10 July 2004

THE FOURTH QUARTER OF THE PROGRAMME

The fourth quarter of the Programme added to the first year of Programme implementation in Ukraine, produced some positive results, accumulated knowledge that may be shared, cascaded, further developed and built on. The Programme developed according to the working plan with slight changes allowing flexibility needed to achieve the expected outcomes rather than all outputs. The Programme team worked together as a real team. Communication among team members took less time than in the previous quarters, as system of communication is now well developed and functioning. This allowed the team to free more time for the content part of the Programme. Most part of the Programme activities during the quarter concentrated on a community level. Among all the months in the quarter, June was a month full of events and developments, some of which are likely to have a long-term impact on the DU team and the Programme in general, such as entrance to the second oblast of the Programme (Donetsk), start of micro projects implementation in the Lviv communities, and other.

The SMT and other members of the team progressed in making their meetings more effective and strengthening efficiency of pre-planning discussions. Substantial efforts taken to improve time planning and management allowed mitigation of risks related to increasing time pressure. Similarly, more teamwork and better task sharing helped better communication and coordination within the team. No specific difficulties were observed during the reported period. The management procedures, such as meetings of SMT, working meetings of the DU team, ongoing electronic and on-site consultations with the Strategic Programme Consultant Christine Forrester, regular updating and consultations with DFID representatives, and sticking to the Programme “cc” rules took place during the quarter and contributed to the Programme effectiveness and efficient information sharing.

The Programme team members, as well as community representatives, learned to give up their personal ambitions and ambitions of their organisations and put the ambitions of the Programme first, and effectively work in partnership, thus producing synergy that allows to run such a complex Programme effectively.

The contract signing event with the communities of Lviv oblast took part in two rounds: 19 May with Sambir, Sokal and Chervonohrad and 18 June with Drohobych and Brody.

Communication with local coordinators was maintained. The local coordinators from the Lviv region were given an instruction session on collection of information for the situational analysis reflecting the situation in their respective communities at the start of the implementation of the micro projects, and also received advice on participatory research methodologies, methods of working with documents, collecting statistics and organising monitoring. The role of local coordinators after the micro project proposal development was clarified and reinforced giving more emphasis on presentation of the Programme, learning exchange among the communities and oblasts, monitoring micro project implementation in the communities.

The visit of Christine Forrester, Strategic Programme Consultant, in 7-18 June 2004 has been indeed useful and effective, and focused mostly on discussions of community development scenarios, analysis and lessons learnt, rather than DU personnel reporting to the Consultant. The topics discussed also included planning activities in the Donetsk region, the final selection of the target communities in the Donetsk region, the team-building event for the DU team, development of a working relationship with other DFID projects – Action Donbass and SESP, future changes in the DU/CCU management system, ways of mitigating the risks to the Programme connected with the changes in management, proper handover, etc. The mission report of the Christine Forrester, Strategic Programme Consultant, may be found in the annex I.

Among the most significant achievements of the quarter was the field visit to the Donetsk region on 20-24 April 2004 and 8-9 June 2004 (with the Programme Strategic Consultant and DFID representatives, reports may be found in annexes II and III), meetings with officials and NGO representatives in the communities and representatives of the Action Donbass and SESP, and subsequent consultations with the SMT as to the selection of the communities, further work in the communities and relations with SESP. The communities visited are the following: Donetsk (Kyiv rayon), Torez, Novyi Svit, Yenakiyevo, Artemivsk, Dokuchayevsk, Vuhledar, Telmanove. The communities selected are the following: Torez, Novyi Svit, Yenakiyevo, Artemivsk, Dokuchayevsk, Vuhledar, Telmanove.

The Donetsk regional coordinator was appointed on a probation period of two months, as well as Donetsk Programme Consultant. The job descriptions were adjusted accordingly. Both of them passed the probation period, and will continue their work within the Programme.

Collection and analysis of information about the situation in the Donetsk region was continued to facilitate the work in the Donetsk region. A thorough risk assessment was undertaken to mitigate possible negative implications for the DU programme. Also, to achieve synergies between the DU programme and other DFID programmes in the Donetsk region, primarily Action Donbass and SESP, consultations and joint assessment of challenges and prospects for developing a working partnership relationship was undertaken. The discussions and consultations - particularly about SESP and its sustainability mechanism, the credit unions – continued during the DU team-building event on June 11-14, in which SESP president Tatyana Gladysheva also took part. The Programme for DU team-building event may be found in the annex IV. The risk assessment conducted may be found in the annex V.

