NZAID

PMC Update | July 2008

The Programme Management Committee (PMC) is responsible for the running of the KOHA-PICD and HAF (Humanitarian Action Fund) 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 at its most recent meeting and issues of general interest to the New Zealand NGO community regarding the two schemes. The PMC appreciates 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. We would be pleased to add other names from 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.

KOHA & HAF Update | July 2008

Introduction

The PMC’s meeting during 4-5 June 2008 dealt with both KOHA-PICD and HAF items of business. Belinda Gorman (Deputy Chair, NDRF) represented NDRF for the half-day session of HAF business. The PMC met with Aileen Davidson and Lee Sentes, Council for International Development (CID) to discuss training courses for 2008 and 2009. We received very positive feedback on the two financial planning workshops held in late April. It seems that there is sufficient demand to run this course again in 2009. The PMC also met with Hilary Smith and Terry Butt and discussed the organisational reviews that are currently underway.

The main outcomes of the June PMC meeting are as follows along with other items of interest to the New Zealand NGO development community.

Organisational Reviews

The independent reviewers presented their draft organisational reviews of Family Planning International and International Needs New Zealand (INNZ). These were discussed with the PMC and will be sent to the organisations for their comments.

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KOHA-PICD Reports Considered

The PMC accepted a number of re-submitted in-depth reports. Oxfam New Zealand provided the PMC with copies of its two annual programme reports on the Oxfam East Asia Programme and the Oxfam Papua Programme. These full and detailed reports provide an instructive account and analysis of how these programmes are developing, including information on specific outcomes for the target populations. The PMC accepted the following reports: Oxfam NZ (Institutional strengthening of women in business development incorporated and expansion of the Samoan farming industry, Samoa); RESPONSE (Across Oceania, Samoa); Rotary NZ WCS (Empowerment of men, women and children through engagement in education, skills training and employment opportunities, Fiji; Skills development and self Empowerment, Edenvale, Johannesburg, South Africa; Meru Dairy Women’s Farmers association, Tanzania); UNICEF NZ (Enhancing girls education through school sanitation and hygiene promotion, Lao PDR); UNIFEM NZ (Gender equality in decision-making and leadership, Marshall Islands).

KOHA-PICD Applications Approved | June 2008

  • BANZAid | Chandpur total community development centres, Bangladesh (GEN)

  • ChildFund NZ | Livelihoods and child protection capacity building, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka (GEN) | Improving children’s learning by engaging parents (CLEP), Timor-Leste (GEN) | Luangwa dairy goats project, Zambia (GEN)

  • International Needs Network NZ | Project monitoring visit, Ghana (AM&E) | Women’s rights advocacy, Ghana (GAD)

  • Mahitahi | Tuku RTC: Business and administration development project, Fiji (GEN)

  • NZ Council of Trade Unions | Dalit workers rights and development project, India

  • Pax Christi | Women in the market place, West Papua (AM&E)

  • RESPONSE | Te Au o te Moana (PfD)

  • Rotary NZ WCS | Early childhood education and empowerment of men, women and children through engagement in education, skills training and employment opportunities, Fiji | Visit to monitor and evaluate projects in Tanzania (AM&E)

  • UNICEF NZ | Enhancing girls education through school sanitation and hygiene promotion, Lao PDR (GAD)

  • UNIFEM NZ | Gender equality in decision–making and leadership, phase three, Marshall Islands (GAD)

Sharing ‘Lessons Learned’

One of the underlying principles of the KOHA-PICD scheme is that ongoing learning from our experiences with partners and communities is an important aspect of effective development. In addition to the funded training that is provided to NZ NGOs through the Council for International Development, the KOHA-PICD reporting forms also ask NGOs to recount their ‘lessons learned’ from specific projects. Over the years these reports have provided the PMC with a valuable collection of lessons that could benefit the wider NGO community and add to best practice. We are keen to share those lessons with the rest of the community, when the NGOs concerned are willing to make them available. What has been lacking so far has been a suitable mechanism for doing so. From time to time, the KOHA Administrator has asked permission of a particular NGO to make a particular lesson available. This is a time-consuming business – both for the Administrator and the NGO which then has to formally reply.

The PMC would like to implement a more streamlined system for approvals and an electronic approach to sharing “Lessons learned” with the community. To streamline approvals, a box would be added to the KOHA forms next to the “Lessons learned” question. The accompanying text would explain that an un-ticked box would allow the lesson to be shared, while a ticked box would opt out of granting permission to share.

For each lesson, details that might identify the NZ NGO or its partner(s) will always be removed. The actual sharing would then be done electronically as follows. Each useful lesson will be made anonymous and then posted onto a new database under one of several generic headings and dated. Over time, this database will grow into a valuable resource, through the ongoing posting of updates. In this way it will contain current as well as historical lessons. It should become useful for present and future staff as a training and reference resource.

We will develop a draft set of generic headings for categorizing ‘lessons learned’ and circulate them for comment. Any other suggestions on this proposal would be welcome. For instance, would specifying the country be useful information to provide as well as the date? (Some ‘lessons’ may be culture specific.) As workloads permit, it might be feasible to re-visit past reports, identify a number of particularly useful lessons learned from specific NGOs, and get a blanket approval for them to be added to the database.

