Location / Chagai and Thatta, Pakistan / Implementation
Agency / Islamic Relief Pakistan
Pin Code / 020_000941-04 / Donor
Agency / IRUK/DFID AidMatch
Contact Person
at IRW / Ateeq Rehman
Country Director/Regional Programme Co-ordinator – Asia
19-Rea Street Birmingham B5 6LB
;
+441216220709
Contact
Person
In IR Pakistan / Sumayya Sajjad
Head of Programmes (interim)
Manager Programme Learning & Development
+92 345 8535206
Reporting period / 1 April 2014 to 31 Mar 2015
Key Achievements / Agriculture inputs, training on agriculture management, cereal cropping, sunflower production, commercial vegetable, backyard poultry distribution, livestock management and feed management trainings conducted contributing to increased production
Drinking water schemes such as hand pumps, water ponds, solar pumps undertaken.
DRR workshops, formation of village disaster Management committees, disaster management and climate change plans, for 100 villages were completed.
Project Budget: / GBP 3,000,000 / Project Start/End Dates: / April 01, 2013 -
March 31, 2016
UK Aid Match Annual Review
The Annual Review is part of a continuous process of review and improvement throughout the project cycle. At each formal review, the performance and ongoing relevance of the project are assessed. This is a point for assessing whether changes need to be made to the project, although this can also be done at other times during the reporting year if necessary.
Please complete each section of the review template. Expand boxes as required.
Guiding notes are provided in red italics. Please delete guidance notes before submitting.
The Annual Review assesses and rates outputs using the following rating scale.Description / Scale
Outputs substantially exceeded expectation / A++
Outputs moderately exceeded expectation / A+
Outputs met expectation / A
Outputs moderately did not meet expectation / B
Outputs substantially did not meet expectation / C
A: SUMMARY
Name of grant holder:Islamic Relief / Project title:
Sustainable Initiative towards Resilience and Transformation (SIRAT)
Project Value:
£3,000,000 (DfID contribution £1,500,000) / Review Date:
31 March 2015
Start Date:
01 April 2013 / End Date:
31 March 2016
Summary of progress since last review (if applicable)
In the current year the project team has consolidated its efforts to build upon the foundation laid down during the first year of the project. Strong social mobilization in the community has empowered the people to participate in planning, implementation and monitoring process. With the combined efforts of project staff and community based organizations (CBOs), project interventions relating to food security, WASH, DRR and advocacy have started delivering substantial benefits to targeted communities of Sindh and Baluchistan.Distribution of agricultural inputs including training on agriculture management, cereal cropping, sunflower production, commercial vegetable, backyard poultry distribution, livestock management and feed management trainings have been executed in all targeted areas of the project, which have built their capacity of poor farmers to increase the production and further raise their daily income. Benefiting households including women and children have ample food to eat and additional agricultural products to sell in the market. The households have witnessed increase in their household income with these efforts.
Under WASH 43 safe drinking water schemes like lead hand pumps, rehabilitation of drinking water schemes, slow sand water filter ponds, solar power water pumps have been completed and providing clean drinkable water to the people living in remote areas of District Chagai and Sajawal in Baluchistan and Sindh. It has protected the men, women and children to fall prey to waterborne diseases. Moreover women and girls, who undertake the responsibility of fetching of water from distant locations.
In both areas village development plans, disaster management and climate change plans have been completed for 147 villages. Simultaneously Hazard vulnerability Capacity Assessment conducted in 147 villages with active participation of the CO members. These plans are now and being implemented by the targeted communities in their respective areas/villages to secure themselves from adversarial impact of disaster and climate change. School children form an important segment of the community, who can play the role of agent of change so DRR awareness sessions have been held for school children to engage them in preparedness and mitigation efforts.
For long term change and sustainable development, people have been encouraged and organized to raise their voice in ‘people assemblies’ on issues of water, disaster, early warning, agriculture etc. Advocacy efforts under the project have provided opportunity to community, government functionaries and civil society together to address the long term issues of populace.
.