The development of the monitoring and evaluation system of the Programme has progressed and proved to be a very important component that contributes a lot to the process of learning and will be useful in accumulating the programme knowledge and cascading it to other programmes. Upon the suggestions made by Christine Forrester, Programme Strategic Consultant, in the previous quarter, the monitoring and evaluation system has been reviewed and adapted with an emphasis on qualitative data collection that enables tracking the progress of innovative projects in communities more effectively. At a number of meetings during the quarter, the adapted monitoring and evaluation system was presented by Programme Advisor, Inna Pidlus’ka, and M&E Officer, Olena Yegorova, to Programme members in different groups – Programme personnel, trainers and consultants, Programme team from communities in order to build a shared vision of this component within the Programme team. During the presentations, the emphasis was made on the creative and qualitative-oriented approach to monitoring and evaluation.

According to the adapted vision of the M&E processes in the Programme, it was decided to review the approach of the initial research in Donetsk oblast. In particular, it was decided to limit the research to two methods: baseline data collection and conducting focus groups with two different audiences – community experts and ordinary community representatives. Based on Lviv experience, it was concluded that to reach the goal of the initial research in the region which is to identify the major social problems, most vulnerable groups and most effective ways to overcome these problems is more reasonable by using only two mentioned methods without questionnaires distribution. It was decided that the questionnaire survey could be accomplished as a second stage of community analysis when the initial concepts of the community projects are developed and more specific project target audiences are identified. Such approach will allow more precise estimation of the project impact on the selected target audience.

Consultations with members of the team on methodology and techniques of monitoring, evaluation, data gathering and performing regular assessment at the community level (8-9 June) resulted in production and development of instruction packages for local coordinators in Donetsk region to enable them to participate effectively in preparing logistics for focus groups, needs assessment and baseline study in the Donetsk region. The community coordinators in Lviv oblast also got a task to update baseline data in their communities.

During the reported quarter, the concept of the training on monitoring and evaluation for communities was developed, TOT for trainers conducted, during which the plan of the training and content of the handout materials were discussed. Among the major topics to be covered in the training on basics of monitoring and evaluation in communities are the following: developing internal monitoring and evaluation system within the Programme, participatory approach to M&E system, qualitative and quantitative methods of M&E conducting, system of data collection, storing and analysis, etc.

During the last visit of Christine Forrester, Programme Strategic Consultant, it was agreed to be flexible towards the Programme monitoring and evaluation system. As the Programme goes it would be reasonable to adapt it to current project needs and regional peculiarities. The latest version of the M&E system can found in the annex VI. The last version of the Programme log frame may be found in the annex VII.

Focus groups in five selected communities of the Donetsk region – Yenakievo, Torez, Artemovsk, Ugledar and Telmanovo – were organised. Local coordinators were provided with detailed instructions and ongoing consultations as for logistical arrangements for the focus groups. Three focus groups moderators – UCIPR expert Yulia Tyshchenko, Svitlana Horobchyshyna and Maxim Latsyba - were provided with detailed timetable and questions for the focus groups and logistical information.

Programme personnel started to be involved more and more in the training and consultations, both in preparation and implementation. They along with the trainers represented a good tandem for learning – expert inputs and information from the headquarters. For example, the Programme personnel – Programme Manager, Micro-Project Manager, M&E Officer and Lviv Regional Coordinator – visited the training on Project Management in the first three selected communities (Sambir, Sokal, Chervonohrad). Such an experience has been extremely important for building the joint team spirit between so called administrative and community levels of the Programme. In addition, the Programme members assisted the communities with developing projects detailed plans, reporting and management systems, etc.

Local coordinators and micro-project implementers had a chance to participate in one-day training on "Introductory course of working with computer" and attend one-day consultations in each community on June 26-28, 2004. The training attended participants from Chervonohrad, Sambir, Sokal and Drohobych. To conduct the training, along with the Programme trainer and IT specialist, the representative of Sambir community was invited. This approach of training delivery was of effective participatory nature and allowed to share experience among community representatives.

