Minutes of the 3rdProgramme Management Meeting
Date: 18th November, 2016
Venue: Meeting hall, OPM
Participants:
- Mr. TashiWangdi (PD)
- Mr. Kinley Tenzin, AO
- Mr. Karma Tenzin (M&EO)
- Mr. UgyenWangdi (CM, Ag)
- Mr. Norbu (CM, Livestock)
- Mr. SangayChoeda (CM, CV & Marketing)
- Mr. SangayChoda (PSO)
- Ms. Karma Wangmo (GKMO)
- Ms. ChokiWangmo (Adm. Assistant)
The 3rdProgramme Management Meeting, which was due in October but got postponed due to coincidence with IFAD mission,was held on 18th November 2016 at the meeting hall of OPM. The meeting was attended by all the OPM staff as listed above.
The meeting deliberated in line with the discussion points (Refer Annexure 1 for the detail of discussion points) and reached to the following resolutions.
- Reviewing of the Minutes of the previous Programme Management Meeting
Stipend/incentives for CAHW
Since the proposal of stipend for CAHW is not acceptable to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), it was discussed and agreed to recommend service fee payment (equivalent to minimum daily labour wage) to CAHW as and when they are engaged in the livestock extension services delivery. The payment will have to be work charged as no separate budget head can be proposed. The same needs to be incorporated in the Guidelines. (Action: CM – Livestock)
Minutes of meeting
The minutes of the meeting (MoM), any meeting, will have to be produced at the earliest, atleast within two - three days after the meeting is convened.And once the draft copy of the minutes is circulated, everybody should comment and respond immediately for finalization without any delay.(Action: GKMO and all other staff).
Implementation guidelinesfor Agriculture, Livestock, Groups, SIF & PSF
The meeting directed the component managers to come up with a skeleton framework based on the existing draft guidelines, comments received from Ms. Wafaa andthe guidelines of HVAP, Nepal. The draft skeleton framework will then be reviewed together prior of sharing to IFAD for their comments. (Action: CM of Livestock, Agriculture and Marketing and PD).
Dairy silo pits Vs plastic bailing
Since both the technologies have advantages and disadvantages as reported by the CM (Livestock), it has been decided to present as two options in the guidelines and leave it up to the livestock sector to promote as per their choice and farmers preference.(Action: CM of Livestock).
Online Google sheet
It has been reported that the progress reporting using online Google sheet is ready, but need sensitization to the users (ARDC, RLDC, RAMCO, Dzongkhags and FCBL). Therefore, as part of sensitization, PD suggested M&EO and PSO to make presentation during the upcoming GM and KM Writeshop scheduled from 12-16 December 2016.(Action: M&EO and PSO).
Reporting from Dzongkhags to OPM
As agreed in the previous meeting, both the physical and financial progress reporting from the Regional centres and the Dzongkhags to OPM will be made on half-yearly basis.
Mid-year Reviewmeeting
In order to ensure that the activities are implemented as planned and expenditures are made in line with the financial agreement, a half yearly review meeting with the programmeimplementers was found critical. Therefore, it was decided to conduct mid-year review meeting with the programme implementers.
CARLEP Website
The PD informed the meeting that the drukhost, e-Solution who was awarded the contract for designing and developing CARLEP website will be arriving Wengkhar on 24th November 2016 to test, improve and complete the web development. While here they will also train the relevant staff on web management and maintenance. (Action: PSO and other staff)
Printing of contact Booklet
While the contact booklet will be uploaded onto CARLEP website for easy access, it was also decided to make print copies for use by the OPM and other implementers. The number of copies (roughly about 50 Copies) to be worked out and forward the booklet to Mr. Phintsho, MAGIP Accountant for printing. However, final validation need to be done prior to printing.(Action: GKMO)
Youth meeting
The meeting was informed about the postponement of the meeting owing to various reasons. It is now decided that the ARDC PD will write to the Dzonghags asking them to submit the list of youth groups who are ready to take up farming enterprises on immediate basis. Once the lists are received, programme will be developed for final meeting which will be chaired by the Hon’ble SanamLyonpo. The meeting is likely be held after the National Parliament session. (Action: PD to follow up with ARDC PD)
2. Revisiting Calendar of key activities
The Calendar of key activities that was drawn during the 1stProgramme Management Meeting was revisited and it was resolved that the AWPB compilation, RPIC and submission of AWPB to IFAD for the clearance need to be done before January, 2016.
