. AM&E
  • Mahitahi | Exploring partnerships in dioceses of Daru-Kiunga and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. PfD
  • NZ China Friendship Society | Capacity building workshop with Shaanxi women's federation and ICCIC, China. PfD
  • NZ China Friendship Society | Monitoring and evaluation of downstream outcomes of cooperative establishment in Shandan, China. AM&E
  • NZCTU | Tamil Nadu and Thailand projects review, Thailand and India. AM&E
  • One Asia | Kathmandu Valley waste minimization, Nepal. PfD
  • QPSANZ | Exploratory visit to Hlekweni Friends rural service and Dabane Water Institute, Zimbabwe. PfD
  • RESPONSE | Joint activity: establish water supply to ten fale, Falelima, Samoa. PfD
  • Umma Trust | Joint activity: youth vocational development programme – feasibility study, Somalia. PfD
  • UNICEF NZ | Protecting children from violence, abuse and exploitation, Solomon Islands. GEN
  • VICALSN | Primary maternal and child health care, Vietnam. GAD

Organisational reviews

Since the last update, constructive report-back meetings have been held with SurfAid and TEAR Fund. The PMC has since considered the report on the TEAR Fund review. Domestic visits have already started as part of the review programme for 2009/2010.

Nomination for the PMC elections

As we look forward to the Annual Meeting in October it is important to remind NGOs that there will be elections for two PMC positions. While Sally Russell is standing again, we will be saying farewell to Esther Ducai, with a great deal of thanks from the PMC. Esther has been on the PMC for 4 years and is not eligible for re-election.

Assorted alerts for BGOs to consider

After working through the annual notifications, AM&E reports and other BGO-related matters the PMC thought it would be helpful to highlight a few ‘alerts' to improve reporting practices and reduce the need to re-submit reports. These are expanded on in the following four update items.

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The SMARTness of objectives

The KOHA-PICD handbook states that: “Good planning and design are based on a thorough understanding of the programme or project and its context. This will ensure that the project or programme is well conceived; the goal is clear; the objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound (SMART)'. The handbook further states that, ‘the project objectives are the specific outcomes expected to be achieved by the project. There may be more than one objective, but not too many.”

‘SMART' objectives are requirements for:

  • well constructed projects and programme proposals
  • project/programme reporting
  • in-depth reporting
  • AM&E reporting
  • terms of reference for partner for development grants.

The PMC has noted a general decline in the quality in the ‘smartness' of objectives submitted by both IGOs and BGOs.

Some organisations write objectives which are broad goal-like statements, for example:

  • "to strengthen women-headed NGOs"
  • "to ensure fuller understanding, sustained commitment and primary accountability of community groups identified to take project activities".

Other organisations try to say too much in their objectives, for example:

  • "community capacity is strengthened by the creation of a trained network of community members (2000, 1500 females & 500 males) in 12 VDCs who understand and identify the causes and consequences of most forms of psychological trauma and actively engage in and promote a fully functioning, professional community based psycho-socio-economic support programme".

The following are examples of good quality objectives:

  • "to build the capacity of children aged 8-12 years in eleven focal provinces to protect themselves and their families in case of disaster"
  • "by June 2013 the rates of HIV infection are reduced by five percent in the programme areas through services, initiatives and behaviours that contribute to preventing HIV transmission"
  • "ensure 5000 school aged students and youth have access through child friendly spaces to project activities (including health promotion and mine awareness) and organised recreational activities by 31 July 2009".

The PMC encourages all organisations to take a good look at the objectives for project/programme work before submitting them and ensure they are as smart and concise as possible.

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Clarification of annual notifications & finance

The PMC noted gaps in the financial information provided by BGOs in Annual Notifications submitted to the July meeting. To fulfil the scheme's accountability requirements BGOs are expected to complete each of the fields in the following table from the Annual Notification form.

