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Lessons learnt
The Enhancing Living Standards project in Soughd has been successfully completed and a number of lessons have been learnt. It was identified and learnt that the more emphasis should be made on cooperation with the local authorities and the population and building the local capacity. There are two ways that have been identified to be appropriate for building the capacity of the local authorities (in this case we are talking about the jamoat level authorities). First, through trainings and equipping and second through intensive involvement of jamoat representatives in the projects.
UNDP has already started taking actions towards equipping the jamoats with computers and other ICT equipment, so the next appropriate action would be to provide computer classes. This need was identified while UNDP was collecting data from the jamoats, which could not provide proper data due to mess in filings. To find appropriate statistic or any other data requires considerable time. Secondly, although UNDP puts considerable effort to involve the jamoats, their level of involvement is still low. Often UNDP relies much on the JRCs and other partners and jamoats remain aside in implementing certain activities. It is advisable to consider that the ultimate owners of the project deliveries are the jamoats and there is a need for their capacity building and ensuring their active involvement in each project stage. Similarly, this applies to capacity building of the higher level authorities.
In addition to the capacity building activities organized for JRCs and other civil society institutions, its is recommended to strengthen the work towards conducting capacity building programmes for Jamoats and other state institutions at the local level. The planned capacity building programmes for 2008 should be based on the local institutions’ needs identified during the long period of projects’ implementation. Cooperation with the state institutions at the national level (like Institute for Civil Servant) would bring more benefit for raising capacity at local level and also to make the training programmes sustainable by handing over the training curricula to the state institutions.
Activities implemented n 2007 for effective local planning comprised of a baseline survey, capacity building of different stakeholders and a citizen’s report card mechanism. On the one hand, this has shown the existing need in the society for facilitation of development planning. On the other hand, it is seen that the process for effective planning at the local level is not an easy process and requires more attention and coordination of efforts. In order to implement effective planning, all actions towards future development planning should be connected to the analyses of information and should be organized in a participatory manner. The results of the past year on development planning show that a logical sequence of implementation did not occur everywhere. The processes of planning and conducting baseline surveys were implemented simultaneously in some areas which did not bring the expected results. This means that in future activities the process should be under more analyses and control of CP staff facilitating coordination of activities of different actors at the local level.
The current status of the baseline survey process varies in different target areas. One of the reasons for different scheduling is the need for implementing partners’ selection from SRC side which requires different time periods. Nevertheless, it would be good in the future to see the results in approximately the same period of time in order to have an equal level of project status at all target areas. This would also help in obtaining a better picture of overall actions towards effective planning and development of capacity building programs or other actions covering all regions. In the future, CP plans to extend its programme coverage and involve 15 districts under the effective local planning initiatives. Therefore, it is crucial to have the process well coordinated with all partners and local stakeholders with the exact timeframes identified.
The Citizens Report Card is the mechanism that is supposed to help bring about positive changes on service delivery at the local level. For the time being, little change has been experienced following the first CRC. It is likely that results will only be demonstrated after several years of implementation. However, from another point of view, it would be helpful to also measure short-term results. The absence of results is potential rationale for changing approaches, targets, and expected results. In this regard, CRC should be under greater control of implementing partners, the SRC and programme staff in order to keep recording existing changes (or absence of changes) on service delivery at the local level.
District Development Councils are one of the institutions created under facilitation of CP programmes for local governance. This means that sustainability of this institution would be one of indicators of Local Governance component sustainability. DDCs are close to JRCs by content and mainly devoted for effective planning at the local level. The difference between the given institutions is their sources of funding. The financing system for JRCs is well elaborated and JRCs receive constantly fixed amount of funds for their administrative expenses and some social projects from MLFs. In the case of DDCs the situation is different. They do not have access to consistent funding, and usually funds are provided to them by different donors (mainly UNDP for now) and so called “development funds”, which can be considered as one-time support. These funds that are spent for the projects by DDCs are based on wide consultations with the local population and other civil society institutions. This kind of project implementation approach strengthens the relationship of different community sectors (authorities, civil society and private sector) who learn skills on joint prioritization and decision making.
The primary objective is to make DDC members the best and most experienced professionals in the sphere of analyses, planning, monitoring and evaluation and reporting to the public. In this regard the sustainability indicator of DDCs should be elaborated. Funds are not the only indicator of sustainability, but the constant usage of received skills and knowledge and best experiences in the future could also be taken into consideration. This idea should be kept in mind while working with DDCs at the very early stages. This type of approach and facilitation of better understanding of the DDC role by all stakeholders would also prevent creation of false expectations that if DDC received funds once, they should be provided with funds regularly in order to implement infrastructure projects. The conclusion is that the indicators of effective and sustainable DDC have to be developed in order to have easy instruments to measure the results and changes. Furthermore DDCs themselves have to understand the essence of creating such institutions. This means that the work with DDCs should be strengthened in the future.
Much attention has to be also paid at the project staffing. As mentioned in the “issues” section of this report, there has been a considerable outflow of the specialists at the same time. Well experienced staff managed to fill the gaps and deliver the project in a timely manner; however, this will not always be the case. This can be mitigated through better planning for fundraising for the region and also through a transfer of specialists to assist other fund-secured offices. The primary problem is not potential departure of staff, but the gap in assistance for the region. This is not possible if there is no clear plan for fund-raising.