And it was also resolved that the Mid-year review meeting with Dzonkhags for the financial year 2017/18 will tentatively be scheduled by December, 2017 along with AWPB compilation for the next financial year. (Refer Annexure 2 for the detail of revised calendar of key activities).
3. Selection of gewogs and Chiwogs for CARLEP interventions
The meeting asked the component managers – Agriculture and livestock to finalize the gewogs and chiwogs selected forCARLEP interventions under two categories - Commercial or Value Chain and targeted interventions.Once finalized, PSO will prepare maps accordingly. It was also reminded that the gewogs and chiwogs selected will have to be aligned with the findings of Baseline studies to be received from the consultant. (Action: CM-Agri & livestock and PSO)
4. Mapping of Agriculture production and Marketing
PSO has been asked to complete the Mapping of Agricultural Production and Marketing before the start-up of Value chain studies by the consultants tentatively scheduled from 1st December 2016. (Action: PSO))
5. KM and GM mainstreaming strategies
The writeshop for the development of KM and gender mainstreaming strategies is now rescheduled from 12th to 16th Of December, 2016. The writeshop will be jointly facilitated by the resource persons from PPD, NCWC, ARDC and the OPM. All the staff were asked to go through MAGIP KM and GM strategies and the IFAD guidelines for KM and GM prior to the writeshop. (Action: All the OPM staff)
6. Financial Status and mid-year Budget review
Mr. Kinley Tenzin, AO presented the current financial status under different funding categories – total release, expenditure made and the balance. It was reported that there is very minimal expenditure from all the implementing agencies including OPM. Kinley also present the mid-year budget review format and informed the floor that the mid-year budget review for Ministry of Agriculture and Forests especially the secretariat will be held at Phuntsholing towards the end of the month.
While presenting the financial status for all Dzongkhags and regionals offices, it was reported that there was not much expenditure made by all the implementing agencies. For this, it was decided that the OPM should remind every spending agencies to utilize the release fund as soon as possible. Coming on fund available at RMA, the OPM will be in the difficult position to finance the IFAD Loan activities for this financial year, as there is almost 70m fund gap between fund available and approved activities under IFAD Loan. Hence, to utilize the fund release efficiently, the OPM will seriously form the team and visit the every spending agencies for monitoring and evaluation. (Action: OPM)
Regarding Ineligible expenditure of Nu.13.94m reported under IFAD Loan for FY 2015-2016, it was decided that PD and Account Officer will prepare and submit the detail report to Honorable Dasho Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Forest received from Dzongkhag administrations for further discussion with Ministry of Finance. (Action: PD and AO)
7. Planning and way forwards for the Categorization of the HHs
In line with the recommendation of the recent CARLEP Supervision Mission, the M & E Officer and PSO have developed a format to compile household categorization data from the gewogs. The format was presented and discussed in great detail, particularly on the remittance from the civil servants. The meeting directed the M&EO and PSO to make clear on the remittance issue. (Action: M&EO and PSO)
8. Review on cost sharing for land development
Recognizing that the cost sharing mechanisms for land development is not uniform across the programme Dzongkhags, the programme intends to develop a guidelines to establish common standard or guidelines for land development. For some Dzongkhags, the full cost is borne by the project or RGoB funding whereas for some Dzongkhags, the fuel cost is borne by the individual beneficiaries.
Anyway, for the time being, the Dzongkhags can proceed with their own current practice. But from the next financial year, a clear guidelines inclusive of the CMU guidelines need to be developed.
9. Payment for lead farmers’ (service fee) and Leadership Feedback system
Following the discussion with the ARDC who is pioneer in promoting lead farmer concept and practice, it has been suggested that the service fee equivalent to daily wage rate for skilled labor (category B or II) may be paid. The recommendation has been made as the lead farmers would be sharing and transferring their knowledge and skills to other fellow farmers. The same needs to be incorporated in the guidelines.
Or in other words, Lead farmers will play the crucial role in transferring the innovative technology to his/her fallow farmers back in the village. While performing the activities, he/she does not entitled for any wage. Therefore, meeting resolved that the particular Lead farmers will be paid a service fee of skill labor while performing the activity and service fee will be work charged through the program head. (Action: CM-Agriculture & Livestock).