Programme Outreach
The Communication and Outreach component was under thorough attention during the reporting period. The analysis of the Communication and Outreach for the year has been conducted, highlighting major detailed stages of development and challenges encountered in the Programme. The analysis may be found in the annex VIII. The detailed analysis of communication and outreach component during the quarter may be found in the annex IX.

As for the other achievements:
• the ceremony of contract signing with coalitions in the target communities of the Lviv region was filmed, and photo materials were produced for further use by the Communications and Outreach Officer for the DU Programme website, the “Our Community” newsletter and other purposes of the programme.
• The articles about the Programme were published in the DFID “British Dimensions” (about study trip to Scotland), “Novyi Kurier” (New Courier) of CURE.

The Programme was presented at the following events:
• “Local Communities: Foundation for the more responsible and effective governance in Ukraine”, World Bank, Ukraine, 18 June 2004.

To increase effectiveness of outreach in the communities, it was agreed to conduct specific learning event for the journalists and responsible managers for micro project PR in communities. The learning event will be conducted by the experts of Media Reform project (DFID funded) in July 2004. During the reporting period, the lists of the participants, topics of the learning event and the trainers have been agreed.

The plan for the communication and outreach component may be found in the annex X.

CCU Capacity Building
The quarter was full of achievements and learning from the programme development – from the field visit to the Donetsk region’s communities to preparation of contracts with the Lviv communities. Together, the activities contributed substantially to improving professional skills and capacity within the DU programme personnel.

TOT and team building event have been conducted on 12-14 June 2004. The partnership and team relations have been indeed developed, and the synergy produced during the team activities. As the Strategic Consultant Christine Forrester noted, “No one would say that four different organisations and people from communities were present at the event, but rather one team.”

Along with the general presentation of the Programme, its strategies and components (Communication and Outreach strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation strategy), TOTs were conducted on project reporting, monitoring and evaluation, first trainings in Donetsk.

The community development session conducted by Christine Forrester during TOT was highly useful as noted in the monthly reports of local coordinators, “As the result of the session we started to understand deeper the philosophy of the DU Programme and look at the development of our communities as on the process that has its own cycle, which may be reinforced by some activities. We understood deeper the responsibility and role of local coordinators in the support of the initiatives that contribute to the community development”.

The Donetsk coordinators were not present at the TOT because the final decision as to the five Donetsk communities had not been made by 12 June 2004.

In future it may be effective to strengthen human resource management and invite support and assistance of the Strategic Programme Consultant on that matter. At some point, the Programme may consider introducing more events and contexts for developing inter-personal communication skills. Perhaps more of the time allocated for team building should be spent on developing capacity of the personnel to work together and to know more about each other’s contributions to the Programme so that to ensure better compatibility and interchangeability of the personnel.

The skills that seem to be needed most of all in the process of consortium work include: effective planning and time management; broader knowledge of modern participative research methodologies, monitoring and evaluation techniques; negotiations skills; skills of inter-personal communication, coalition-building and team work. The local coordinators noted the following skills that need to be developed: skills of communicating with large audience, conflict management. The PR sphere received the highest attention and interest from the communities. Other useful learning will be about issues that are likely to be introduced as a “second wave” of learning in the Lviv communities – primarily community foundations - and about credit unions.

Other CCU capacity and Programme personnel achievements:
- The regional coordinators started to learn the English language to improve their communication with the English-speaking players in the Programme.
- The Sambir coordinator took part in the School of Local Self-government organised by the European Dialogue in May 2004.
- The Brody coordinator took part in Polish tours in the sphere of regional development and local self-government.
- All the personnel members have become familiar with the philosophy and approaches of the monitoring and evaluation system, programme communication and outreach system.

Cooperation with other DFID programmes
The team-building event that took place on 12-14 June contributed to better communication within the DU team and between the DU, Action Donbass and SESP (SESP President was invited).

The constant contacts, negotiations and discussions continue with such projects as Lviv Economic Development Project (Lviv) and Action Donbass (Donetsk).

The prospects for future cooperation with Media Reform Centre (DFID funded project) on conducting specific training for mass media representatives in Lviv communities in the next quarter (preliminary July) are discussed.

