Here we bring COMMITTED’s first Newsletter ever!
This edition covers project background and activities carried aftermath of massive April earthquake-2015. To view a PDF version, click here.
Please follow the currency conversion rate as USD 1 is equal to NRs. 100 approximately.
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Implementation of projects by a non-profit (NGO) in Nepal comes with a number of legal requirements. One such requirement is holding a social audit of the project after completion. Another is a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) by the team from Social Welfare Council (SWC), the body that had oversight on non-profit activities in the entire country.
After the completion of Taltuleshwori Primary School, social audit was conducted last August, about which you can read here.
As for M&E of the first phase of the reconstruction project, a team from SWC visited Thangpalkot, Sindhupalchowk District last October. The evaluation team comprised of the Deputy Director, Mr. Durga Prasad Bhattari (Team Leader), and Senior Assistant, Mr. Prakash Chandra Bhatta (Team Member), ushered by COMMITTED’s Project Coordinators for Local Governance and Education. Funded by AVAAZ.org, the reconstruction of school at its first phase was completed in a span of six months with a total budget included NPR 50,70,000.
The monitoring and evaluation team analyzed the impact, sustainability, relevancy, coordination, compliance, transparency, accountability, financial operation and regularities, institutional capacity and achievement of the rebuilding project.
With a joint consensus of both SWC and COMMITTED, the evaluation concentrated principally on a review of existing project documentation like project proposal, progress report, audit report and Terms of Reference (TOR) and in-depth interviews with District Education Office (DEO), District Development Office (DDC), observation at project site, face to face interview with the beneficiaries in Thangpalkot ward, School staffs, School Management Committee Members, School Construction Committee members and local project staffs.
The concluding remarks of a SWC M&E report reads thus.
” Actually, community mobilization and engagement has been seen satisfactorily in the project site during reconstruction of school buildings. It has been clearly seen sense of ownership of community people towards the school buildings and health post. Local resources, skill technology and labor were fully utilized during project construction. It has been seen that the project is directed towards promoting the available local resources in local level, which is a good practice. Co-ordination, co-operation and community mobilization has been seen more effective during construction. Structures are made disabled friendly so that the kids having special abilities could equally participate in the educational courses. As per the discussion with concerned stakeholders and our observation, highly qualitative construction materials are used, end result is highly appreciable. The locals are also gratified by the work. “
The school is currently serving 182 students and staff members of Taltuleshwori School. Finding the construction and implementation of overall project very effectual, the M&E team also provided some recommendations for future projects. This monitoring and assessment visit was completed in one phase with 2 days of full working hours.
To learn more on the above, please go through the links below:
Since the massive earthquakes of April and May 2015, COMMITTED has completed assisting with the reconstruction of two schools in Thangpalkot: Shree Taltuleshwori Primary School and Shree Chilaune Secondary School.
COMMITTED with the help of its donors, partners and volunteers started reconstructing these schools from December of 2015, completing the reconstruction in about a year. The schools were handed over to School Management Committees (SMC) last February. (Click here for details of the handover of Taltuleshwori School and here for the details of the handover of Chilaune School. Click here for a blog post with an embedded video of almost complete Tatuleshwori School and here for that of Chilaune School, both made in May 2016.)
After six months of sound teaching and learning environment at newly constructed and improved class room structures, COMMITTED held social audits of the construction work on 8th and 9th of August, 2017. The information related to project expenditure, funding partners and building utility were shared with those present by COMMITTED’s Project Coordinator and Finance Officer. The audience included members of the School Management Committee (SMC), Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), School Construction Committee, Chairperson and ward members of respective ward, and community members.
Below are the financial details of rebuilding of Taltuleshwori and Chilaune Schools:
Conducting social audits of projects is a legal requirement. However, COMMITTED carried it out NOT only because of that. We did so because we as an organization believe in transparency and accountability in general, part of the reason for our implementing the project Accountability and Transparency mechanism in School Governance System.
For more on the above, follow the links below:
The launching, in June 2017, of a new sub-national governance program in collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF) marked another milestone in the expansion of COMMITTED. Titled, ‘Enhancement of Local Government Service Delivery and Economic Governance (EnLoG-SDEG),’ the project is funded by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) since improvement of governance and policy implementation is one of Australia’s several development assistance deliverables in Nepal. Thus, EnLoG-SDEG program is COMMITTED’s joint collaboration with DFAT-TAF partnership that will work to build the capacity of several municipalities all over the country.
Local representatives with COMMITTED team members during the interaction program at Ramgram municipality.
Reproduced below is the DFAT overview of the program as it appears on their web site.
“Effective and stable governance that delivers services effectively and equitably across the country continues to be a challenge for Nepal. Helping to improve governance and policy implementation is a new objective for Australia.
“Over the course of 2017 we will develop a new program of support that focuses on promoting an enabling environment for strong, effective, and inclusive sub-national governance. We will help sub-national levels of government to improve service delivery and economic governance which will contribute to inclusive local economic development and poverty reduction. Where possible, we will encourage strengthened disaster risk governance policies, systems and processes. This is a large scale and long-term agenda which will require flexibility in order to respond to opportunities and constraints associated with the volatility of Nepal’s political processes. Technical assistance will also be utilised to meet identified gaps, especially if proposed changes to government structures and the constitution occur. This assistance will be targeted and flexible, responding to demand at the sub-national level.”
The EnLoG-SDEG program’s first phase seeks to involve newly elected representatives including the mayors and deputy mayors for a strong internal and external governance and development of their municipalities. The long term goals of the multi-year project are to:
In line with the aforementioned activities, COMMITTED’s team of urban planners, governance, finance and M&E experts took the first field visits of the program starting on August 1. Accompanied by TAF’s team, COMMITTED’s team conducted meetings and discussions in 18 of planned 22 municipalities. The interaction was based on various issues such as the vision and promises made by the elected officials in the pre-election phase and how they were considering gathering the resources to fulfill promises made, along with gender and social inclusion activities, development of infrastructure and services such as education, health, sanitation, transportation, drinking water facilities etc.
The team managed to pull through the 18 locations during the monsoon rain, despite facing landslides and floods as well as accommodation problems. After surpassing the 18, COMMITTED will be visiting the remaining four municipalities of Province 1 and 2 in November.
Following the April 25, 2015 earthquake, COMMITTED, in addition to providing relief and emergency assistance to the affected in Thanapglkot, supported Chilaune School with a couple of work.
One was the reconstruction of two classroom blocks, which was handed over to the community last February. CMMITTED was represented by the Executive Director Jayjeev Hada, Senior Program Coordinator Kecher Acharya and Program Coordinator Gautam Lamichhane Magar at the function.
Chilaune School children preparing the block for the function.
COMMITTED Team Members with other officials after the inauguration.
The other was funding the construction of a fence around what was originally conceived as the multi-purpose court. Construction of the court had begun just before the earthquake. Unfortunately, the quake damaged the court and it had to be fixed. Both the fence and renovation of the court were carried out with left-over funds from the original multi-purpose court. The funding for the court came from Nemira, a business our friends in Switzerland run.
The fence around the multi-purpose court. (This photo was taken from a post on Chilaune School Facebook page abut the project. Click here to see the post.)
The newly renovated multi-purpose court. (This photo was taken from a post on Chilaune School Facebook page abut the project. Click here to see the post.)
Here’s a video of the progress of the construction and the condition of the multi-purpose court in May 2016.
For more on the above follow the links below: