MEETING with EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS/HEALTH COORDINATORS of SMILE PHASE-1 Csos

MEETING WITH EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS/HEALTH COORDINATORS OF SMILE PHASE-1 CSOs

SMILE program review FY 14

Date: Thursday 13th November, 2014Venue: Chida Hotel, Utako, Abuja.

The meeting commenced at 8:30AM with registration of participants. This was followed by the SMILE Chief of Party’s welcome address. The following dominated the discussion during the meeting:

• FY14 Program performance review (Score Card): SMILE One-off presentation
• General Discussions and feedback from CSOs (Issues from FY14 & FY15 strategies)

High staff attrition rate/Welfare of CSO staff

Financial reporting (current trends and way forward); performance indicators

PMD Pro for CSO staff

Monitoring/Mentoring by SMILE

FY 14 PROGRAM PERFORMANCE REVIEW (SCORE CARD)

The Chief of Party Sasha started by welcoming all the participants to the meeting and encouraged them to relax ad participate fully in discussions. In his words, organization capacity strengthening can only be achieved through commitment of the management and EDs need to ensure they are leading the way. CRScan’t force any CSO to grow, butwill support those who want to grow. He said CSO performance is being assessed at all times not just by the submission of their reports. He further said, if you any CSO is aspiring as an organization to serve more needy people, then such needs to have a certain level of commitment. He said CRS will at this meeting share information on how all the agencies have performed. He encouraged the EDsto be more resourceful in data capturing as that is the only way donors would know the number of people they reached out to.

He also spoke about feedback especially constructive feedback andthey are very important. Sometimes any CSO can be questioned and this is for growth purposes, so that they can put in more effort and commitment into their work.

He finally hinted that as we progress in this assignment, some organization will pull off, not because anybody hates them, but just because they lackcommitment to follow rules and procedures.

Presentation of Score Card by DM&E

The basis of the presentation is to look at the past and the fact behind the figure, what went well and what need to be done better. He said, SMILE s active in 5 states including the FCT.Viz: Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Edoand FCT.

He said in the phase 1, CSOs are 23 working in 20 LGAs while phase 2 will have 20 CSOs working in 23 Local Government Areas.

STRATEGY OF SMILE

• Sub granting to partner CSOs. The sub grant giving to CSOs isprimarilyfor service deliverypurposes. Not less than 70% of the fund should be used for service delivery to be able to reach out to target beneficiaries based on need.
• Capacity building: This targets strengthening of Government structures and systems, and the CSOs structure and technical capacity.
• Staff Embedment in State Ministry of Women Affairs(SMWASD) in project states
• System strengthening at local government and community levels
• Private sector engagement and
• Innovation

CORE SERVICES

• Organizational capacity development for state and LGA and CSO
• Household economic strengthening
• Nutrition
• Integrated social services for OVC: protection, psychosocial support, education and health (bulk of the activities of last year was done in this area).
• Para social workforce development

ACHIEVEMENTS – Grants Management

• Completed 2 rounds of RFA based on internal grants manual
• Pre-award financial assessment conducts for all 43 CSOs

GENERAL DISCUSSION AND FEEDBACK FROM CSOS (ISSUES FROM FY-14 AND FY15 STRATEGIES)Anchored by SPM

Mr. Inyang started by saying productivity is tied to staff attrition. This discussion is centered on why we have high staff attrition among some of the partner CSOs and possible ways to correct this. In the course of discussion, the following reasons were identified by the EDs for staff attrition:

• Salary package is not good enough, they encouraged CRS to look into this and review the salary of project staff.
• Lack of capacity of some of officers to work under pressure which was due to poor understanding of the project at the beginning (this put so much pressure on the staff and made some to resign)
• Some staff left in the pursuit of greener pasture
• Poaching by some implementing partners
• Lack of succession and performance plan for staff by many CSOs

As the discussion on this issue continued, Mr. Joseph did not fail to stress that staff attrition is caused by: in most cases some staff combine SMILE project with other project of their organization and being paid only for SMILE even though SMILE work schedule is already overburdened. He also opined that staff will also complain that the per diem they get is quite small compare to what SMILE actually paid. Some they don’t get the actual salary that SMILE actually paid. He added that, some PMs are not strategic in their plans and this put them under undue pressure which is not supposed to be.