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Do You Have Matching Funds?

Following a number of recent lapses, the PMC thought it useful to remind Individual Grant Organisations that applications, which also need to be submitted before the deadline date, need to provide evidence that the IGO holds the necessary level of matching funds. Refer to Part A 1.7.2 of the handbook for further explanation.

Best Budget Information

Project applications are easier to evaluate by the PMC and more useful for the monitoring of project spending against activities undertaken when the budgets are presented in ‘output-based’ format. IGOs are warmly encouraged to do so and to contact Lee Sentes at CID for further assistance in this regard.

Further Update on the GFBO Paper

Ellie Sanderson has organised a workshop for July 25th which will involve about nine NGOs and PMC members to work through responses to her 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”. The PMC is still aiming to have updated guidelines available for consideration at the NGO/NZAID Annual Meeting in October.

Updates to Handbooks

Over the past year, the PMC has been identifying a number of changes to both the KOHA and HAF handbooks that will clarify sections and forms or give effect to other changes, such as the changes in terminology signaled in the May Update with the replacement of “Satisfactory” by “Accepted” for reports. All of these changes will be compiled into a single list for notification at the Annual Meeting in October. These will be pre-circulated as ‘tracked changes’ so that KOHA and HAF members can review and if in agreement, confirm the proposed changes. A reprinting of the appropriate sections of the KOHA handbook will then be actioned and advised to NGO’s. The latest version of all KOHA and HAF forms are always on the Website and should be sourced from there.

Nominations for the PMC elections

In our last PMC Update we urged all KOHA-registered NGOs to start thinking about possible nominations for the elected PMC positions. Two current members, Robert Choy (Christian Blind Mission NZ) and Alan Fletcher (ADRA NZ), will be finishing their terms following the October AGM and are not eligible for re-election. The details of what’s involved in being on the PMC are covered in the May Update. This is just a reminder to keep thinking about nominations for these important positions. Thank you!

HAF Reports Considered

The following reports were accepted: Save the Children NZ (Livelihood initiatives through piloting cash-for-work , Ethiopia; Care and protection of children and their families, Zimbabwe); Christian Blind Mission International (Disabled people’s rehabilitation – Bangladesh flood); SurfAid International (Post-earthquake emergency response programme for the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia); UNICEF (Emergency mitigation – HIV prevention and care, Zimbabwe).

HAF Applications | June 2008

  • Rotary NZ WCS
    EMBOX Oceania

Reporting Matters

A reminder from the PMC that HAF reports on projects are required to report against the budget that is submitted in the application. This was not done in some recent reports which means more work for everyone concerned.

To assist BGOs in providing all the information required for full accountability the PMC has created a reconciliation form to clarify the information that is required. It can be used as a checklist for NGOs when preparing their financial reconciliations for the annual July meeting of the PMC.

Disability considerations in HAF Handbook and Forms

Our May Update had an item on the work of the Disability Working Group. Their paper covering proposed changes to the KOHA Handbook and forms was discussed at the May regional meetings and was well received. Subsequently, the Working Group has reviewed the HAF Handbook and forms to determine if similar changes were warranted to align with the proposed changes in the KOHA guidelines . A few alignment changes were identified and proposed by the Working Group. These were a one-word change to the HAF Handbook, a minor change to HAF Form 2 Project Application, and the addition of a question to the HAF Form 3 on project reports. The PMC agreed that these proposed changes were appropriate and will present them to the Annual Meeting for confirmation along with the earlier proposals. It is expected that the NDRF will also review the proposed changes at its next meeting.

Questionnaire about HAF

Just to round out the PMC’s work on the handbooks we have prepared an informal questionnaire to find out what areas of the HAF Handbook would benefit from further clarification. This is not a revision or evaluation of the HAF scheme, just an effort to make your involvement with it more user friendly, via the Handbook. The questionnaire will be going out shortly. Thanks for your participation.

Chair's Comments

Since the last Update we have had the good news of a further significant increase in the development assistance budget to NZAID by Government as well as the 2008 round of regional meetings between NZAID and development NGOs. The increased allocation to NZAID means increases to the KOHA and HAF budgets which are most welcome. While there is still a long way to go to achieve the target of 0.7% of Gross National Income allocated to overseas aid, at least the graph is starting to move in the right direction.

I enjoyed participating in the regional meetings with NZAID and having the chance to catch up with people in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. The PMC had a slot in the agenda and we had good feedback on a number of our current initiatives.

The theme for discussion at the regional meetings was a timely one – climate change and its impacts on development. Many in the development community have been working through the implications of climate change for their work over a number of years. There are fundamental ramifications of climate change for all countries, and especially for the poor in those regions where the impacts will be most severe. It’s the excesses of distant lifestyles in affluent countries, including New Zealand, that are leading to the social and developmental injustices caused by climate change. Hence it is heartening to see local initiatives such as “Be the Change” which is a joint initiative by Oxfam NZ, Greenpeace NZ, and Forest and Bird Society (www.bethechange.org.nz). We will need more like this one, and more commitment to viable solutions, if the gains made by past decades of development assistance are to be sustained.

Kia kaha

Wren Green

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Page Last Reviewed: 24 July, 2008