Community Support Programme Exit Strategy and Plan CARE NEPAL/COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROGRAMME

Transcription

1 Community Support Programme Exit Strategy and Plan CARE NEPAL/COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROGRAMME

2 Community Support Programme Exit Strategy and Plan 1.0 Context The Community Support Programme (CSP phase I) was initiated in 2003, during the conflict period in Nepal, to support community-led service delivery at a time when government support was severely restricted. Department of International Development (DFID) under UKaid funded this programme for eight years to support poor and excluded communities in some of the remotest areas of Nepal. The second phase of CSP was initiated in April with a more focused approach covering 405 village development committees (VDCs) in 44 District Development Committees (DDCs). CSP II is scheduled to end in. CSP works with communities through community-based organizations (CBOs) and their networks and in partnership with a local non-governmental organization.. The overall goal of CSP Phase II extension is to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion in 44 districts of Mid-Western, Far-Western, Central and Eastern Regions of Nepal. The purpose of this program is to improve access to community-based development opportunities by poor and excluded people. CSP phase II extension has four outputs as following: Output 1: Improved disaster resilient basic service infrastructure and its increased access by communities, including women and girls. Output 2: Strengthened capacity of poor and excluded communities, including women and girls, to lead social actions to claim their rights, thereby generating sustained income. Output 3: Local government (DDC/VDC) community planning, monitoring and accountability processes significantly improved, informed by CSP good practices. Output 4: Increased climate and natural shocks resilience of vulnerable communities including women and girls. This phase-out strategic plan of the programme has envisioned to ensure the sustainability of activities, results and the impacts they achieved are institutionalized and sustained after the Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN)/CSP support period is completed. Focused activities are systematically carried out so that benchmark is set up for the agencies that undertake the responsibility to ensure the continuation of the impacts and relevant activities even after the programme phases out. 1

3 2.0 The Exit Plan The objective of preparing project exit strategy and plan is to develop a scheduled process that facilitates a gradual and systematic transition or hand-over project activities/programme to local institutions and government authorities. The exit plan outlines the key steps to be followed for a smooth phase-out of the project interventions. These include documentation of lessons and good practices of the project and dissemination, the closing down of project activities, the communication about closure of the project and the management of human resources and the management of properties and assets as appropriate and minimize the hassle among partners and other stakeholders during the phase-out process. 3.0 Process of Preparing the Exit Strategy and Plan The CSP Phase II is scheduled to end in. Thus, the programme has prepared an exit strategy plan for a smooth phase-out of the project s activities. The proposed strategies and action plan have been developed in discussion and consultation with project key staff, DFID officials and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) CSP Coordination Committee. This strategy and plan will be further refined and modified after consultation and discussion with local district authorities and CSP implementing partners. The following strategies will be adopted for exit of CSP and transforming the good practices. The detail of action plan is presented in Annex Program Management Within the given time frame to implement the project activities, the project management is necessary to accomplish all project activities on time. The following activities will be carried out together with local government Work more closely with government It is necessary to work more closely with government to complement on poverty reduction. Partners will deliver programme on behalf of the government. To achieve this, partners and programme visibility will be reduced and there will be an increase in government visibility which will be done through following actions; Include government s logo on the information board and any other publications. Follow the government planning process and align properly. Review and reporting will also be done as per the government s requirement. Continue joint programme monitoring. 2

4 Continuation of Present Program Implementation Modality (CARE through partners and RRN direct). Programme coverage will remain unchanged. Most of the field level activity implementation is scheduled to be completed by the end of December However, few activities such as strengthening linkages development between project s promoted groups and concerned government line agencies, dissemination of programme learning, district and national level project wrap-up workshops, handover of project s asset, project reporting will be done in the last quarter of the project Coordination and Integration with local bodies and district line agencies CSP partners (CARE and RRN) have been implementing programme in close collaboration/coordination with local bodies (DDC/VDCs) and other development agencies in the working districts. Coordination with other projects/programmes will further explore the possibility for integration of some of the similar activities to create synergy and continuation even after completion of the programme. CARE and RRN will further explore possibility to link with district sectoral line agencies to like communities to get future supports for sustainability Commitments from key stakeholders Sustainability for an effective continuation of the project s good practices, commitment from the partner NGOs, CBOs and networks as well as the commitment from the regional and field offices/ other projects/ line agencies in providing continued backstopping support (technical, and possible financial) to local people are of paramount importance. They should be further linked with other donors/partners for continuing their initiatives not only in programme district, but at national level as well. It is also apparent that these partners and CBO s capacity should be strengthened much earlier to the termination of the project so that they will be fully capable of taking over the roles and responsibilities of the project with an expanded horizon of skills, works and networks Capacity development of partners CSP has done significant work to strengthen the capacity of implementing partner organizations, CBOs and users committee (UCs) in different technical areas related to programme as well as in the management and strategic areas. For the smooth phase over the project interventions, there is need of further skills and capacity to link this with other concerns in strategic way to sustain the project's achievement and initiations. Therefore, project will focus on the capacity building of partners/cbos/ucs based on their institutional capacity assessment findings before CSP phase is over. The detail plan for capacity building of partners/cbos/ucs will be prepared after discussion with them and review their competencies. 3