In reaction, the following were some of the suggestions for the way forward in reducing staff attrition among partner CSOs:

• CSOs should come up with better organizational policy that looks at staff welfare
• Inclusion of health insurance, pension etc. in staff salary package be promoted
• Succession and performance plan for staff should be put in place by partner CSOs
• There should be relationship that encourages staff motivation.

Sasha concluded by saying, proposals should be submitted by 27thof November, organizational capacity strengthening plans will be reviewed periodically together with CSOs personnel. He said the whole approach is to recognized the organizations identity and give them opportunity to grow, but CSOs should go back to review that’s packages, capacity building and relationship with staff. Basically, people should not just copy CRS, but should always initiate open door policies to allow for people to come in the iron out issues with you. He also said CRS is ready to partnership with the CSOs to iron out these issues and requested for commitment from CSOs that these issues will be addressed. He concluded that partnership is being committed to each other to find solution that will make thing work. He final encourages CSOs to be in touch with each other.

PMD Pro for CSO Staff- Sasha

As part of the capacity assessment of the organization. SMILE needs to accredit all key personnel work with SMILE basically to ensure that we have the right people working with SMILE.

Capacity of Program Managers: their capacity greatly determines the success of the project. He said training areas on project management have been identified and staff within the organization will be sent to this training which cost approximately $500 per staff. He said staff commitment will be required to participate on this training. The training will be segmented in groups. The first group will be in December, and will accommodate about 4 organizations while the training will be monthly.

What is expected from the CSOs is commitment from staff that will be attending this training, and commitment to their work.

The training cost will be covered by the central budget. But there will be an agreement that if a staff fails they will be paying for the next one.

He noted that the capacity of the program is focusing on the core staff working on the SMILE project, but other staff working with other projects or donor can be involved but at the expense of the organization.

It was unanimously agreed that everybody including the executive directors is going take this training and everybody is going to pass this course and everyone will be involved in the implementation of the projects.

MONITORING/MENTORING BY SMILE

Mr. Joseph commence by saying that there is need for proper documentation of monthly activities. He said every month. SMILE will come with monitoring and mentoring check list, to generating findings and provide support for the project team in each of the implementing CSOs.

STRATEGIES

As part of the strategies, every month there will be SMILE monthly CSOs meeting. Templates will be made available. Which will be computed by CSOs. By the third month there will be incorporation of the state which will be at the state level. The state coordinators will be involved with other state stake holders. Also CSOs should note that this those not negate the submission of report to LGAs and copying the states.

FINANCIAL REPORTING (CURRENT TRENDS AND WAY FORWARD) PERFORMANCE INDICATORS- Grant Manager

He started by throwing more light on the process of selecting the CSOs and went on to state some of the achievements recorded so far;

Achievements

The RFA process brought 43 CSOs on board

• Pre-award financial assessment for 43 CSOs
• Successful RFA process based on grants manual
• 43 CSOs engaged during the first and second round of RFA
• Funds transferred to 24 CSOs
• Develop internal control improvement plan for CSO

Sasha solicited for a commitment that CSOs will stay within the time frame of the liquidation and reporting. He noted that these funds are being entrusted so there must be proper accountability. So CSOs should make a commitment that they will abide by the liquidation and reporting time frame.

Mr. Ganiyu said this year is a year of capacity building and system strengthening. And he solicited for communication from the CSOs in order to foster harmonious relationship. He later talked about modification and award documents with the CSOs.

A CSO talked about reimbursement of FY14, and Mr. Ganiyu promised to work on it and apologies for not sending the money on time. He stated that most of the documents from the CSOs are not in good quality, they are not document that one can pick and processed immediately.

PROPOSAL FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME BY prepaid HMO

(Prepaid Medicare services Limited)

Community health is a field of public health, is a discipline which concern itself with the study of improvement of the health characteristic of communities.

