Human Resource Development Board
Monday 17th May, 2010
9:15 – 12:00
Venue: Serena Hotel
Draft Minutes
Co-Chair: Steering Committee: Sectoral Ministries
Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar, MOE MoHE H.E. Mr. Baboury H.E Mr. Sarwar Azizi (MoE)
Ms. Karin Sørensen, DANIDA MoWA Ms. Dr. Khara Ms. Susan Wardak (MoE)
MoLASMD Mr. Salim Mastoor Mr. Abdul Wassay Arian (MoE)
Denmark Excused Absent Dr. Quadir Amiryar (MoHE)
Observers: CIDA Mr. Jean Frederic Beauchesene Mr. Lutfullah Safi (MoE)
LTC Andrii BABAK, ISAF HQ France Ms. Laina Benkowitz Mr. Fred M. Hayward (MoHE)
Mr. Abdul Rahim Wardak, NSDP JICA Absent Mr. Mujtaba Hedayat (MoHE)
Mr. Terry Allsop, FTI Assessment Team Netherlands Ms. Anneloes Viveen Mr. Mirwais Masood (recording secretary)
Ms. Elizabeth Dvorak Little Norway Absent Mr. Radyar (MoE)
Mr. Abdulhai Sofizada, WB PACE-A Mr. Hafiz Nazarwall Mr. Samir Amiri (MoE)
Ms. Marie Cailet, France SCA Mr. Amin Mayel
Tom Visser, CINOP Sweden Ms. Lina Von Seth Dr. Khwaja Omary, CINOP UNESCO Ms. Marina Patrier UNICEF Dr. Fazlul Haque
. USAID Absent
World Bank Mr. Abdul Hai Sofizada
Chamber of Commerce Mr. Sayid Mujtaba Zahir
UNAMA Mr. Kin Vetting
India Mr. Akhlesh Mishra
ANCB Absent GTZ (on behalf of Dr. Michael Hirth
(German Embassy
AusAid Mr. Stuart Schaefer
Save the Children Mr. Fazel Jalil
No. / Item / Discussion / Responsible / Action Points1. / Welcome and Introduction / · The meeting started with welcoming and introduction of participants since some participants were new to the meeting.
· The Chair welcomed Karin Sørensen representing DANIDA as the new Co-Chair of Human Resource Development Board. / No Action
2. / Approval of the Agenda / · The meeting agenda was approved with no further addition. / No Action
3.. / Approval of the Minutes / · Minutes of the 26th April meeting was approved without any further changes. / No Action
4. / Business Arising from the Minutes
4.1 / Brief on finalization of ToR of Human Resource Development Board (HRDB)-MoE / · Dr. Wahidyar, HRDB Chair, briefed members that all the four ministries involved in HRDB had a meeting in office of H.E DM Baboury and discussed the final draft of HRDB ToR. In the meeting it was agreed that MoHE, MoLSAMD and MoWA will review the proposed ToR and share their feedback with HRDB Secretariat; however, until then the ToR in its current format will serve as an accepted ToR for the Board.
· The Chair stated that the purpose of this exercise is to ensure that all the involved ministries are all fully represented in HRDB and take its ownership. / MoHE, MoWA and MOLSAMD / To Send their comments on proposed ToR of HRDB.
4.2 / Workshop on Identification of donor and MoE available resources for NESP II-MoE / · Mr. Mirwais Masood briefed members that MoE has been trying for the past few months to collect information on donor available resources in the country with limited success. Thus, it has been proposed that there should be a one day workshop in which all donors and concerned ministries (MoE, MoHE, MoLSAMD and MoWA) should meet to map up their available resources.
· A form was shared with donors in November which based on it only some donors responded. The form will be revised in the light of needs and programs of other ministries (MoEH, MoWA and MoLSAMD) and it was agreed that all the four ministries should meet and finalize the form. Once the format is finalized it should be shared with partners and a week time should be given to donors send their information. Subsequently a workshop can be organized to verify and finalize the data. / MoE GMU / To arrange the ministerial meeting to finalize the form for data compilation.
Share the revised form with concerned donors and compile the information in a database.
Organize the one day workshop and invite all the potential donors and concerned ministries.
4.3 / Update on FTI Assessment- FTI Assessment Team / The team has shared first draft of the Education Sector Analysis (ESA) in 184 pages. As part of the exercise around 200 people (from government, and development partners) were interviewed and the team visited 3 provinces. The process has been as interactive and participatory as possible.
The report provides six recommendations which they were presented in the meeting and members provided feedback on them. Alignment of programs to resource envelope, formation of a joint mechanism between MoE and MoF for addressing the program delivery delays, a whole sector strategy for girls’ and women’s education, a cross sector strategy on skills development, review of quality of general education and provision of more authoritative role to HRDB were the main recommendations of the report.