 

KOHA-PICD project funds (amount of KOHA funds exclusive of GST applied to the project)

 

New Zealand NGO matched project funds

 

Other Donor Funds (itemise other donor funds separately)

 

 

 

 
Over or under spends from previous years (include any funds carried forward from pervious years)
Note any overspends from the previous year and how these were funded
 

TOTAL project/programme budget (include funds provided by other donors or partners or the community itself)

 

 

Common gaps in financial information provided in recently submitted Annual Notifications included:

  • other donor funds were not itemised, although the total project/programme budget was greater than the combined contributions from New Zealand
  • the total project/programme budget was either miscalculated or was unrepresentative of the other financial information provided
  • a variety of currencies were provided. N.B. all amounts should be in New Zealand dollars
  • uncertainty about ‘over or under spends' were reflected when figures provided were described as ‘approximately'.

The PMC encourages organisations to carefully ensure that all the financial information requested is provided in the Annual Notifications submitted to the PMC.

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AM&E names

When providing the annual AM&E reports BGOs need to indicate where the NGO participants were from New Zealand (as per Question 26 in Form 12) or else an explanation needs to be given for the absence of a listing.

Indicative budgets for $200k+ programmes

BGOs are asked to note that initial programme plans for $200k+ programmes should include a brief indicative budget and workplan for the full duration of the programme as well as a detailed budget and workplan for the first year. Reporting at the end of the first year should be against the detailed budget and at this stage a detailed budget and workplan for the next year of the programme should be provided to the PMC.

Although this procedure is consistent with that for multi-year projects for IGOs, the PMC recognises that the handbook is not clear on this point.

HAF annual notifications and reports

The eight NGOs that receive block grants from HAF submitted annual notifications for a total of 57 projects (88 percent accepted, 12 percent tabled). The AM&E reports for the past year were informative and again showed the benefits of monitoring activities and the learning that this can bring.

Asian Tsunami reports

In the last update we mentioned that the final wrap-up on these funds is almost complete. At this meeting we accepted a report from the Gisborne Wainui Lions Club on its innovative project in Sri Lanka and made progress on obtaining other reports.

Reports

The PMC received five reports relating to HAF projects, but deferred consideration of them until its September meeting due to lack of time.

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HAF applications approved / July 2009

  • CBM/disaster preparedness in south-Asia region, Bangladesh and India
  • Rotary NZ World Community Service/emergency response kit programme, Oceania.

Thinking SMART in HAF

In line with the SMART comment above, the PMC also wanted to draw attention to the BGOs in the HAF scheme that we are looking for SMART objectives that are shorter and better focused and also include more quantification.

Chair's Comments

Two articles recently came my way from different sources two days apart, so on the basis of that coincidence I decided to share them more widely as lead-in to my comments this month. If you want to follow them up, here are the links.

www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Summer/full-Bachrach.html

www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/losing-my-religion-for-equality-by-jimmy-carter/

Religion and the treatment of women is their common theme. The first talks about the experiences of an American woman living in Muslim countries and details some of the legal, economic, educational and social inequalities women can face under Muslim customs and mores, as well as physical violence and, in some extreme cases, death through ‘honour killings'. The second link is to a statement made in July by ex-President Jimmy Carter about his decision to sever ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades. He took this “painful and difficult” decision when the Convention's leaders “…ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.” Carter elaborates how the influences and prejudices stopping women from playing full and equal roles in societies go beyond those practiced within religions to societies as a whole.

Not only is this a fundamental human rights issue, it is also at the heart of development. Carter again: “It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family. It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population.”

This is one of the reasons that KOHA report forms have questions that ask how projects have “…influenced gender relations and gender equality” and to describe how women and girls participated in projects. Asking these questions and for gender-disaggregated data is a reminder of the centrality of addressing gender issues in good development practice. We get feedback to the PMC that these questions are an important prompt for NGOs – which is why we sometimes table reports and repeat the questions!

The same rationale, a concern for human rights and individual dignity within good development practice, was behind last year's move from NGOs to raise awareness of the need to explicitly include people with disabilities in project planning, implementation and monitoring. Those with disabilities are often an invisible minority. But no longer within KOHA; Forms 3A, 3B and 13 will see to that.

Kia kaha

Wren Green

 

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