PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILD NUTRITION
QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT
FOURTH QUARTER: APRIL – MAY 2012
JULY 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACRONYMS 3
1. GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION 4
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
3. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 7
4. PROGRESS TOWARDS PROJECT OBJECTIVES 9
4.1. Result 1: Public, private and civil society stakeholders keep the fight against childhood chronic malnutrition in the public agenda with a comprehensive, coordinated and decentralized approach. 9
4.2. Result 2: Regional and local governments have the capacity to efficiently manage interventions to reduce chronic child malnutrition 18
4.3. Result 3: Public-Private Partnership Model for integrated community interventions in nutrition established in the framework of national and regional policy 27
4.4. Result 4: Authorities and the population participate in an organized fashion in citizen monitoring and accountability activities in the effort to reduce child malnutrition 36
5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES 42
5.1. Availability of leveraged funds: January to May 2012 42
5.2. Description of Year 2 Project Programming 44
5.3. Technical and administrative meetings: April to May 2012 48
5.4. Other project activities 49
6. PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR THE NEXT QUARTER 54
7. COMPLIANCE WITH SPECIAL PROVISION A10 57
8. ANNEXES 58
PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILD NUTRITION
QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT
ACRONYMS[1]
CM / Child MalnutritionCRSAN / Food Security and Nutrition Regional Council
FONIPREL / Fund for the Promotion of Regional and Local Investment
EN CRECER
IDI / CRECER National Strategy
Initiative Against Child Malnutrition
LQAS / Lot Quality Assurance Sampling
MCLCP / Consensus-building Assembly on the Fight Against Poverty
MEF / Ministry of Economics and Finance
MIDIS / Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion
PAN / Articulated Nutrition Program
PIP / Public Investment Project
PP / Participatory Budget
PpR / Results-based Budget
TDI / Informed Decisions Technology
1. GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION
Cooperative Agreement: / N°AID-527-A-11-00003-PRISMAName of the Project / Partnership for Child Nutrition
Partnership agencies / ADRA PERU, CARE PERU, CARITAS and PRISMA
Duration of the Project: / May 26, 2011 to May 25, 2014
Progress update period: / Fourth Quarter
Months: / April 1 – May 31, 2012
Submission date: / July 13, 2012
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The reporting period correspond to the months of April and May, last months of the first year of the project.
During this period, the efforts of the NGO partners focused on overcoming the limitations that caused a low programmatic and financial performance, which led to the review and prioritization of activities. This was reflected in a financial performance for the period of 68% over the initial budget; however, with respect to activities programmed execution achieved 95%. This improvement in the fourth quarter did not impact significantly on the annual financial performance, which reached only 62%. To improve the level of implementation, the project team has taken steps to improve communication with the local teams through virtual meetings and monitoring visits, which contribute to identifying and overcoming the issues that affect the development of activities.
In relation to activities undertaken in this period, of special importance is the support provided by the Project to the MIDIS for the design of its social “Grow to Include” policy through the financing and technical assistance provided to the consultancy for the systematization of CRECER National Strategy to be concluded in July. Also, progress in the formation of audiences informed on issues related to child malnutrition through awareness workshops aimed at journalists from local media in Huancavelica, Huaraz and Chimbote. As a result, sensitized journalists issued press releases and news reports on the subject.
For its part, the culmination of the systematization of the first year of the project is also an important milestone achieved in this period, because this study has yielded valuable recommendations which have been taken into account to improve the performance of the project in the remaining two years.
During this period, priority was given to addressing the issue of identifying public-private partnership arrangements, for which, together with the Project Technical Committee- criteria were unified and the basic elements of a public-private partnership in terms of reducing child malnutrition established. These recommendations will be incorporated into the terms of reference of the services to be contracted for this purpose.
It is worth noting the support provided to the Ministry of Health towards the application of the Technical Standards N° 087 on the Control of Growth and Development of Children under five years of age and for the dissemination of Technical Document for the Promotion of Practices and Environments for Child Care. This activity, implemented in Huancavelica, has transcended the scope of project, and covered the entire region. Moreover, progress has been made in the formulation of the document for the accountability of the Project which should be completed in July. This document will guide accountability events in the first half of the second year.
