STRIVE Annual Work Plan FY ‘03
CRS/ZW STRIVE Project
Support to Replicable, Innovative, Village/Community Levels Efforts for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe
Annual Work Plan
1st October 2002 – 30th September 2004
Prepared by:
The STRIVE Team
Catholic Relief Services/Zimbabwe
Submitted to:
USAID Zimbabwe
Cooperative Agreement #690-A-00-02-00056-00
Revised November, 2002
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STRIVE Annual Work Plan FY ‘03
Table of Contents
List of Acronyms
SECTION I: Introduction and Background
AIntroduction
BBackground
CDeepening Poverty in Zimbabwe
DResponding to Increasing Number of Vulnerable Children
EResponding to Deepening Food Insecurity
Section II: Major Activities for FY ‘03
AProject Oversight
BSub grantee management
CActivities for FY ’03 by Intermediate Result
i.Intermediate Result 1 — Psychosocial Support Interventions
ii.Intermediate Result 2 — Food Security Interventions
iii.Intermediate Result 3 — Education Assistance Interventions
iv.Intermediate Result 4 — Economic Strengthening Interventions
v.Intermediate Result 5 — Capacity Building Interventions
DOperations Research Unit
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List of Acronyms
AIDSAcquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CABAChildren Affected By HIV/AIDS
ESEconomic Strengthening
HIVHuman Immunodeficiency Virus
CB/GCapacity Building and Gender
EAEducations Assistance
GMGrants Manager
GOGrants Officer
HEAHousehold Economic Approach
HHHousehold
IHMIntra Household Model
IRIntermediate Result
IRCInternal Review Committee
LEADLinkages for the Economic Advancement of the
Disadvantaged
LOELevel of Effort
ORAOperations Research Advisor
OROperations Research
OROOperations Research Officer
PACProject Approval Committee
PDProject Director
PLWAPerson/People Living with HIV/AIDS
PMProject Manager
PDMProject Development and Management
PPOPilots Project Officer
PMPPerformance Management Plan
PSSPsychosocial Support
RFPRequest for Proposals
RTARegional Technical Advisor
SAROSouthern Africa Regional Office
SOStrategic Objective
STRIVESupport to Replicable, Innovative Village/community
Level Efforts [for Children Affected By HIV/AIDS]
T.A. Technical Assistance
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STRIVE Annual Work Plan FY ‘03
STRIVE 2003 Annual Work PSECTION I: Introduction and Background
AIntroduction
Given the unpredictability of socio-political situation in Zimbabwe, the 2003 Annual Work Plan will be flexible, allowing STRIVE staff to achieve expected results while responding to changing circumstances. Thus, in each quarter the STRIVE team will review these pre-planned activities and constantly update and adapt them to reflect changing needs, challenges and opportunities as presented by the operating environment. If the socio-political and economic situation deteriorates further, STRIVE will link more closely with the CRS/ZW and other PVOs’ humanitarian relief efforts to ensure maximum returns on STRIVE’s investments for CABA, their families and communities.
This 2003 Annual Work Plan (AWP) serves as a “living” road map that the STRIVE Team will follow to accomplish the project’s objectives. This 2003 Annual Work Plan is organized into sections as follows:
SECTION I: Introduction and Background. This section introduces the AWP and provides background information.
Section II:Major Activities for FY ‘03. This section outlines the STRIVE team’s major activities over for the period October 1st 2002 through September 30th 2003.
Section III: Schedule of Activities for FY ‘03. This section gives in a matrix tabular form all the activities scheduled for the period October 1st 2002 through September 30th 2003.
BBackground
With financial support from USAID, Catholic Relief Services/Zimbabwe’s’s (CRS/ZW) STRIVE Project will enhance the capacity of its sub-grantees to support community responses to assist children affected by HIV/AIDS (CABA) at regional and local levels in Zimbabwe. As part of its operations research strategy, STRIVE will also establish proven models to support CABA. The STRIVE Team will achieve this two-pronged goal [enhancing capacity at regional and local levels in Zimbabwe and establishing proven models to support CABA] by piloting replicable, innovative village/community level interventions to support CABA, their households and communities simultaneously and in an integrated way. This strategy is critical to developing best practices that will make up proven models for supporting CABA. Furthermore, it is vital to stemming the tide of new infections amongst CABA while providing for their psychosocial, educational and livelihood needs.
