First quarter review, 2nd Phase of the Phu Tho Programme, 2008

In agreement with ICCO, the project “Strengthening participation of the citizen in socio-economic planning in Phu Tho province” was completed in Oct 2007. The second phase of the project is proposed to further consolidate the achievement of the first three years and support the local community in taking over the programme management in a more focused approach. The second phase plan was submitted to ICCO for financial support in the last quarter of 2007 and it is under a positive discussion. This paper is to review the project concepts of the second phase in Phu tho, and the progress in the first quarter of its implementation.

1. Overview of RDSC’s Vietnam programme

RDSC’s community development programme is covering three provinces, Phu tho in the North, Quang Binh in the Centre, and KonTum in the Central Highland. Among these provinces, it has different roles. RDSC is a direct implementor with ICCO’s financial support in Phu Tho, technical adviser for RDPR in Quang Binh, and a contractor in Kontum for the GLMI (a Japanese NGO). Among these sites, the Phu tho province is the RDSC’s largest programme base.

Since 2006, RDSC has been actively engaged in building advocacy capacity for NGOs in Vietnam on the ADB’s safeguards policy. In partnership with the Action Aid, the NGO Forum on the ADB, and the Bank Information Centre (an US-based NGO), RDSC has organised two training and awreness raising events on the potential impacts of International Financial Institutions among CSOs. Recently, RDSC is joining the compaign by NGOs in Vienam for demanding the ADB to rewrite its documentation for safeguard policy update before the Mekong Consultation to be held in Hanoi in March 2008. Also, for a specific case study of monitoring a hydro-power project funded by the ADB in Vietnam, RDSC is considering its involvement in supporting communities in the Zuoih commune, where the Katu ethnic minority groups are afected by a hydro-power project in Nam Giang district of the Quang Nam province.

2. Phu Tho Programme in the first quarter of the second phase

1. Direction

Discussing the ways forwards in several planning workshops with community leadership from RDSC’s partners from the communities, the general direction for the next two year phase was agreed as follows:

1. Focusing on the work with the ethnic minority, their livelihood, and culture;
2. Strengthening ethnic minority organisations, and resource people;
3. Focusing on sustainable farming and /or agro-forestry systems;
4. Focusing on the work with the poorest among the poor and women.

The final statement on the direction for second phase of this project was discussed and approved at our planning workshop in Nov 2007 in Bavi, where representatives from ten communes in three project districts, Thanh Thuy, Thanh Son and Tan Son, were presented.

2. Scope

In the second phase, the community organisations and their networks will be taking over the management of the Phu Tho programme, offering services to broader area with more communes to be included in three districts. While RDSC Phu Tho (RDSC PT) will work in five communes in two districts of Tan Son and Thanh Son, where there are much more ethnic minority people, leaving Thanh Thuy district to be serviced by the Network of Micro-Finance Unions for Women, and the Network of Veterinarians and Extensionists.

RDSC PT’s direct support is directed to much smaller number of villages compared to 100 villages in the previous phase. The villages where RDSC PT concentrates its resource are selected three villages for Community-Based Tourism, four villages for up-lifting the livelihood of the poorest, and three villages for sustainable farming system. The selection of these ten villages from two districts of Tan Son and Thanh Son was carried with close participation of the local community leaders from relevant communes and villages. In addition, RDSC PT supports two networks of the community-based organisations in strengthening their organisation and institution, as well as in improving and broadening their services in reaching out.

3. Progress to date

The first quarter of the new phase is featured by two special events. First, it was a very strong and unusual cold that hit the whole north-east of the region, our project districts are no exception from the hit. Animals died and crops ruined because of that hard hit. The other was scheduled, that was the Tet Holiday, that lasted for one week.

Project

The major activities and their progress made using the remaining resource at RDSC for the period from 1 Oct 07 to 1 Jan 08 to date are listed in the matrix bellow.

Organisational development

In this quarter, RDSC PT conducted a review its management processes, particular its financial procedures and the staff performance appraisal.

RDSC financial management visited community organisations (CBO) and micro-finance unions for women in a monitoring visit. Thee financial review identified errors in record keeping and book-keeping in community based organisations. Recommendations were made for improvement. A follow-up training was carried to further strengthen the performance of the accounting systems among CBOs.

In RDSC PT office itself, the financial review was done carefully to monitor its financal performance. The cash flow is planed according to budget and the progress of the financial plan is reviewed monthly. Measures for improvement is made and monitored in their implementation. RDSC Ha noi has invited independent auditor for external annual audit, and the audit is in progress.

In this project period, RDSC had been testing a performance-based salary system. Also, the salary system and bonus systems were revised as the country inflation is reaching a figure of two digits, and the government lifted the minimum salary level by 54%, starting 1^st Jan 2008. When staff performance was reviewed, a task assignment form was developed and is used for monitoring project progress and staff performance for the rest of the second phase. Job relation with one staff, who does not match the required standards, was terminated. Two new applicants for jobs (with agriculture extension as major) were taken for probation and one passed this rigor job test, and selected. For RDSC Phu Tho, one staff is going to take her maternity leave by the end of April, as a result as substitute is needed. Recruitment is to be done in April and March.

For this phase, RDSC PT is to complete administrative project approval with the district and province government to avoid delay as it happened in the previous project.

3. Conclusion

In the first three months, based on the assumption that the second phase of the project will be positively responded by the funding partners, RDSC Phu tho has made a impotant progress forwards to realising activities and achieving the results of the project. RDSC PT continues addressing challenges that were identified with lessons learnt from the previous project.

In the second quarter, it is forseable that RDSC PT is to assist the networks of the micro-finance unions and the network of veterinarian to expand their services, and to develop new products for the poor. The interest-groups among the poorest in four selected communes are to be formed and village leaders are to be assisted in supporting technically these poorest people. Also, in the selected commune for community tourism, the training programme should start offerring new knowledge and skills for the paticipants. RDSC PT expects the district government in Tan Son to finalise the land transfer for the Agro-Forestry Experimentation Station to start its design and contruction.

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