Combination of tangible and intangible interventions under this project has complemented each other to create better impact on the lives of people. Community based organizations (CBOs) has participated in community management and leadership trainings so capacity events have enabled the representatives of CBOs to play pivotal role the development of their respective villages. It is these community representatives, who are facilitating the project team in reaching poorest-of- the-poor and monitoring project activities. The crucial support extended to the deprived communities of Sajawal (Sindh) and Chagai (Baluchistan) under this project have opened the avenues towards sufficient food, increased income, safe water, proper sanitation and disaster-resilient villages.
Summary of lessons learnt since last review (if applicable)
The initial proposal was developed on the basis of rapid assessment that provided somewhat partial information of the ground realities. Social mobilization activities and close coordination with the government line departments in the current year of the project have added value to planning and implementation of the project interventions. It led towards putting in place effective and participatory mechanisms for implementation of activities, which have positive and sustainable impact on the lives of people.Project team has also realized the need of having frequent meetings over the progress of the project to quickly address the bottlenecks and replicate the best practices. Action points emerging from these meetings have been followed up in subsequent visits of project sites. This proved to be much helpful in spurring the activities on the right course in the second phase of project and in its underlying potential to achieving the project impact in future.
Summarise any changes that need to be made to the project plan (if applicable)
No change is required in the project documents however proposal, budget and implementation plan edited in-line with the log frame in the month of September 2014. The revised versions of these documents shared separately with DfID. Some of the log frame amends were very minor – however, all revisions changes incorporated in the detailed implementation plan of the project.B: PERFORMANCE AND CONCLUSIONS
B.1 Outcome statement:
Marginalized communities in Baluchistan and Sindh are able to access food and water sources and develop resilience to environmental threatsB.2 Performance
Indicator / Year (2)Milestone / Achievement
1. Households with improved food security / 8% (2,096 HHs) of target beneficiaries have improved their food security with at least 12,000 PKR for a food basket per month / 2506 households have improved food security with 12,300 PKR for a food basket per month.
2. Communities access potable water sources / 15% (3,931 HHs) of target households have access to safe and sufficient water / 2,057 HHs have access to safe & sufficient drinking water.
3. Structural and non-structural mitigation measures in hazard-prone areas / 30 villages resilient prepared / 147 villages resilient prepared.
Provide a brief narrative to explain progress towards targets, highlighting key achievements and account for slippage, ando/or exceptional performance.
Milestone of indicator 1: 8% (2,096 HHs) of target beneficiaries have improved their food security with at least 12,000 PKR for a food basket per monthDuring follow up meetings with beneficiaries of agricultural inputs, poultry package, solar lights, animal health camps and various capacity building events, it has been observed that these interventions have added PKR on an average PKR 3300 in their monthly incomes which means household income of these beneficiaries have increased from baseline PKR 9000 to PKR 12300.
1035 (815 men + 220 women) farmers and poultry keepers have been able to store the grains needs and use eggs for household needs. Availability of sufficient grains and eggs has contributed towards improvement of nutritional status of these families, particularly women and children. Extra production of grains and eggs is being sold in local market, which brings money in their pockets. In case of paddy (rice) farmers have also stored the grains for seeds so that they should use it for next season.
500 household living without electricity have been provided solar lights, which has enabled the members of the households to undertake productive activities in the early part of night, which was previously going unutilized due to darkness.
971 farmers have got their animals treated through animal health camps so health of animals has been improved and they are giving good milk to owners. With improved health of animals and livestock rearing practices, farmers have more milk to drink. Farmers are also earning good money by selling additional animals with good health.
Livelihood trainings in livestock management, seed management, orchard management, commercial vegetable and tailoring have contributed in maximizing the benefits from tangible inputs. Participants have used the acquired skills in managing their livestock, cultivating crop, caring orchards and sewing crops better than before. Participants have also got monetary returns in the form of good crop yield, health animals with good product and sewing/stitching clothes.
Milestone of indicator 2: 15% (3,931) of target households have access to safe and sufficient water
2057 HHs comprising of 12,882 individuals including 3216 men, 3431 women, and 6235 children are benefiting from 42 installed drinking water schemes at their doorsteps.
