Thematic Area: Democratic Governance
Project Document
Progress Report Quarter 1 2009
Annual Report 2008
Annual Report 2007
Progress Report Quarter 1 2008
Progress Report Quarter 2 2008
Progress Report Quarter 2 2008 Annex 1 RRF
Progress Report Quarter 3 2008
Progress Report Quarter 3 2008 Annex 1 RRF
Progress Report Quarter 2 2007
Progress Report Quarter 3 2007
[Last Updated July 2009]
Project Start Date: January 2007
Project End Date: December 2009
Project Location: Capacity Development Secretariat, IARCSC, Kabul, Afghanistan
Status of the Project: Active
Responsible Partners: IARCSC, Capacity Development Secretariat
Implementation Modality: Direct Implementation (DIM)
Capacity Development (CD) is a complex and long-term process. In Afghanistan, limited capacity continues to be one of the most fundamental challenges to the country’s development in spite of considerable capacity efforts by the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and donors alike.
Despite huge investment on technical assistance (TA), so far, there has been a widespread dissatisfaction in Afghanistan with the high cost of TA and its limited impact in terms of capacity development. Hence, CAP was developed in consultation with relevant counterparts, including CIDA, with a novel approach of coaching and mentoring and strong focus on sustainable capacity transfer to Afghan civil servants both at national and sub-national levels.
CAP is focusing on three service components, namely, (1) providing coaching and advisory services to senior civil servants and other all line functionaries (2) providing basic management and administration services at the provincial and district levels, and (3) developing a national market of capacity builders through provision of international, regional and Afghan national coaching/advisory services on a large scale and at reduced cost. In longer term, the aim is to demonstrate CAP’s capacity development effectiveness and to internalize it as a permanent instrument of the GoA. CAP encourages South-South co-operation and draw on various sources ranging from the regional civil services, universities, private firms and local NGOs.
CAP concentrates on developing capacity in the areas of strategic priority to the GoA to implement ANDS and the Public Administration Reform (PAR) and any other areas that the GoA may define as of strategic importance. Priorities as projected in the report presented to the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) in February 2007 will form the basis for capacity building. CAP is based on best-practice across UNDP’s global experience and on a careful analysis of the CD effort to date in the GoA. It also builds on OECD-DAC good practice on capacity development – following government priorities, using government systems, using non-state actors (CSOs), tapping the south-south modality and using techniques that go beyond consultant-delivered training. CAP has entered into a partnership with the Government of India and the successful output of the project has led to an extension of this inter-governmental partnership. It recognizes that training must be accompanied by on-site coaching and mentoring, in order to enable better retention of learning and more sustainable capacity building.
CAP is increasingly pursuing to ensure that gender considerations are embedded in all the assistance provided throughout all project outputs and activities. Special attention was paid while recruiting coaches for the project to ensure that female coaches are selected so that female coachees are encouraged to participate in the project and barriers of communications do not exclude the female coachees from participation in the project.
In order to integrate gender issues in delivery of project activities, the project has recruited a coach who is an expert on gender issues in general and gender budgeting in particular. CAP project ensured that gender segregated data was collected, while conducting monitoring and evaluations. CAP has furthermore volunteered to be part of the new UNDP Gender Mainstreaming in UNDP Afghanistan projects. The project has also developed a gender integration strategy which will provide a clear framework to ensure gender is being mainstreamed throughout the project activities.
The project is implemented in strong partnership with the Capacity Development Secretariat (CDS), under Independent Administrative Reform & Civil Service Commission (IARCSC), as envisaged in the project document. The strong national ownership of the project within IARCSC is the hallmark of the project.
Achievements:
Capacities for better implementation of policy and institutional reforms developed of selected civil servants at central and provincial level for improved service delivery.