Colleagues provided their immediate response to the report but were requested to send their comments by 24th May to HRDB Secretariat:
· One general comment from most of HRDB members was that the report is too long and it should be condensed to no more than 100 pages.
· Mr. Rahimi from NSDP mentioned that World Bank has conducted a number of assessments on skills development in the country which they should be reflected in the report.
· Mr. Azizi DM for MoE TEVT highlighted that role of private sector in TEVT is very crucial.
· DM of HoHE, Mr. Baboury, mentioned that challenges of provinces with low performance are huge e.g. there are provinces that had 20 graduates last year. This issue requires special attention and coordinated efforts.
· Mr. Mishra from Indian Embassy highlighted that for a short term prioritization Afghanistan needs huge emphasis on higher education and TVET.
Dr. Wahidyar mentioned that H.E MoE Minister visited the FTI Secretariat in New York and the Secretariat has offered to review Afghanistan case in July if it is presented as a special case. / FTI assessment team
HRDB members / Ensure the report is condensed to no more than 100 pages.
To send their comments and feedback on ESA report by 24th May to the HRDB Secretariat.
4.4 / Capacity Building/TA Management Proposal / · Mr. Arian briefed members on capacity building and TA proposal. The TA proposal is requesting 52 million USD for 2 years. A total of 1520 TA is needed which 800 of them are already available. For 2010 there is a shortfall of 10 million USD. Currently there is 10 million USD available from WB, 3.5 from DANIDA and some 2.5 from other partners such as UNICEF, UNESCO and other agencies.
· Dr. Wahidyar mentioned that TA makes 0.7% of the total MoE staff but its role is very crucial in enhancing quality of delivery mechanisms.
· Mr. Mishra mentioned that Indian government is interested to review the TA proposal if they receive the proposal. / MoE / To share the TA proposal with Indian Embassy.
4.5 / Next steps for moving towards Sector-Wide Approach SWAp-CIDA and MoE / · Mr. Arian presented the presentation on SWAp which based on assessment of DIFD and WB is recommending a sub-sector (primary and secondary education) readiness. Attached please see the presentation for more details.
· Mr. Baboury raised concern of MoHE that how higher education can be part of this process. Mr. Arian and some donors highlighted that the SWAp can be piloted with MoE and slowly it can be expanded to other ministries in the sector once they are ready to embark on SWAp.
· Members raised the concern that SWAp should not disturb the on-going processes and it should be administrated in a way to slowly absorb other on-going processes.
· Some donors drew attention to issue that it will be complicated for them to sign a MoU while a letter of intent will be easier for them to issue. It was recommended that the small working group that is working on SWAp should meet and decided whether a letter of intent or MoU is needed for initiation of moving toward SWAp. / SWAp working / To meet and decide whether a MoU or letter of intent is sufficient enough to start off the moving toward SWAp process.
5 / Working Groups Reports
5.1 / Tec Voc— UNAMA / · The sector needs financial and human resources for implementation of its plan. The team has prepared the TVET plan for Kabul conference. The exercise indicates that there is lack of support and coordination among the involved ministries.
· Dr. Wahidyar mentioned that they encourage partners to highlight the challenges so that the concerned ministries can work to fill their gaps / No Action
5.2 / Teacher Education— TED and WB / · Progress Report of the Teacher Education Department was shared with members (Attached please see the report).
· The good news is that 9000 more girls have enrolled for teacher education. In Zabul the first batch of girls were graduated from teacher education program.
· Draft strategy of teacher education has been prepared which will be shared for comments.
· MoE Teacher Education summary of program for Kabul conference was presented which emphasizes on recruitment of women in teacher education, Islamic education as well as higher education (Attached please see the summary document).
· Report on assessment of student’s achievement is underway and the Accelerated Teacher Education Program has started with 36000 students. / No Action
5.3 / General Education-MoE / · Organizational chart of General Education will be shared with members once it is approved by MoE. A department on Access to quality EFA will be established which will include most of the demanded units.
· A workshop for finalization of the strategy for emergency education has been planed.
· Also a workshop has been planned to review challenges of CBE. / No Action
5.4 / LIFE Group- UNESCO / · The group did not meet since last meeting of HRDB. / No Action
5.5 / Education Management Group- MoE / · List of priorities of available funds and what are the needs have been prepared.
· Inputs for operation plan from provinces have been received which will be incorporated in the plan. / No Action
6. / AOB
6.1 / Presentation on Cluster / · It was recommended that a full presentation of Cluster should be presented in next meeting of HRDB. There are six components in the Cluster thus separate time should be allocated for each component. / Cluster Coordination Team / To coordinate arrangement of the presentations with HRDB Secretariat
Next Meeting: Monday 21 June
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