Just in.... on Direct Supervision from Nigel Brett

Nigel Brett, CPM, and sometime social reporter, just submitted the following record from a session he attended at the APR...

A speed sharing on direct supervision took place in the Rome Hall at APR event in Nanning from 14.00-15.30 on 1 November. The event was attended by Nigel Brett (CPM Bangladesh), Qaim Shah (CPO Pakistan); Mattia Prayer-Galletti (CPM India), Yasir Ashfaq (MIOP and PRISM Pakistan); Mushtaq Hussain Aura (Programme Director, AJKCDP Pakistan), Muhammad Hussain Bhatti (FAO UTF AJKCDP Pakistan), Nguyen Thanh Tung (CPO Viet Nam), Anura Herath (CPO, Sri Lanka), Jhao Dongqing (Deputy Director, Gansu, China), Feng YaoBin (Deputy Director, Shanxi, China), Duan Qibin (Director, Gansu, China), Li Bincheng (Director, Inner Mongolia, China), Arcie A Teng (Project Coordinator, Philippines), Sozig Yue Jia (Guangxi, China), Mohammed Tounessi (CPM IFAD), Zhang Meng Tang (China).

The following best practices were shared with respect to supervision and implementation support:

• Agreeing the text of the Aide Memo with the PMU before submitting it to Govt for the wrap-up meeting, ensuring consensus and ownership of recommendations;
• Frequent follow-up of supervision recommendations by IFAD and in particular by the CPO during the year;
• Ensuring supervision is a “joint” exercise including Govt, IFAD, local Govt, NGOs, and other project stakeholders (“joint review”);
• Ensuring a flexible interpretation of the project design as described in the appraisal report;
• Supervision missions should be efficient and make decisions quickly;
• Ensuring project supervision mission members have good understanding of the country and the project in question;
• Reducing inefficiency by undertaking joint donor supervision missions in situations where there are multiple donor funders;
• IFAD/supervision missions should ensure quick validation and approval of the AWPB/procurement plan so that implementation can happen without delays;
• IFAD/supervision missions should make sure that the AWPB is realistic;
• Direct supervision has enabled direct access to IFAD, timely capacity building of key PMU staff when needed, quick resolution of implementation problems.
• CPOs have enabled good communication and sharing of information between projects in a country on key implementation issues;
• Ensuring regular and continuous support by a team of expert IFAD consultants during implementation (particularly in areas such as M&E and financial mgt);
• Holding stakeholder workshops before the finalization of the Aide Memo so that diverse views can be adequately taken into account;
• Ensuring project designs are able to evolve to cope with rapidly changing development contexts (in particular in rapidly growing economies such as Viet Nam;
• Ensuring that projects have efficient M&E systems that generate powerful decision making information that is useful for supervision missions;
• Ensure that the list of recommendations is focused and short;
• Holding a higher level portfolio review meeting with central Govt once every six months to resolve higher level policy issues that effect project implementation;
• Ensuring that missions maintain a low profile during field visits so that they provide a conducive environment for local communities to open up;
• Ensure that financial management training for the PMU is provided by IFAD as early as possible in the start-up of a project.