CDeepening Poverty in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s socio-political, economic and health crises continue to deepen, with current inflation at more than 122%, increasing HIV prevalence rates [35% of adults: UNICEF 2001], high death rates associated with AIDS [< 2000 deaths per week: NAC 2001], and over 6 million people faceding with starvation. TheThe combined effects of climatic conditions and a land policy that led to disruptionin production in the commercial farming sector have contributed to the current food insecurity for households throughout the country and continue to lead to the country’s economic meltdown. Again the combined effects of HIV/AIDS and malnutrition will result in increased death rates. As noted during the years of responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis and the recent STRIVE baseline, the epidemiological trends of the pandemic show that there are increasing numbers of CABA throughout the country and an increasing number of children who are vulnerable as a result of poverty. These numbers escalate at a time when government spending on social services is dwindling and when limited resources hamper regional local responses by communities.
DResponding to Increasing Number of Vulnerable Children
With limited public funds invested in CABA, local organizations and communities must enhance their capacity to respond to the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in an effective and sustainable manner and also work on preventing the further spread of the virus. During the coming year, STRIVE will respond to the increasing number of CABA by supporting more organizations. The strategy in the first year of the project has been to enhance the capacity of 8 local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), all with a strong operations research component. In theis second year, STRIVE will work with more organizations which have potential to reach to thousands of CABA. Some of these organizations will be international NGOs or Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) while others will be local networks of NGOs or Faith Based Organisations (FBOs). It is envisaged that many of these organisations will require minimal support towards building their organisational capacity and will not have an operations research component. They will, however, all be required to have a strong Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system to learn from the information collected by this system. Through this strategy, the STRIVE Project will reach out to more children while avoiding “hand-holding” each participating sub-grantee.
EResponding to Deepening Food Insecurity
Local and regional weather experts have predicted a severe drought in the coming rain season. If this happens, the situation of children, their households and communities in Zimbabwe will further deteriorate. Anecdotal evidence has clearly linked accelerating decline in PLWA’s health to poor nutrition. status. Thus as communities continue to reel under deepening food insecurity, it is probable that those infected with the HIV virus will progress faster to full-blown AIDS status and then death. This will in turn increase the rate of orphaning and the number of vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. Nonetheless, in FY ’03, the STRIVE project will continue to focus on its core business and will get directly involved with bulk food distribution. Instead, STRIVE will coordinate with the CRS/ZW Emergency Program in order to overlay STRIVE activities in the same geographical areas as those being served by the Emergency Program. In areas where the CRS/ZW Emergency Program has no presence, STRIVE will coordinate with other key players in the food distribution program such as World Vision, CARE and Save the Children Fund-United Kingdom.
In order to be more responsive to increased demands for technical support from sub-grantees to strengthen their food security interventions, STRIVE has already recruited an Agriculture Project Manager (PM) onto its staff compliment. This PM willwill develop and implement a STRIVE food security strategy in the first quarter of the project’s second year.
Section II: Major Activities for FY ‘03
The major activities lined up for implementation during STRIVE’s FY ‘03 [second year], are organised around Project oversight; sub grantee management; each intermediate result area (I.R.), and the Operations Research Agenda. This plan will be used as a road map for STRIVE with close reference to the projects’ Performance Management Plan (PMP).
The STRIVE Project has two strategic objectives (SOs).
Strategic Objective 1—Improved care and support to children affected by HIV/AIDS throughout Zimbabwe. STRIVE will measure fulfilment of this SO by (i) the number of community initiatives (by type) in place to support CABA, (ii) the number of NGOs/CBOs supporting community responses to CABA and (iii) the average percentage of change in CABA support index in pilot project areas.