The contacts have been established with the Programme “Partnership for a Transparent Society” funded by the USAID (in all two pilot oblasts). The publications of this Programme on community cooperation with the local authorities have been disseminated in our communities.

The detailed information on Canadian funded programmes, especially People Voice Project (funded by CIDA and World Bank) has been gathered and stored for future possible cooperation.

Community Development Level, Lviv
For communities of Lviv oblast the reporting period was the time of finalisation of their project proposals and start of micro-project implementation and for Micro Project Managers it was time of proofreading of project proposals and preparation of official documentation for contract signing and micro project implementation.

As by the beginning of the reporting period communities were at different stage of their micro-project development, they required different inputs from the Programme. If micro-projects of Sokal and Sambir were finally approved in the early April 2004 with very few consultative support delivered from the Programme office via telephone or e-mail, Chervonohrad project was finalised in May and Drohobych and Brody finished preparation of their micro-projects by the middle of June having received many mentoring and consultative support from Programme staff and trainers.

As one communities were ready to start their projects implementation almost two months earlier than the other ones, it was decided to conduct contract signing in two stages: on 19 May with Sokal, Sambir and Chervonohrad and on 18 June with Drohobych and Brody. Detailed attention was paid to the agreements development based on the specifics of the Programme and existing experience of partners. The production of these documents absorbed a lot of resources in terms of time due to their uniqueness that corresponds to the philosophy of the Programme (it is a community project, not a project of one NGO).

Special attention during the reported period was paid to work of coalitions in communities. This issue became very relevant at the stage of work plans and budgets adjusting, on the eve of contract signing and start of micro-projects implementation. Some tensions appeared in most of the communities: in Sokal and Chervonohrad these tensions appeared at the training on Project Management and were immediately resolved and in Brody misunderstanding between collaborators appeared at the stage of project proposal finalisation and required more specific inputs from the Programme (by the moment of contract signing relations in the coalition came to the condition that should not affect implementation of the micro project).

However, it may be concluded that the process of micro project proposal finalisation helped CSOs work in partnerships among themselves, as well as with representatives of mass media, business and government. Considering that all communities had one goal – to develop quality project that will help socially vulnerable groups, all partnership members learnt in practice to sacrifice their own ambitions, find compromises between the goals of own organisations and joint interests of the coalition, and persuade others to do the same. Based on the evaluations of such partnerships, the CSO representatives will continue to use these mechanisms for future work.

The right decision from the Programme side was to unite theory and practice in learning to work in partnership for local players. The theory was presented in training and consultations, and was accompanied by practical exercises. However, all discussions concerned not fake problems, but concentrated around concrete issues of the socially vulnerable groups, and training participants built real working plans based on real financial support, and thus reflected the reality. They all understood that they should implement everything planned by them as well.

First contract signing ceremony took place on 19 May and was very solemn - about 60 people participated in it: Programme representatives from Kyiv and Lviv (staff and trainers); representatives of all collaborators of Sokal, Sambir and Chervonohrad micro projects; local coordinators from all 5 Lviv oblast communities; Taras Fedak, Deputy Head of Lviv Oblast Council; Yevgen Kulyk, Head of the Department for Home Affairs of Lviv State Administration; Svitlana Yavorska, representative of British Council, Lviv; Krzysztof Herbst, Director of DFID Lviv Economic Development Project; representatives of other NGOs, educational institutions and mass media.

Contract signing ceremony was opened by the foreword of Yulia Tykhomyrova, CCU Programme Director. A presentation of the Programme with emphases on its achievements in Lviv oblast was made. Communities made brief presentation of their micro projects: name, collaborators, background, goal, objectives, expected outcomes.

Communities came to the contract signing ceremony with signed Agreements on cooperation in the coalition during implementation of their project. This document is a base of relationships between collaborators during the micro project implementation, including division of scope of work and resources. Each collaborator in the community has his copy of this Agreement.

Thus, each community has two documents determining implementation of its micro project:
Agreement on providing target irrevocable financial assistance with attachments: 1) Terms of Reference, 2) Terms of Financing and 3) Budget
Agreement on cooperation in the coalition during implementation of their project with attachments: 1) Terms of Reference, 2) Ethic Code of the Programme and 3) Budget.