In regional and local levels, Local Coordinators have continued to work toward the strengthening consensus-building spaces and supporting the development of articulated plans that include actions to reduce child malnutrition. The monitoring of the implementation of such plans by these spaces needs to be strengthened.
Moreover, in coordination with Prisma´s Project "Transparency and Governance" workshop was held in Ancash to strengthen the capacities of municipal council to prepare ordinances related to the reduction of chronic malnutrition in their jurisdictions. In this same region, the project contributed to the organization of the Regional Forum "Social Responsibility in Early Childhood: Civil Society - State" led by the by Regional Government Department of Social Development. The implementation of this forum led to the signing of the "Pact for children citizen of Ancash and strategic guidelines for a program Early Childhood '.
In late May, the Project Technical Committee conducted an evaluation of the first of the Project, at which main bottlenecks were identified and measures were proposed to improve the communication flow between the Projects’ key staff, the Technical Committee and Local Coordinators. This evaluation strengthened the shared image of an partnership that works toward a common goal.
Finally, this report completes the information regarding the resources leveraged during the first year of the Project, which considers, on one hand, the direct contributions of the partner NGOs in human resources, goods and services and, on the other, the contributions in health and nutrition activities at community level implemented by projects financed by the private sector. Also part of this leverage report is the investment of local governments on the improvement of child nutrition from resources received through the Incentives Plan for the improvement of Municipal Management and other minor contributions. The total amount leveraged during the first year of the intervention amounts to $ 1,248.798.
3. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
By May 2012, the cumulative financial execution of the Project was $ 362,824.37, representing progress of 62% against the initial budget. The components that have the highest rate of execution are Result 1 (76%) and Project management (80%). Contributing to this progress in the case of Result 1 were the development of studies such as the baseline, the first Project systematization report and the systematization of the National CRECER Strategy. Also contributing were having conducted the workshops for journalists that inform and sensitize them on the importance of child nutrition, and the monitoring activities carried out at the central level. Meanwhile, spending on the Project management is mainly the result of the payment of salaries to Project personnel.
At the regional and local levels, the teams have developed multiple advocacy and technical assistance actions in the local consensus-building spaces, but this is not reflected in the financial execution of Results 2 (38%) and 3 (32%). This is because in the implementation areas, especially in Huancavelica, this type of actions is also driven by other organizations, which has had the positive effects of establishing synergies, combining efforts and sharing costs, resulting in the saving of resources for the Project.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REPORT FOR JUNE 2011 - MAY 2012 (US$)
RESULTS / Year 1Budget / Cumulative expenditures
as of May / % / Year 1
Balance
RESULT 1:
Public, private and civil society stakeholders mobilized to keep the reduction of chronic malnutrition in the public agenda. / 91,882.16 / 69,507.89 / 76% / 22,374.27
RESULT 2:
Regional governments and local governments have the capacity to efficiently manage interventions to reduce chronic malnutrition. / 63,207.00 / 23,726.20 / 38% / 39,480.80
RESULT 3:
Public-private model for community interventions in chronic malnutrition established in the framework of the nation policy. / 67,232.78 / 21,520.89 / 32% / 45,711.89
RESULT 4:
Authorities and population participate in an organized fashion in citizen monitoring and accountability of activities to reduce child malnutrition. / 53,336.52 / 4,506.54 / 8% / 48,829.98
Project management / 279,599.29 / 223,730.19 / 80% / 55,869.10
Administrative expenditures / 33,315.47 / 19,832.66 / 60% / 13,482.81
TOTAL / 588,573.22 / 362,824.37 / 62% / 225,748.85
With respect to the quarter being reported on (Q4), the level of financial execution reached 68% of the amount programmed for this period, with the level of execution achieved by the components R1 (259%) and R3 (108%) standing out. Indeed, given the low level of financial execution in previous quarters, the Project team decided to work individually with each of the NGO members of the Partnership in order to prioritize activities to be implemented the last quarter and, by consensus, to attend to the needs that will facilitate their implementation. This resulted in achieving the financial execution levels between April and May that are shown in the following table.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REPORT FOR APRIL – MAY 2012 (US$)
RESULTS / Q4Budget / Q4
Expenditures / %
RESULT 1:
Public, private and civil society stakeholders mobilized to keep the reduction of chronic malnutrition in the public agenda. / 8,845.24 / 22,931.00 / 259%
RESULT 2:
Regional governments and local governments have the capacity to efficiently manage interventions to reduce chronic malnutrition. / 20,648.50 / 15,256.33 / 74%
RESULT 3:
Public-private model for community interventions in chronic malnutrition established in the framework of the nation policy. / 12,216.00 / 13,245.48 / 108%
RESULT 4:
Authorities and population participate in an organized fashion in citizen monitoring and accountability of activities to reduce child malnutrition. / 33,164.50 / 3,747.19 / 11%
Project management / 81,302.51 / 51,150.47 / 63%
Administrative expenditures / 9,370.60 / 6,143.52 / 66%
TOTAL / 165,547.35 / 112,473.99 / 68%
In summary, the financial execution this quarter is showing a significant increase over previous quarters as a result of the mechanisms of monitoring and information/communications adopted by the project team and by each of the NGOs that are part of the Partnership, which have proposed solutions to situations that would prevent a continuous flow of financial execution.