As for leadership feedback system, the PD will discuss with the chief HR Officer of the MoAF about the placement of the CARLEP. Currently, due to uncertainty of the placement under one particular agency, department or division, it is difficult to give feedback to their boss as required by the RCSC. In fact, this feedback has to be given online by the end of November 2016. (Action: The PD)
10. Trainings (OPM, Accountants, Extension, Engineers etc)
In line with the Project Design Report and as recommended by the IFAD mission, following ex-country trainings will receive priority in the current fiscal year. The nomination of the candidates and the number will depend upon the relevancy and the fund availability respectively. The details need to be worked out soon. (Action: The PD, AO and CMs)
11. Bill clearance for Electricity, internet and TV connection
Noting that the expenditure for electricity, internet and TV connection will have to come from the RGoB and not from IFAD funding, an understanding has been reached with the ARDC PD that the electricity bill be paid by ARDC as done currently. For internet bill, the payment will be shared between the two agencies following alternative months while the TV bill will be forwarded to the OPM CARLEP for necessary payment.
12. Utilization of pool vehicle
Mr. Karma Tenzin, M&EO has been unanimously appointed as the MTO to look after the movement of the pool vehicle. Both the drivers and the staff need to discuss with the MTO about the vehicle requirement including maintenance and spare parts change. (Action: MTO and all the staff)
13. Agreed Actions
Each of the Agreed Actions presented in the Aide Memoire of the recently completed CARLEP Supervision mission was discussed and the responsibilities were also fixed accordingly (Refer Annexure 3 for detail). It was also agreed that detail action plans will be prepared as to how, when and what resources would be required to execute the agreed actions. (Action: All the OPM staff)
14. Other points discussed
Following points were discussed and agreed:
- Maintain details of the CARLEP Supervision and Implementation Support mission as per the format presented in Annexure 4. (Action: M&EO and PSO)
- Details of the sites visited during the missions as per the format presented in Annexure 5. (Action: M&EO and PSO)
- Inventory of Farm roads and irrigation schemes constructed or maintained under MAGIP funding support (as required by RAA) and for CARLEP too. Same also applies to Market infrastructure supported under MAGIP and CARLEP. The formats are presented in Annexure 6. (Action: M&EO and CM-Agriculture)
- Collect the details of CARLEP beneficiaries for the first six months (January – June 2016, which was missed out in the Progress Report. (Action: M&EO, CMs-Agri & Livestock)
Annexure 1: Discussion Points for the 3rdProgramme Management Meeting
Venue: OPM Meeting Hall
Time: 9:30 AM
●Review of past minutes of meeting or follow up action taken last meeting
●Financial Progress for mid-year for all CARLEP Implementing agencies (Focused on fund status and monitoring and Evaluation)
●Mid -year Budget Review for OPM, CARLEP only
●Finalization of detail report on Ineligible expenditure of Nu.13.94m under IFAD Loan for CARLEP
●Revisit the recommendation of CARLEP supervision mission, and to prepare action plan accordingly.
●Revisit of Calendar Year
●AWPB preparation 2017-2018 FY
●Planning and way forward for Household categorical data collection according to house number.
●Review on cost sharing for land development
●Payment for lead farmers’ (service fee)
●Gewog /Chiwog selection status updates
●Writeshop on GM and KM strategies
●Training (OPM, accountants, extension, engineers, etc.)
●Discuss the issues on Leadership Feedback System
●Contact address book printing
●Electricity; internet; TV connection.
●Utilization of pool vehicle
●AOB
Refreshment Interval
10:30am - Tea Break
12:30pm - Lunch Break
Annexure 2: Revised Calendar of key activities
Key activities / Jul / Aug / Sep / Oct / Nov / Dec / Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / JunCompilation of AWPB in consultation with implementing agencies
RPIC (Annual Review & Planning Meeting)
Submission of AWPB to IFAD for clearance
NPSC meeting
Submission of final AWPB to MoF and implementing agencies
Half year Progress report
Mid-year review meeting with Dzonkhags
Compilation of Annual progress report
Submission of APR to IFAD and MoAF
Annual Audit
Submission of Annual Audit Report to IFAD
Programme Management Meeting (OPM)
Mid-year review meeting at OPM (RDC,RLDC, RAMCO, FCBL)
Annual Outcome survey (AOS)
Submission of AOS Report
Annual RIMS report submission
Programme Supervision Mission
Programme Implementation Support Mission
Field monitoring/Case studies
Annexure 3: Agreed Actions and Responsibilities
Agreed action / Responsible Agency / Responsible Person / Agreed date- Revise the TORs accordingly and complete the 3 independent rapid assessments:
- 1st stage of vegetable value chain
- 1st stage of dairy value chain
- 1st stage of the FCBL assessment
Norbu
SangayChoeda / 31 Dec 2016
- RAMCO should undertake further assessment of existing groups based on inventory and other secondary data to establish the maturity status of the groups