Component of CBHIS

• Community participation
• Membership voluntary
• Prepayment scheme and others.

Role of technical partner (HMO)

• Conducting baseline community survey
• Identification and selection of healthcare providers
• Mobilization and sensitization
• Determine benefit package and premium
• Registration of enrollees and insurance of id cards
• Coordination of care through different level of care etc.

Roles of community leaders and nominees

• Participate in administrative capacity at community level
• Participate in decision making in running the scheme
• Participate in community enlighten of the scheme
• Provides avenue for feedback and recording complains. Important in risk management
• Actively involved in marketing of the scheme and promoting its sustainability

Aim of CBHIP

• Eliminate the widely accepted three stages of delay in referrals through creation of clearly defined referral pathways.
• To deliver integrated healthcare services from community/home level through primary and secondary care up to tertiary level care.
• Make the most efficient use of health care funds
• Encourage community level participation of the scheme to develop sense of ownership

• Children under 5
• Voluntarily contribution
• Elderly above 60 years.

Referral Systems

Every enrolled life on entering the scheme will have a well-defined line of referral from primary care to tertiary care under a supervision physician

• An integrated health care delivery system is created by ensuring well delineated pathway of referral before incidents requiring ……..

Benefits of the NHIS MCH program

• A visible improvement in the maternal and child health indices
• The presence of government been felt at the local level.

In reacting, Dr. Emeka, There will be need assessment and feasibility study. He noted that this scheme will not be forced on anybody. That there is need to look at the scheme carefully to see if it can be piloted.

OTHER ISSUES DISCUSSED

According to Mr. Joseph Inyang, there will be financial assessment for the SR (Sub-recipient) which will take place in January, this is to access how far you have gone as an organization. FCT and EDO Will be between November and December, Kogi will be in January.

On Monthly and Quarterly report, Mr. Inyang talked about submission of monthly and quarterly report, he observed that some CSOs have not submitted their monthly report. A CSO talked about network challenge which causes delay in sending monthly report, but Mr. Inyang advice that in such situation, text messages can be used to send such report. He noted that all quarter report should be between 8 and 10 pages including pictures. Also the pictures can be compressed in order to reduce the load. He emphasized the report should just state the facts, precision and results. No ambiguity and unnecessary stories. A CSO opined that the EDs should find time to read these report which helps to build the capacity of the personnel. She also noted that by doing this, it help edit the report. She said in order to build the capacity of staff, a staff can be assigned to collect inform and write a report which a committee will sit down and review. Mr. Joseph said, activity report should not be copied and paste verbatim and also every month when we meet, we will be learning how to write programmatic report.

A CSOsuggested that the SPM should go back to the reporting template to review the template to review what the SPM wants to reflect the 8 to 10 pages. Another CSO suggested that PM and EDs can also be tutored on the important component of report writing. Mr. Inyang responded by saying that, PMscan also carry out in-house capacity building especially in the area of report writing.

Mr. Inyang said that, CSOs should ensure that their report should only get to the LGA and the State Government. He finally advice CSOs to work with the State coordinators in the states.

Mr. Inyang further said, All CSOs whether FOG or SR will submit monthly work plan going forward.

CLASSIFICATION OF CSOs

CSOs will be classified to provide for capacity building. The classification will be done base on the monthly report. This is to enable stronger CSOs assist the weaker CSOs to get things right.

On Documentation, Mr. Inyang advice that files should be kept for nutrition, files from the communities should be kept, finance files should be kept.

Also on communication, Mr. Inyang said that communication facilities such as recharge cards, access to internet have been provided to facilitate the work.

The issue of birth certificate and the process of obtaining is quite difficult. Also process of obtaining VCs HIV/AIDs status has been frustrating.

Mr. Joseph concluded by saying that we are gradually improving and there is still a lot to do. He gave the vote of thanks and the meeting came to an end at about 18:49hrs.

Report Written By:

Awotunde Williams and AnigboroOvie

1 | Page