Women and girls facing hardships to fetch water from far-off places have been reduced because they have water available in the surroundings of their villages. Consumption of safe drinking water has diminished the incidence of waterborne diseases so people are saving money, which they were using on treatment and transportation of patients to towns, where doctors are usually providing services. Availability of water has provided opportunity to opportunity to people to keep their bodies and clothes clean.
2057 households have got access to clean drinking water against planned 3931 households. This milestone is underachieved although more than half of the total number of target water supply schemes, i.e. 42 out 80 are functioning. As this activity is process oriented, coincidently the scattered settlements with low number of population got prioritized for these schemes that is why the actual number of beneficiary appears less than planned/targeted numbers. At present work on the remaining schemes is in progress and would be completed before the end of project. By then the aggregate number of beneficiaries will hopefully reach the total target.
Milestone of indicator 3: 30 villages resilient prepared
Through Hazard Vulnerability & Capacity Analysis (HVCA) training & social mobilization initiatives conducted in 147 villages, communities are able to identify the risk & resources at village level. By using participatory techniques and findings of HVCA exercise, communities were facilitated in preparing their village development and village DRR plans. . 147 Village Disaster Risk Management Committees (VDRMCs) are formed, which are working as emergency response team (ERTs) in their respective villages. VDRMCs have been linked with district disaster management authority (DDMA) and they have shared village development and DRR plans with these authorities. VDRMCs are utilizing their awareness to mitigate risks to their settlements and livelihoods. They also have obtained capacity to cope with any future disaster/calamity by utilizing the local resources and knowledge. The main reason for overachievement relates to the nature of activities being soft which provided the space to reach more number of villages and beneficiaries than planned during the reporting period.
B.3 (If applicable) Are there any changes you will make to the project to achieve this outcome?
Not applicable at the moment.C: DETAILED OUTPUT SCORING
C.1
Output statement / Diversified and resilient livelihood models introduced to communities through awareness raising, capacity building and rehabilitation initiativesOutput number / 1 / Output Score / B
Risk: / Medium / Impact weighting (%): / 50
Risk revised since last AR? / N / Impact weighting % revised since last AR? / N
C. 2 Add/delete rows and columns as required
Indicator / Year 2 /Milestone / Achievement /
1.1 No. of beneficiaries with new and improved skills / 1,600 beneficiaries trained in agriculture/ livestock/ business/ FFS/ vocational skills / Total of 15, 032 individual (4010 HH) including 5864 men, 3908 women and 5,260 under agriculture & poultry inputs, agriculture, livestock and feed management training, installation of solar lights, farmer field schools (FFS), female vocational training, animal health camps, distribution of commercial vegetable seeds benefitted in both the regions of Sindh and Baluchistan.
1.2 Market revitalized through development grants / 20 existing businesses rehabilitated through dispersion of grants / Selection of 20 entrepreneurs has been finalized in terms of their needs/inputs for rehabilitation/reinvigoration of their businesses so within next two weeks they will be disbursed grants. Simultaneously field teams are also involved in identification of remaining 80 entrepreneurs so that this activity should be completed by September 2015.
10 small entrepreneurs from Baluchistan were facilitated in an exposure visit to cotton and wool industry as part of linkage development for wool and cotton value chain. The remaining exposure visits have been planned by end of April-2015
1.3 Land available for adaptive cropping methods / 2,000 of acres of land cultivated through FFS, on/off seasonal crop/vegetable farming and improved irrigation / 1250 acres of land cultivated through seasonal crops, seasonal and commercial vegetables. 3 karezes (Traditional Irrigation Channels) In Baluchistan have been rehabilitated and 4 irrigation channels are being rehabilitated. 70% of rehabilitation/reconstruction work is accomplished. These efforts will bring approximately 800 acres under cultivation. In light of the progress achieved so far the project is set to achieve the remaining target within the project life.
C.3 Comments on progress towards output targets
Output 1: Diversified and resilient livelihood models introduced to communities through awareness raising, capacity building and rehabilitation initiatives