Also, establishment of the BACs and a pool of extension specialists within the project framework is a good practice. There is an evident need that the local population lacks the required knowledge on proper farming and starting up a business. As a result of the provided services through the above entities the number of people who benefited was nearly 5,000. Additionally, through the workshops over 200 people got employment and shall continue growing even beyond the project framework. At the same time they contribute to the local economy through provision of services and goods production the demand for which are always actual.
The remittances projects have also been successful, yet there is still space for improvement. The experience that has been introduced to the local population and authorities should be effective even upon the projects completion. In this regard, the JRCs capacity to work with migrants has been built through the given project and only future will show how effectively they can make use of it.
Finally, the new irrigation technologies that have been introduced to the local population proved to be successful considering that the bucket drip feed irrigation is a water saving yet simple mechanism rather appropriate for the rural Tajikistan.
Under CAWMP coordination of activities between the project stakeholder (PMU, PCU, UNDP and JRC) enhanced through conduction of a workshop, which covered such issues: step-by-step funding of sub-projects, tender and procurement procedures and designing of sub-project proposals by CIGs. This workshop was timely to resolve challenges faced and coordinate activities for avoiding any misunderstanding between the partners.
Only, a few sub-projects are headed by women and represented CIGs. This is due to the decision making process is entirely male driven within the project’s area at community level. To address this issue, a more comprehensive gender strategy for future activities should be formulated starting from initial activities up to subproject implementation.
All sub-projects on establishment of gardens and improving of pasture conditions under II component lack certificates on use of lands, which may cause serious problems in terms of sustainability in future. Hence, UNDP Gharm AO would wish to conduct a workshop on raising awareness of communities on land right issues starting from the next year.
As it indicated in Operation Manual, the funding of farm productivity investment in sub-sequent years will be provided through reinvestment of retained earnings or revolving fund. Yet, there is not developed effectively the mechanism of functioning retained earnings that will constitute a thread to sustainability of sub-projects in future. For this, a RF should be established to control the process of retained earnings.
In general the lessons were positive considering the fact that projects’ actions were successfully accomplished. However negative lessons also were learnt during implementation of different projects. The negative lessons learnt were the difficulties in conduction of important project events during cotton collection season and lack of experience in preparation of financial and narrative reports in time and with quality by IPs. As the result, these factors effected in timely implementation of some activities. For overcoming encountered difficulties, events should be conducted before or after the harvest season and orientation workshop for preparation of financial and narrative reports should be prepared and conducted to new IPs.
The UNDP Area Offices cover 3 provinces and more than 40 districts. The AOs have sufficient capacity and actively work to implement projects. Today, the UNDP AOs are much active in those areas where the JRCs are created and, or certain focused activities are going on. In those districts where the JRCs exist and where the UNDP executes whether its water systems rehabilitation, economic development initiatives, civic awareness and local governance components, the UNDP enjoys very professional and good rapport with the local authorities, jamoat leadership and district administration.
Through the time of operation in the region, the UNDP AOs had no any misunderstanding and, or tensions with the local authorities, starting from the neighborhood up to the top administrations. Any messages are easily communicated and whatever initiatives taken were found their support and understanding from the local authorities. The partnership and cooperation is tangible, although it is really broad statement. The dialog bridge between UNDP and local authorities is getting better and UNDP is widely recognized by the residents and local authorities, although. New ways to cooperate and partner with the local authorizes are to be discovered and never to be stopped. The UNDP AOs are paying a tremendous attention to this fact, because the success of any program and, or activities on the ground is very much depended and relies on the readiness and willingness of the local authorities to cooperate and to be involved all in all.
Ability to effectively work and manage the community based projects and to adequately use the capacity of existing NGO/ CBO partners in the field, while working with community for project implementation, is not only important but very essential. Services they render to the community they happen to serve is the key to success of the community development and empowerment. Likewise, the CBO/JRCs will enable community residents to have dependable and stable link with local municipalities and thereby communicate their messages from the bottom to the very top level.
According to the new regulations on the registration of NGOs, Public Associations and/or Civil Society Organizations, the registration process may last up to 3 months after the submission of registration documents. Therefore, the JRCs that were to be established in 2007 and 2008 applied for registration to Sughd Regional Justice Department in autumn of 2006. This has allowed timely registration of JRCs and, thereby, potential delays in project implementation have been avoided;
As in many mountainous regions, the remote and isolated villages in the Zarafshan Valley are small with the existence of usually only one institution, i.e., a school. If the village has a computer, donated either under the Presidential Program on the Computerization of Schools or by private sector representatives and/or other individuals, it would most likely be in the school. However, such resources, though available in limited numbers, are not effectively used due to a lack of capacity in operating computer programs. The isolation and remoteness of the villages further limits the access of local residents to IT systems and technologies. As a rule, in areas closer to the district administration, the number of computer-literate people is much higher than the number of computers in the village. Therefore, UNDP, through NGO Istochnik Jizny, has delivered training on computer use. Only upon completion of the course, were the Jamoat authorities provided with computer sets.
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