5 3.2 Communication Strategy CSP will highlight the learning, good practices, achievements and present state of the project activities with key stakeholders of the district, including media-persons. Also, it will organize all-party-representatives meetings through DDC to familiarize them with CSP activities and impacts. This will further ensure their commitments for continued follow-up and necessary supports. The communication plan will be implemented at four different levels (Table 1). Table 1: Exit Communication Process Communities/VDC Level Communities and VDCs will be informed about the project duration District Level Regional Level National Level Feedback collection on phase out strategy Phase out strategy will be shared with PSMCs, DDCs and line agencies Feedback Collection at different level stakeholder Information dissemination on phasing out strategy Learning and experiences sharing workshop Experience sharing and programme completion workshop Experience sharing and project completion workshop 3.3 Human Resource Management RRN and CARE will give their best effort to retain/adjust staffs in other projects if applicable. As per the policy the staff will be informed prior. Field level staff positions will gradually be phased out from January. Similarly, the sub-grant agreement for activity implementation with partners will end in February. In case of special requirements, few staff of partners organization may be continued till the end of the project. 3.4 Office Management After the completion of project, will not continue district level offices unless and until organization needs it for other projects. The office will close down after completing the asset management within project period. The following procedure will follow. Pre inform to partners/community/uc to settle financial transactions. Financial clearance with community and suppliers. Notice to bank for closing down of bank account. Financial settlement of staff. 4

6 Submission of financial records and documents. Closing of bank accounts. Final project audit. 3.5 Asset Management Asset purchased by the CSP will be mobilized by the organization as guided by the donors in case of that asset falling under donor directives. The remaining assets will be managed as per need to other programme in organization. The following procedure will follow to manage the asset. Final verification of inventory/asset list Submission of asset list to DFID Disposal/Handover of asset as guided by donor 4.0 Consolidation of learning and best practices CSP partners (CARE and RRN) will focus on documentation of learning and best practices evolved through the execution of the programme. Published best practices will be shared widely. Major best practices like - social mobilization, public auditing, joint monitoring and planning will be documented during the remaining period and shared widely. Annex- 1. CSP II Phase-out Action Plan Activity Responsibility. Timing Remarks 1.0 Work more closely with government 1.1 Conduct PSMC meeting on quarterly basis Trimester 1.2 Present CSP plan and progress in DDC Trimester meeting and provide update to regional review through LDO 1.3 Continue joint monitoring visit Trimester 1.4 Organize MoFALD CSP Coordination Trimester Committee meeting 1.5 All documents such as case study, lesson On going learning, guidelines, etc. published with government logo. 1.6 Organize learning visit for government employees. 1.7 Organize periodic interaction between project and government staff at different levels on different themes such as project management practices, joint public auditing, Quarterly 5

7 compliment to the demand side government etc 1.8 Handover project activities to respective On going UCs following government guidelines 2.0 Activity phase out plan 2.1 Completion of all Infrastructure activities December Synthesize and produce output wise/sectoral report and share with respective district line agencies 2.3 Documentation of management practices of CSP documentation of good practices, case studies, publication of book and booklets 2.4 Prepare completion report 2.5 Prepare programme completion report (PRC) DFID 2.6 Conduct final evaluation or beyond 3.0 Exit communication plan 3.1 Organize dissemination/sharing workshop at district level, regional and national (Sharing Feb march good practices of CSP with district level stakeholders). 3.2 Programme wrap up meeting in each district, regional and national level Feb march 4.0 Human resource management 4.1 Develop organizational HR phase out plan and execution. December Asset management plan 5.1 Prepare/update list of inventory and assets February 5.2 Prepare assets disposal plan and approval from DFID. February 5.3 Dispose/handover assets as per approved proposal 5.4 Closing accounts and audits 6