- Convene a stakeholders workshop to validate the studies, agree on priority areas of focus and specific roles of key implementation partners and prepare an action plan
- OPM technical staff to participate in and supervise the local level planning and action plan preparation exercises for climate smart villages
Norbu / 31 Jan 2016
- RAMCO, RLDC and ARDC to mobilise additional capacity to enhance social capital and technical and business skills of groups
- Revise all the implementation manuals according to the changes in the process of group support and include aspects of social capital, business skills, climate change resilience and gender issues in the training manuals (support to be provided with available manuals in other countries /programmes)
Norbu
TashiWangdi / 31 Mar 2017
- Prioritise the irrigation schemes to be rehabilitated/constructed based on the assessment of climate vulnerability and impact including climate resilience building measures
- Include climate scenarios in the methodology of the climate vulnerability assessment and a longer term planning horizon
- Articulate steps to develop adaptation plans with a bottom-up perspective from the village to the gewog and district level planning
TashiWangdi / 30 Apr 2017
- Identify key options and entry points for climate change adaptation in the selected value chains
- Organize a technical support mission to work with MoAF on the finalization of the value chain studies and participate in the multi-stakeholder workshop
- Organize a field schedule for newly recruited OPM young professional to participate in field activities and selected short courses in programme management and farming as a business
- The CPM to have a discussion with the Secretary of Agriculture to reach agreement to allow selected training of OPM staff on secondment and contract staff on M&E, Gender, and group development (e.g. using learning routes, fellowships)
- The2017/18 AWPB to match needs from local level participatory needs assessments and the VC assessments
TashiWangdi / 15 Apr 2017
- Using external resource persons as needed, conduct one round of M&E training for all entities associated with the project (OPM, Dzongkhag, FCBL & technical agencies) to familiarize on overall project M&E system including data collection formats and reporting, e-reporting, RIMS and AOS, etc.
- Report the annual RIMS for 1st level results for 2016.
SangayChoda / 15 Jan 2017
- Consider introducing (a) farmers’ field dairy to capture results at household level particularly for vegetable and dairy value chain farmers; (b) tracking of all participating households using their national identity number to avoid double counting; and (c) geo-referencing of locations of all farmers groups and infrastructures.
SangayChoda / 01 Dec 2016 onwards
- Develop a systematic data collection, analysis, validation and storage mechanism based on M&E learning from MAGIP for its project completion report and other reporting requirement; also make M&E a cross-cutting responsibility among all entities of the programme.
SangayChoda / Continuous
- Develop gender and social inclusion strategy and a sensitization cum training module – which should include life skills trainings for adolescent/young girls (including non-financial services skills such as health, sanitation and nutrition)
- Conduct gender training as per AWPB for key staff of OPM, Dzongkhags, Gewogs and partner agencies; gender officer should have exposure visits to other IFAD projects in India/Nepal for learning on-the-job on gender.
TashiWangdi / 31 Mar 2017
- Where possible promote women-specific farmers groups who can take advantage of opportunities offered under components 1 & 2
Norbu
SangayChoeda / 30 Apr 2017
- Maintain a data-base for household poverty categories (including women-headed, HHs with disability, Kidu recipient HHs, POP as per Dzongkhag classification[1], ethnic communities such as Brokpa, Lepcha&Doya -particularly in component 1).
SangayChoda / 31 Mar 2017
- Develop CARLEP KM Strategy and Action Plan. Enable project partners (including RDC Wengkhar, RLDC Kanglung, FCBL, DAMC & Dzongkhag RNR officers) to contribute KM products for newsletters of IFAD, RGoB/MoAF and IFADAsia website on regular basis.
SangayChoda / 31 Mar 2017 & continuous
- Undertake KM training programme for staffs at OPM, Dzongkhags & partner institutions; prepare action plan to produce KM products along with dissemination strategy based on KM strategy. If required, use external resource persons.
TashiWangdi / 31 Mar 2017
- Conduct a training programme for all accounts staff engaged in the project in preparation monthly expenditure statements and the AO in preparation of Smart SOE
TashiWangdi / 15 Jan 2017
- Correct the excess claims in the WA made for the period Jan-Jun 2016 and resubmit the same to IFAD
- Compile a list of all assets received from MAGIP and those procured under the project and tag them with identification numbers
- Submit the audit report within the stipulated time. Audit Report to include opinion on SOEs
Annexure 4: Project Supervision and follow-up missions (Example)