Strategic Objective 2—Proven models to care and support children affected by HIV/AIDS determined. STRIVE will measure achievement of this SO by (i) the number of models identified by type (i.e., combination of pilot interventions), and (ii) the number of best practices identified.
AProject Oversight
The STRIVE team will prepare an Annual Work plan for submission to USAID in Q3 of 2003. STRIVE will also prepare performance reports every quarter and an annual SO/IR level result report for submission to USAID. These reports will detail progress towards STRIVE’s stated objectives and how STRIVE is contributing towards mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS.
The STRIVE team will hold a staff retreat in Q1 of FY ’03 to review progress to date, discuss areas for improvement and to synchronize planning among the IR areas, Project Development and Management and Operations Research.
In order to increase efficiency and quality of assistance provided to sub grantees, STRIVE will establish hub offices in Bulawayo and Mutare. This will allow assistance to be decentralised and to occur closer to where sub grantees are operating. Each office will have a Regional project manager, PDM project officer, a research and evaluation officer, a finance officer, a driver and an office receptionist. STRIVE plans to recruit staff and secure office space in Q2 and begin operations Q3 of FY ’03.
The STRIVE team will attend various meetings (i.e. UNICEF Child Protection working group, OVC steering committee) and other seminars to actively provide leadership on CABA issues as well as to learn from other organizations in Zimbabwe that are working on the same issues.
In Q3 (May) of FY ’03, STRIVE and USAID will conduct a collaborative mid term peer review of progress to date. The purpose of the exercise will be to ensure that STRIVE and its sub grantees have put into place adequately rigorous measures, systems and personnel to achieve the results that project stakeholders expect to achieve. STRIVE will use the outcome of this review to tighten up areas that need improvement, and to make any mid-course adjustments necessary for ultimate success.
An annual audit of the STRIVE Project at CRS Zimbabwe will take place in Q4 (September) FY ’03. The GM and the grants accountant will also coordinate and manage the external independent audits for the sub-grantees in Q3.
A Grants Management workshop for sub-grantees regarding reporting requirements and USAID regulations will occur in Q1 of FY ’03 and a second in Q3.
The GM and accountant will conduct monitoring field visits throughout the year to verify that sub-grantee expenses are reasonable and are in line with sub grant agreement and USAID regulations. At the same time, the visits will serve as a vehicle for providing technical assistance to sub-grantee financial officers.
Compilation of sales tax paid for the Strive Project for refund purposes will occur at the beginning of every quarter.
BSub grantee management
To begin the process of identifying organisations which will participate in the second round of grant application, the STRIVE team and PAC members will develop criteria for sub-grantee selection. The Project Development and Management (PDM) unit with leadership from the Capacity Building/Gender project manager will use these criteria to develop a rapid organizational assessment tool for potential sub grantees. Those organisations meeting these criteria will be invited to a Start-up workshop where the STRIVE project is explained in detail and sub grantees will learn how to access resources under STRIVE. A request for proposals (RFP) will follow this start-up workshop, the proposals examined by an internal review committee, and approved by a project approval committee. Upon approval, the PDM unit will prepare MOUs and Project/Grant Agreements. Before actually dispersing grants, STRIVE will conduct a pre-award survey.
A key activity will be the review of quarterly progress performance reports from sub-grantees. At the end of each quarter performance reports [detailing progress towards objectives accompanied by a financial report] from sub grantees will be reviewed by the STRIVE team with a view to give feedback to adjust programming accordingly. At the end of each sub-grantee’s project year, STRIVE will convene an Annual Review Committee (IRC) to review the sub-grantee’s performance during the year as shown in their annual report and make recommendations for project steering.
The PDM unit manager will come up with a strategy to coordinate provision of technical assistance to sub-grantees by the different STRIVE team members. This strategy will ensure sub-grantees are not over-whelmed by uncoordinated activities with the different STRIVE team members.
CActivities for FY ’03 by Intermediate Result
The STRIVE Project has three objectives, as follows:
a)To support and develop appropriate, effective and sustainable community-based approaches to support for CABA in Zimbabwe through participatory learning and action.
b)To improve the organizational capacity of at least eight sub grantees to deliver high-quality care, support and prevention services for CABA and their families.
c)To increase access to quality education of children affected by AIDS, with a special focus on girls.