• Since inception of the project, the CAP project successfully recruited 29 international coaches from the Indian Civil Services under an MOU signed between the Government of India (GOI), the Government of Afghanistan and UNDP. The current strength of GOI civil servants working under the project as coaches/advisors is 19. Four UNVs (United Nations Volunteers) were also recruited as international coaches for coaching at sub-national level. Apart from these, seven international coaches were recruited under open recruitment, mainly to work at sub-national level. Their current strength is 3.
• Since inception of the project, the CAP Project successfully recruited 44 Afghan national coaches, who are working in close collaboration with the international coaches. The current strength of national coaches under the project is 31. All international and national coaches have been assigned to various Government ministries and institutions.
• CAP is moving towards an increased focus on sub-national level interventions. The first step has been the recruitment of international coaches for sub-national level from the open market and from UNV. The project is concentrating on capacity development for general administration and office management to strengthen service delivery functions of the government at sub-national level. CAP has initiated a strong partnership with the Afghanistan Sub-national Governance Programme (ASGP) to deliver the coaching services at sub-national level.
In order to conduct needs assessment of provincial offices of the Ministry of Agriculture at Kabul, Mazar and Herat, a mission of international coaches was undertaken in September 2008. In addition, need assessment report and work plan was prepared for Kabul, Herat, Mazar and Jalalabad and its implementation commenced.
• A performance assessment of the international coaches is an essential tool, which is to be used to partly assess the transfer of skills from the coach to the coachee, and partly to be used in the overall evaluation of the project. The first assessment took place in March 2008 after completion of six months of the assignment for 11 coaches.
• The CAP project undertook a rapid impact assessment, seeking feedback from the beneficiaries about the performance of the project in their ministry/agency and their level of satisfaction with the project approach, methodology and impact. The impact assessment was undertaken in 9 ministries / agencies for 11 international coaches. The results show that there is a high level of satisfaction with the project. A noticeable outcome of the rapid impact assessment was the confirmation of acceptance of coaching as a tool for capacity development. The impact of coaching on team’s performance, application of acquired skills and knowledge and on personal development was reported to be significant. The satisfaction level in all ministries/ agencies ranged between 60 to 80 percent.
• An orientation and training programme in coaching and mentoring techniques was envisaged when designing the CAP project by the German consultancy partnership InWEnt / ILTIS / APPLICATIO. The consortium visited Afghanistan for the Inception Mission in August 2007 to plan the design and delivery of the training programmes. The Inception Mission Report proposed a training curriculum for classroom training for international coaches, a training curriculum for classroom training for national coaches, a coaching manual and a web-based instrument.
• The consortium has to date delivered four orientation programme for national and international coaches at the Afghanistan Civil Service Institute (ACSI).
Synergies with UNDP/CSLD project
National coaches were assigned for follow up activities and coaching of senior leadership competency development programme (SLCDP) of CSLD project.
Development of the Institutional Competence of CDS
• In accordance with two capacity assessments conducted by UNDP for the CDS, a detailed training plan for training of the CDS staff to be conducted by international coaches of the project has been prepared and implemented starting first quarter of 2008. The overall objective of the training is to strengthen the skills and competences of CDS staff to assume the full responsibility of implementation of the CAP Project.
• In order to add coaching and mentoring as a tool for training of CDS staff, CAP has dedicated one position of coach development of the institutional competences of CDS.
Future Priorities:
Development of a roster and database of potential candidates.
• Placement of international and national coaches to the sub-national level in collaboration with ASGP.
• Conducting a Final Evaluation of the current phase of the CAP project, in order to initiate planning of phase two of the CAP project.
Partnerships and Resources:
Target Budget: USD 9,084,861
Received Budget: USD 8,084861
Committed: USD 9,084,861
Shortfall: Nil
Donors:
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Government of Canada, Government of India, Government of Afghanistan, UNDP Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund, UNDP fund for South-South Cooperation and UNDP core funds.
Contacts:
Raj Kamal, CAP Project Manager (raj.kamal@undp.org)
Homa Sorouri, UNDP Programme Officer (homa.sorouri@undp.org)
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