After the contract signing ceremony an instruction session was conducted for leading organisations and their collaborators on requirements to narrative and financial reporting, system of internal and external monitoring of the micro projects and main PR principles. Representatives of all organisations received Manuals on work and reporting on micro project.

In order to make reporting process convenient and effective it was decided to start the period of micro project implementation from the date of receiving money on the bank account of the leading organisation in the community. In Sokal, Sambir and Chervonohrad micro projects started on 11 June 2004.

Ceremony of contract signing and instruction session for communities of Drohobych and Brody was conducted on 18th of June. It was not so solemn as for communities of the first wave: without representatives of state power and regional mass media. However, the value of this event for the communities and for the Programme is the same as of the first one. It should be mentioned that representatives of the communities that signed their contracts in May also visited this event to share warm feelings with their colleagues from other communities. It is expected that implementation of micro projects in Drohobych and Brody will start form the 1st of July.

Project descriptions may be found in the annex XI. The sample contract may be found in the annex XII.

From the date of contract signing a new wave of training support started for the communities. The first training – on Project Management was conducted in several days after the contracts were signed. It was not just the training, but learning event combining theoretical information on general project management and practical advice and work on work plan development, responsibilities sharing, job description writing, etc. The two-day training was followed by one day consultation on the same topic.

To unite different CSOs within the community coalition in Lviv region is now seen as useful and successful approach of the Programme and now used in Donestk region. CSOs working with socially vulnerable groups, for instance, are better aware of their target group needs and have more experience in providing direct assistance to them. The other CSOs contribute their experience in influencing local decision-making process, PR activities, administrating financial resources, etc. Based on that, the base organisations are selected primarily out of the second group of CSOs, however the coalitions necessarily include social aid organisations. Moreover, it is highly emphasized that the Programme requires inclusion of the very target groups representatives in the project planning and implementation along with the key personnel members of the CSOs.

To analyse the project development stage in Lviv oblast, it is necessary to point out the following:
- The process of project development went more smoothly in those communities where the base organisations were represented by those organisations which statute activities include local communities and territories development.
- In those communities where the base organisations were represented by socially oriented NGOs, it was rather difficult to raise the level of the project concepts from the basic social assistance to target groups to the level of establishing more sustainable mechanisms of solving social issues such as influencing local decision making process raising peoples voices. The local coordinators made a tremendous job to equalise these two approaches.

In June the first monthly monitoring visits were conducted in the communities of Chervonohrad, Sambir and Socal. The visits were accomplished by a well combined team of trainers-consultants, community educators and M&E Officer. Such joint work helped both M&E Officer and trainers most effectively to conduct organisational assessment of each coalition member in the community and hold a group discussion about the community’s experience of the project development process. Although it is planned to conduct monitoring visits to communities on monthly basis by community educators and trainers, it is foreseen that communities requiring additional Programme supported will be visited more frequently.

As for monitoring monthly visits to the communities, the following took place in the first three communities signed contracts – Chervonograd, Sambir and Sokal on June 19, 20 and 24. Community educators, trainers and M&E officer combined their knowledge and experience of working with communities, group facilitating skills and international approaches to evaluation and accomplished two-fold task during the visit: (1) evaluation of the project development process on behalf of the community coalition members in the format of group joint discussion; (2) assessment of the organisational capacity of all the NGOs involved in the project implementation. The second task was accomplished in the office of each co-implementer in the format of individual dialogue. They identified the areas of organisational development of project implementers that require additional support of the Programme, among them: strategic planning, personnel and volunteer management, financial management and PR skills. In the process of communities’ analysis of project development stage, the community representatives commented on the following issues: local NGOs got unique experience of long-term cooperation with each other, moving from seeing only the individual interest of the NGO to sharing joint goal; the expertise of the NGOs involved in the project development process raised in the areas of visioning and articulating the project goal and expected results, in the fields of project design, conflict resolution, reporting, etc.; the coalition members image has been raised in the communities that resulted in the increased interest to them on behalf of local authorities and mass media. In particular, in Chervonohrad community, a city council representative became a partner of the project. In general, communities commented that the project development approach practiced in DU Programme provided the NGOs with the opportunity not only see their mistakes but also work them out.