To achieve these objectives, the STRIVE team will focus their activities around the five key intermediate result areas. They are:
- IR1-Psychosocial Support Interventions piloted.
- IR2- Food security interventions piloted.
- IR3- Education assistance interventions piloted.
- IR4- Economic strengthening interventions piloted.
- IR5- Capacity Building Interventions Piloted.
i.Intermediate Result 1 — Psychosocial Support Interventions
During Q2 of FY ’03, a consultant experienced in psychosocial support to children, will “unpack” the term psychosocial support (PSS), develop tools to measure and recommend activities to support psychosocial well-being. The consultant will build on this initial work and devise efficient ways to transfer skills to sub-grantee staff so they are able to use the tools.
Also in Q2, the consultant will facilitate a workshop to introduce the tools developed and provide guidance to sub grantees and STRIVE staff PSS activities. This workshop will also provide an opportunity for sub-grantees and the STRIVE team to share experiences, learn new approaches and better articulate what STRIVE means by psychosocial support.
To further support sub-grantees in PSS, STRIVE will recruit and hire a project manager or officer to provide continuous technical assistance and to ensure the operations research agenda for PSS is well thought through and implemented. The project manager or officer will pay particular attention to documenting PSS trends and techniques as they emerge.
ii.Intermediate Result 2 — Food Security Interventions
The new Agricultural PM (AG PM) hired in September will work closely with the Economic Strengthening program manager and will call on expertise within the CRS Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) from the Regional Technical Advisor for Agriculture. The Ag PM will offer technical assistance during field visits. The first workshop will take place in Q3 of FY ’03.
CRS and DAI/LEAD (Linkages for the Advancement of the Economically Disadvantaged) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on facilitating market linkages in STRIVE geographical areas. The first joint LEAD/CRS activity will have distributed low-tech/low-cost irrigation drip kits during the last quarter of FY ’02. Q1 of FY ’03 will concentrate on follow up visits to monitor technical assistance needs and experiences of the recipients of the drip kits. In Q2 of FY ’03, a rapid assessment of the experiment will take place. Finally, towards the end of the second quarter, the Ag PM will develop a strategy for Phase 2 based on the results of the assessment. This phase 2 would continue to focus on activities that “get food on the table” and will add a component to improve nutritional intake of CABA by introducing crops that are naturally high in vitamins. Once a given geographic area has improved food security, the AG PM, in collaboration with the ES PM, will determine whether market linkages opportunities to enhance income are appropriate.
Identifying crop varieties that are nutrient rich, drought tolerant and high yielding will benefit most sub-grantees whether they are participating in the drip kit pilot or not. Similarly, the Ag PM will research agricultural production techniques that have low labour requirements and that result in high yields on low acreage for the benefit of any interested sub-grantee.
Also in Q2, the AG PM, with the OR PM and ES PM, will assist sub grantees to gather baseline information on food and livelihood security. If possible, CRS will call on the technical expertise of SC-UK in the areas of Household Economic Approach and Intra-Household Model techniques. SC-UK’s collaboration will depend on how severe the current food crisis becomes. At present, SC-UK is occupied with responding to the crisis. The AG and ES PMs and the OR PM will develop alternate tools with which to capture food and livelihood baseline information in the event that SC-UK is unable to provide technical assistance.
Towards the end of the Q2 and 3, the AG PM will organize seed fair(s) where local seed input suppliers (both formal and informal) can come together and advertise their seed stocks. STRIVE sub-grantees will invite their communities to participate in the fairs. The AG PM, in collaboration with the ES PM and the RTA for agriculture will investigate the feasibility of introducing a voucher system with the seed fair. Theoretically, vouchers could be given out to producers, who could then use them to “purchase” seeds displayed at the fair. The seed suppliers could then redeem the vouchers with either CRS or STRIVE sub grantees. The details of this scheme need careful consideration, STRIVE will be able to call on the experience of LEAD in this area since they have introduced voucher systems in a similar vein.