Raising awareness and commitment to VC s and needs through advocacy and social mobilisation;

Transcription

1 To improve the quality of life of vulnerable children (VCs) and to ensure that they enjoy their basic human rights, through 5 strategic interventions, namely: Raising awareness and commitment to VC s and needs through advocacy and social mobilisation; Strengthening the capacity of families and communities to protect, care for and support VCs; Strengthening social, legal and judicial protection of VCs children and their families; Scaling up availability and access to services by VCs and their families; and Systems strengthening. 1

2 Determine what has been the progress in meeting the objectives, goals and targets stated in the NSPVC and NOP and what are the challenges and opportunities in meeting these; Determine the extent to which projects and programmes are currently aligned to the NSPVC/NOP so as to find out whether partners are pursuing the strategic objectives outlined in the NSPVC; and To identify lessons learnt and make recommendations on the best way to improve and accelerate the NSPVC s implementation. The assessment was carried out through: The review of templates submitted to the MOSD, the lead government ministry, by implementing partners, to account for their progress against the plan; Interviews of key officials of government departments and implementing agencies; and Through the review of legislation and policies targeted at the welfare of VCs and their families and caregivers. The review is not an impact assessment, but rather a collation and an analytical assessment of the activities carried out by government departments and implementing agencies in support of the NSPVC. 2

3 The MOSD developed and distributed a template to stakeholders to account for their progress in implementing the NSPVC. However, the assessment found that: A number of stakeholders did not receive the template; A number of stakeholders did not have the NSPVC NOP, against which to measure their progress and achievements; A number did not stick to the requirements of the template; There were varying degrees of detail recorded in reporting templates, with some stakeholders providing considerable detail on progress, for example, details in respect of activities to the level of Community Councils (CCs), the main structures of local governance in Lesotho, whereas others only provided information of a high level; Some stakeholders submitted reports in their own formats, or in narrative form; and A number of stakeholders did not submit reports at all. There was an absence of baseline indicators against which to measure the progress of NSPVC implementation of the NSPVC. The national M&E plan for the NSPVC does not have baseline data for many of its strategic objectives and states that these are to be determined. Even so, monitoring the +/- 120 NOP activities, excluding activities for system strengthening, to be implemented across 67 CCs, (8,040 potential ticks on a monitoring template), might be difficult under any circumstances. There my have been some double counting of beneficiaries due to the way in which implementing partners have accounted. Some lead agencies, e.g. PACT, MSH and CCJP, submitted progress reports, but also implement programmes through implementing partners, some of whom have also submitted progress reports. The NSPVC is such a comprehensive and wide-ranging plan, that any intervention to protect and improve the lives of VCs however expressed or framed, is likely to be contained in it. The requirement to identify lessons learnt and to make recommendations was constrained by its scope, which did not allow an assessment of programme implementation. 3

4 Not all stakeholders submitted reports, with the implication that unknown numbers of beneficiaries may have not been counted. The numbers should therefore not be taken as conclusive. It was not possible from the figures to arrive at a final number of total beneficiaries that have received support of one kind of another, because in many cases, the same beneficiaries will have received different kinds of support. A number of accounts refer to households rather than to individual beneficiaries. Whilst it might be tempting to derive the number of actual beneficiaries on assumptions of the average household size, the assessment refrained from doing so. In the absence of baseline data for many activities, it remains a challenge to find meaning behind the figures arrived at through the assessment. Also, for a number of activities, the aligned NSPVC M&E plan does not have targets for the year under review. Incomplete and/or inconsistent data on where activities took place has also made it challenge to determine their spatial or geographical occurrence. The NOP provides for activities to occur during some or all of the 4 quarters of the year under review. The reporting template did not require responding partners to indicate when activities occurred, so that only an annual purview of the NOP s implementation is possible. 4

5 There is a duplication of activities in the NOP in a number of instances, e.g. the provision of education (uniforms, shoes, grants, etc.) under one main activity is repeated under the requirement to provide bursaries to enable VCs to attend government secondary schools under another main activity. Some implementing partners bundled their activities and did not disaggregate them as per the numerous activities of the NOP. Nevertheless, the policy and legislative context for the protection and care of VCs is rich and evolving, with the adoption of The Children s Protection and Welfare Act of 2011, the near finalisation of the National Policy on Social Development and the National Policy and Strategic Plan for Integrated Early Childhood Care and Development 2013 and of course the ongoing implementation of the NSPVC. There is also a dense network of service provider organisation with the Letsema Directory listing 379 organisations variously engaged in supporting VCs. 5

6 Numerous awareness raising campaigns and training programmes targeted at chiefs, other community leaders and community members at large, have been convened; the media has been extensively utilised; and that targeted advocacy materials have been developed and disseminated for purposes of awareness raising. Community-based meetings were organised in all districts although there was insufficient data to indicate if awareness campaigns covered all community council areas in all districts. In respect of the development and maintenance of databases of VCs, NISSA data was unavailable to the assessment. A number of VCs were registered by implementing partners in 7 of Lesotho s 10 districts on other databases. The integration of these standalone databases with NISSA and the Social Welfare Routine Information System (SWRIS) is probably important. There was no or inconsistent data on where, at the level of community councils, activities have been carried out. Implementing partners have carried out a large range of activities to strengthen the capacity of families and communities to protect and care for VCs. A significant number of people have been empowered to provide consistent care and support to VCs, numerous VCs have been provided with basic material support and many others have been referred to access essential services. The coverage of many of these activities does not appear to have been national in scope. Furthermore, much of the support has not been of a capacity building nature, but has taken the form of direct support, for example, in the provision of educational material, whose sustainability is contingent on the availability of mainly externally derived donor funds. Under succession planning objectives, intended to ensure orphans inherit and benefit from their deceased parents assets, the key sub-activity to build the capacity of chiefs does not appear to have been carried out critical shortcoming given the important role of chiefs in decision-making and influence bearing, particularly in rural areas. This activity requires significant acceleration. 6