The Project team has proposed to continue this practice in order to provide timely information and ongoing communication to the NGOs and so, obtain better results in the second stage of the Project.
4. PROGRESS TOWARDS PROJECT OBJECTIVES
4.1. Result 1: Public, private and civil society stakeholders keep the fight against childhood chronic malnutrition in the public agenda with a comprehensive, coordinated and decentralized approach.
Activity 1.1: Strengthening of national and regional consensus-building spaces (IDI, MCLCP, others)
Sub-activity:1.1.1 Technical assistance to consensus-building spaces in the Project's intervention areas for the implementation of the national policy to reduce child malnutrition /
Intervention level / Tasks undertaken / Results /
Huancavelica / The Monitoring System Promotion Group, convened by Health Forum and in which the Partnership Project is an active participant, continued working to develop the Regional Citizen Health Monitoring System. Also, at the request of the Huancavelica DIRESA, the system was presented to the heads of the Huancavelica Regional Hospital to receive and incorporate its recommendations. / Progress of the Regional Citizen Health Monitoring System with input from staff of the Huancavelica's Regional Hospital.
With the technical and logistical support of civil society organizations that are part of the Regional Early Childhood Council (CRPI), the gathering of information was concluded in the seven provinces for the validation of the Regional Early Childhood Plan.
However, the Regional Government representatives were not present in either of the two meetings convened so that the facilitator, contracted by the Regional Government itself, socialize the progress of the Plan. This situation was brought to the attention of the Regional President by representatives of civil society organizations.
At the close of the reporting period, the new Social Development Manager had joined the Regional Government. He has stated to the NGOs and public institutions that are part of CRPI his interest to complete the Plan and its implementation. This work is expected to resume in June. / Gathering information for the Regional Early Childhood Plan completed.
Sub-activity:
1.1.2 Development of a friendly version of the “Concerted report for the monitoring of the national policy to reduce child malnutrition “ /
Intervention level / Tasks undertaken / Results /
National / Progress was made in preparing the report from the inputs provided by the participating institutions and organized in the matrix proposed by the Project to systematize the progress in the key outcomes:
(i) Children with a complete CRED assessment for their age,
(ii) Fully immunized children,
(iii) Children with Vitamin A and iron supplementation. / The report is being prepared.
Sub-activity:
1.1.3 Presentation workshops of the “Concerted report for the monitoring of the national policy to reduce child malnutrition” /
Intervention level / Tasks undertaken / Results /
Huancavelica / In April, the Huancavelica MCLCP summoned members of the Regional Concerted Monitoring Group of the PpR-PAN to working meetings designed to review and approve the "Regional concerted report for the monitoring of the national policy to reduce child malnutrition."
To approve the document, this articulation body, which is part of the Partnership Project, has analyzed the indicators of the 2011 Demographic Health Survey, the budgetary allocation by levels of government, the progress in the budget execution and the physical targets by the implementing agents and compliance with commitments under the Europan Agreement.
The workshop to present the report was scheduled for June. / Concerted report for the monitoring of the national policy to reduce child malnutrition for Huancavelica concluded.
Activity 1.2 Sensitization and advocacy with authorities, officials and political leaders for the implementation of a comprehensive, coordinated and decentralized national strategy to fight child malnutrition.