PMC Update | December 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 holds six meetings a year; each is followed by an Update. The Updates include information on decisions taken by the PMC and issues of general interest to the NGO community regarding the two schemes. The PMC would appreciate your feedback on the usefulness of Updates and any suggestions for their improvement.

As well as being posted on the NZAID Website, this Update also goes directly to some individuals within KOHA-registered NGOs. This list is rather limited at present, so we would be willing to add other names within your NGO to the distribution list. Just send the names and email addresses of people you would like to receive Updates directly to claire-louise@koha-picd.org.nz and we will oblige, starting with the next Update

Introduction

The PMC meeting of 22/23 November 2007 considered both KOHA and Humanitarian Action Fund (HAF) items of business. Belinda Gorman represented NDRF for the HAF session of business. We discussed the PMC’s involvement in the NGO/NZAID Annual Meeting (held October 07) and drew up a list of agenda topics to be considered at the PMC’s second Reflection Day to be held in Auckland on 11 December. The CID programme of training courses for 2008 was discussed with Eleanor Doig and Lee Sentes of CID who also reported on recent courses. Apart from a long list of correspondence items (24 in total) the PMC considered reports and applications for the two funds. The following is a summary of the main outcomes of the PMC’s November meeting as well as other items of interest to the community

Organisation Profiles

Provisional registration with KOHA-PICD was approved for RESPONSE Trust, a Wellington-based NGO with a particular interest in development issues involving human rights, indigenous perspectives and Pacific linkages.

Organisational Reviews

Organisational reviews are an integral part of formally monitoring the compliance and accountabilities of registered NGOs with the KOHA-PICD scheme. Within a year of being reviewed, organisations are required to report back to the PMC on progress in the implementation of those recommendations that the PMC has endorsed. The PMC is considering implementing a one-day audit visit as a routine follow-up when it receives the one-year progress report following a recommendation to the PMC from the independent reviewers in their ‘Lessons learned’ 2007 report. Visits would most likely be undertaken by one of the independent reviewers that had been involved in the initial review. This approach was followed in October after receiving the progress report from ADRA following its review. The PMC considered that the audit visit and subsequent report on implementation of recommendations had made the overall review process more robust.

The PMC increased the funding levels of the block grants for ADRA and World Vision NZ. The increases had been pending, following consideration of their reporting on progress made in the implementation of review recommendations.

Annual Review of Organisational Status

Once a year the PMC reviews the engagement that all the NGOs registered with KOHA-PICD have had with the scheme over the previous four years. In line with the criteria in the KOHA Handbook (Part A, section 1.5) the PMC duly changed the organisational status of six NGOs as follows.

KOHA-PICD registration was considered as lapsed for Soroptimists International, Habitat for Humanity, ANCOP and The Peace Foundation. The status of Rotary NZ WCS moved from Provisional to Approved, while that of Medical Aid Abroad moved from Approved to Provisional.

KOHA Reports Considered

The PMC received a number of ‘satisfactory’ revised Annual Notifications. A satisfactory report was also received from the Fred Hollows Foundation (Eye Health Programme, Papua New Guinea).

KOHA Applications Approved November 2007

ChildFund New Zealand
Emali design phase and Loipi design phase monitoring visit.

Christian Blind Mission International NZ
Community based rehabilitation for the visually impaired and people with other disabilities, Thailand.

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
Eye health programme, Year three, Papua New Guinea.

One Asia Trust
Kathmandu Valley waste minimization / separation at source (PfD), Nepal.

Richmond Fellowship New Zealand
Monitoring visit, strengthening families and communities project (A,M&E), Sri Lanka.

Feedback on the GFBO paper - deadline

A reminder that the PMC is looking forward to feedback on its paper “GFBOs and the KOHA-PICD: Discussion paper on our sector’s negotiation with development best practice and its intersection with faith, spirituality and religion” that was circulated prior to the NGO/NZAID annual meeting. The PMC is seeking input from both religious-based and secular NGOs to move this issue forward within the community. We are seeking a more collective understanding on how the different partnerships can be represented within the KOHA-PICD scheme. Solutions may well emerge that reflect those experiences – provided that a sufficient number of organisations provide feedback.

Please send your responses to the KOHA Administrator by 23 January 2008 so that the next step can be considered by the PMC at its meeting in February. Our hope is that there will be sufficient response to enable a proposal to be developed for the April PMC meeting, that can then go back to the community for further input.

Many thanks; we look forward to hearing from you.

Circulating ‘lessons learned’ information

The PMC would also appreciate your feedback on its proposal to add a ‘tick box’ to report forms indicating agreement that ‘lessons learned’ material can be shared with the rest of the community. The PMC wants to feed this knowledge back to the community and a tick box would save time otherwise spent contacting individual NGOs asking for permission. An email response to the KOHA Administrator on this proposal would be appreciated.

Financial budgeting and reporting issues

The PMC has been receiving a number of applications and reports which have not been meeting the requirements either with respect to budget information or financial reporting. NGOs needing more information on preparing budgets are referred to the excellent “Project Budgets” material in the CID Resource Kit folder. There will also be a comprehensive ‘Financial Budgeting & Reporting’ CID workshop in April 2008 for NGOs needing to develop or improve their financial skills. This will be a CID Certificate course.

Disability, Development and KOHA

The PMC supports the formal establishment of a Disability Working Group made up of volunteers from disability-focused NGOs and mainstream development NGOs. Subsequent to the PMC’s November meeting a paper with initial ideas on how Disability can be more explicitly incorporated within KOHA has been developed by Harriet Sewell (The Leprosy Mission), Darren Ward (CBMNZ) and Robert Choy (PMC representative and CBMNZ). Organisations wishing to join this working group are asked to contact the KOHA Administrator. Next steps would involve the development of a short paper for discussion at the regional meetings and the identification of training needs. The intention would be refinement of any policy or guidelines would be presented to the AGM in 2008 with training initiatives incorporated within the 2009 CID Training calendar.

HAF Reports Considered

The PMC considered tsunami reports from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, and Christian World Service. Block grant reports were received from Oxfam New Zealand and World Vision NZ.

HAF Applications Approved November 2007

UNICEF
Protecting children, protecting communities, Timor Leste

Chair's Comments

This has been a year of achievements, boosted by a significant increase in Government funding for development assistance, including for the two funds. We have seen the implementation of more recommendations from the 2004 VASS evaluation and, in particular, a strengthening of the administrative support provided to the PMC. The outcome has been a greater capacity within the PMC to deliver on its role as initiating policy developments and following up on requests from the community to improve or clarify operational aspects of the funds. The PMC responded positively to the Block Grant Organisations’ wish to clarify a number of issues around the programme approach. The date for providing annual financial reports and BGO applications has been pushed out to 25th July 2008 to provide more breathing space for busy financial managers. Numerous minor changes to the KOHA Handbook and forms have been made as we continue to ‘tweak’ the system. An MOU between the PMC, CID and NZAID is close to finalization. Finally, as government procurement systems are tightened we are looking closely at better risk management to protect the integrity of the schemes.

At the close of the March hui for KOHA NGOs the PMC publicly committed itself to two guiding principles:

Building reciprocal relations of support, honesty and trust.
Committed to operating with consistency, clarity, transparency and communication.

As we head into the Christmas period of time with families and friends, as well as time out from work, I believe the PMC can look back on a year when it has worked positively and deliberately to live up to those principles. I trust you enjoy your break, and return refreshed and recharged for the challenges of 2008.

Kia kaha
Wren Green

Previous Updates 2007

Page Last Reviewed: 29 October, 2009

Document URL: http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/what-we-do/archive/pmc-update-december-07.html