7 A few caregivers were supported to engage in economic activities for the benefit of VC, a number of VCs were directly supported through economic activities, and various others were referred to health facilities, provided with health education and provided with health care material including basic medicines. VCs also benefited through the construction or installation of physical infrastructure including toilets and boreholes, water tanks and houses and repairs to houses. Various activities to enhance access to food and nutrition were carried out, benefiting numerous households (although some are likely to have been supported under the umbrella of the feeding programme of the food security emergency of 2013/13. VCs were supported to establish and maintain food gardens, received food supplements and micronutrient support, received food baskets through the CGP and PA programme, and numerous households were supplied with staple food. Activities for the regulation and monitoring of the placement of VCs in care have not been carried out, possibly as a result of capacity constraints in the MOSD shortages of social workers etc. The NSPVC makes a priority of the need to strengthen existing community and national systems for the social and legal protection of VCs and their families. A number of households are currently registered under the CGP with intentions for the expansion of the protection system in the medium term. No information was available on the number of beneficiaries of the PA programme. The paralegal aspects of the plan have been less successful, with for example, only 2 Village Justice Committees established for the 66 CCs. Awareness raising activities have been carried, albeit not in all districts, but institution building activities have been less successfully implemented. The bulk of these institution building activities are the responsibility of government MDAs, which raises questions around their commitment to the NSPV or possible resource inadequacies on their part. 7

8 A substantial number of activities have been carried out in support of birth and death registration processes, including through awareness raising campaigns. Activities to build the capacity of the National Identity and Civil Registry Department appears to have taken place. Much effort has gone into building capacity around the provision of psychosocial support, although this does not seem to have been evenly spread across the country. Also, the sustainability elements of the plan training materials etc. have not been produced distributed. A large number of activities targeted at IEECD have not been carried out, probably due to the very recent policy recognition given to IEECD. The provision of support to provide materials for VCs attending primary school, and to provide bursaries for older VCs at secondary school is a well established practice. However, the total number of beneficiaries of bursary programmes is on the decline and mainly as a result of their inability to secure documentation on their vulnerability status. The bulk of systems strengthening activities in the NSPVC have not been carried out, possibly due to underlying financial and human resource constraints facing GoL and some implementing partners. The NOCC is the main national coordinating institution for social development; activities and meetings of the NOCC continue but there was no evidence from the to determine the NOCCs effectiveness. Efforts to capacitate District Child Protection Teams (DCPTs) appear to be progressing. Whilst the NSPVC has been costed, limited resource mobilisation activities have been carried out. Increase in budget allocations to the MOSD have taken place, mainly due to the adoption of the previously EU funded CGP by GoL. In one significant case, resources for VC bursaries have declined due to failures to adhere to funding criteria. Activities to grow capacitate in the M&E unit will continue to impact on plan monitoring. The shortcomings of the NSPVC M&E framework, essentially the absence of baselines, are some evidence of this weakness that needs to be urgently addressed. Capacity issues are also the key factors to slow progress to build an evidence base through research. Progress has been made however to improve information management, particularly due to the need for detailed and accurate information for the social protection elements of the NSPVC. 8

9 There is perhaps some scope for bringing greater rationality to the NSPVC. A number of activities appear to duplicate each other, even if their ultimate objectives differ. There might be better efficiency in utilising basket or supermarket approaches to programme implementation, so that e.g. awareness raising is not confined to raising awareness about a single issue (at a time). However, there might well be some institutional resistance to moving away from what might be termed silo approaches to service delivery on account of organisations differing mandates, specialisations and accountability requirements. These and other coherence issues are probably for deliberation through the Mid-Term Review. Implementation partners should more formally sign up and buy in to the NSPVC through compacts, to ensure their proper and more accurate accounting. Compacts would be formal agreements governing the determination, prioritisation, implementation, accounting and monitoring and evaluation of activities. Efforts to further capacitate the MOSD should be fast-tracked so that the MOSD is better able to meet its own obligations in respect of the NSPVC, but also to better manage and coordinate the implementation of the NSPVC by partners, (under the oversight of the NOCC). The M&E plan for the NSPVC needs to be finalised to include baseline and other data to enable the adequate, timely, accurate and measureable monitoring of progress. The NOP reporting template should be reviewed in consultation with partners, to ensure it is designed to more rigorously meet necessary information requirements. This is likely to be a challenging activity. Perhaps reporting on activities on a quarterly basis may help. Critically, baseline data should be incorporated into the template and mapping processes should also be utilised to enable a better understanding of who is doing what, where. There may be some value in determining what implementing partners intend to do for the year 2013/14 and for future years on a rolling basis, in order to monitor actual intentions and plans. This would also enable the determination of gaps. Others... 9