Technical Assistance Services to Dept of National Planning&Aid Coordination

The Provision of Technical Assistance Services to the Department of National Planning & Aid Coordination for the Micro Projects Programme Phase II.

The overall objectives of the programme are to:

• Contribute to decrease tensions between the communities and therefore stabilise the political situation


• Participate in the improvement of the GDP per capita up to the 1999 figures


• Reverse the migration to urban centres, primarily Honiara and therefore decrease the concomitant urban unemployment rates.

The specific objective (project purpose) of the programme is to provide rural communities with greater access to improved social services and to sources of cash income.

In order to achieve the specific objective the following results are planned:

• Staff trained and competent to implement improved programme management procedures


• Selected NSAs competent to perform project management and technical activities


• Improved access to and quality of social service delivery and maintenance


• Sustainable income generating activities identified and operating


• Youth and Cultural organisations competent to plan and implement activities on a financially sustainable basis.

As part of this programme we have issued Calls for Proposals (CfP) for grants (micro projects). This involves a large administrative burden (guidelines, forms, procurement, monitoring and evaluation procedures etc. all to be compliant with EDF procedures). In order to manage this we have built a database of grants/projects at the outset and populated it with all available data (number of applications, reasons for approval/rejection, community information, budget, implementing schedule, goods/service providers etc.). A user-friendly database is also vital for the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs in Papua New Guinea. We recommend that a database is developed at the very start of the programme and kept up to date – it can be set-up to provide all information necessary for reporting and monitoring/evaluation purposes.

Other aspects for successful implementation (through our lessons learnt in Solomon Islands) include: agreeing all procedures, ground-rules, reporting requirements, Terms of Reference (ToRs) and powers of signatory with representatives from the relevant Department(s), NAO and EC- prior to implementation; Bringing in all potential NSAs/NGOs and other parties, explaining the grant facility rules to them and seeking their assistance in re-defining parameters (in some cases redrafting the procedures); and ensuring firm guidance to first assist the trainees to explore training options and then to articulate their needs. The training budget should be (and seen to be) handled in a very transparent and egalitarian manner.