Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698081850109.pdf (Sierra Leone)
POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER SENSITIZATION AND BUDGET ADVOCACY PROJECT EVALUATION REPORT By Siapha Kamara With John Nkaw Submitted to Network Movement for Justice and Development August, 2006 1 ABBREVIATIONS BAN Budget Advocacy Network - CDHR - CSAP - CSOs - DACO - DC - DFOs - DFP - DTT - GoSL - HIPC Interim Poverty Reduction Paper I-PRSP Center for Democracy and Human Rights Civil Society Alternative Process Civil Society Organization Development Aid Coordinating Office District Council District Focal Organization District Focal Persons District Task Teams Government of Sierra Leone Highly Indebted and Poor Country - - M&E MOCKY MODEP MOF MOU NaCSA NGOs NMJD PASCO PET PRSP PSIA RFOs/RFPs SL-PRS SL-PRSP TC TOR TT UNDP WAHD WIPNET - - - - - - Monitoring & Evaluation - Movement of Concerned Kano Youth Ministry of Development and Economic Planning Ministry of Finance Memorandum of Understanding - - National Council for Social Action - - Non Governmental Organization Network Movement for Justice and Development Poverty Reduction Strategy Co-ordinating Office Poverty Expenditure Tracking - Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper - Poverty Social Impact Analysis - Regional Focal Organizations/Regional Focal - Persons Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy - Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Town Council Terms of Reference Task Team - - - United Nations Development Programme - Women’s Action for Human Dignity - Women in Peace Building Network 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES ABBREVIATIONS i PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 4-13 1.1 Executive Summary 1.2 Terms of Reference 1.3 The Evaluation methods and Processes 1.4 Challenges Encountered 1.5.
Acknowledgement 1.6 Outline of the Report PART TWO: KEY FINDINGS 14-38 2.1.

Project designing process did not adequately involve key stakeholders 2.2 Key stakeholders actively participated in the implementation process 2.3 Task Teams and District and Town Council good working relationships 2.4 Key stakeholders understands the structural causes of poverty, decentralization process, Local Government Act and content of the PRSP 2.5.

Information on PRSP contents and HIPC are understood at community level 2.6.
Task teams have successfully pioneered the monitoring of contractors in Sierra Leone 2.7 Low capacity of NMJD and Task Teams to analyze and engage with the national budget 2.8 Good informal working relationship between NMJD and national authorities 2.9 Collaborative relationship between NMJD and other national CSOs PRSP/budget/HIPC 2.10 Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats of NMJD/PRSP /Budget project 2.11 Summary of key lessons learnt PART THREE: RECOMMENDATION.
APPENDIXES AND REFERENCES 39- 59 3.1 Recommendations 3.2 Appendixes 3.3 References 3 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Executive Summary 1.1.1.

Key findings of the evaluation 1.1.1 The NMJD PRSP/Budget Sensitization project is acknowledged at national and district levels in Sierra Leone as one of the most effective and sustained civil society driven initiatives championing the Sierra Leone poverty reduction strategy.
Civil servants, parliamentarians, district councilors and administrators, World Bank staff and leaders of civil society organizations confirmed that the project has been effective in popularizing the PRSP.

1.1.2 Civil society organizations at national, district and chiefdoms were effectively mobilized to collaborate with NMJD in the implementation of the project; they actively participated in the national task teams, district task teams and chiefdom task teams.
Through these structures they have collaborated effectively with NMJD to execute sensitization workshops on the PRSP and national budget.

Participants to the different workshops have included members and staff of CSOs, local government officials and ordinary citizens.

1.1.3 The project successfully pioneered the monitoring of contractors with outstanding results and impact.
It monitored 29 projects and in majority of cases it successfully prevented shoddy construction works, got some contractors blacklisted for doing poor jobs, got abandoned projects to be reactivated and completed for use by the community and in one case it successfully forced the leadership of the Town Council to be removed for shoddy work.
1.1.4 More than 187 civil society activists serving in the DTT have knowledge and awareness of the underlying values, principles and concepts of the PRSP framework through their active participation in the project sensitization activities; moreover they not only have greater awareness of citizen rights and responsibilities in the development process of the nation but importantly of the roles and responsibilities of public duty bearers.
The rights to development awareness has empowered and mobilized them to be active participants in the monitoring of and to challenge the private contractors involved in building infrastructural projects in their communities.

1.1.5 Task team members and NMJD staff could adequately describe how for example poor governance practices as well as unfair international trade relations combined have turned resource endowed Sierra Leone into one of the poorest countries in the world.
However they were unable to use this understanding to analysis the PRSP or national budget i.e.

they are unable to analysis whether or not the PRSP or national budget is an effective policy responses that would mitigate the underlined structural causes of poverty.

1.1.6 The project has been effective in building working relationship with the district and national levels.
At the national level it has established good informal working relationship with various ministries, departments and agencies, for example some key civil servants have served as resource persons during the sensitization workshops and they acknowledged that it helped to enhance their understanding of and relationship with the local civil society sector.
Efforts were made by NMJD to formalize existing informal working relationship with for example the Ministry of Finance concerning the monitoring of HIPC funded projects were without success.

The main reason is that in Sierra Leone public office holders are strictly guided by law that prohibits them from disclosing information about their work without approval from their political overlords.

Without a formal relationship NMJD relied solely on informal channels.
One consequence was that NMJD did not know that the Government of Sierra Leone since 2004 no longer operates a HIPC expenditure line item in the budget.

For the past two years HIPC funds have been integrated with other expenditure items of government.

This is one of the key reasons why it was difficult for the DTT to identify and monitor HIPC funded projects in 2005 and 2006 because they no longer existed.
However at the district level progress 4 towards the establishment of formal relationship between the NMJD led DTT and district councilors is far advanced; the councils are keen to establish formal partnership both for PRSP/ Budget Sensitization and monitoring of projects.

Limited work was done with the chiefdom structure primarily due to lack of resources and workload.

1.1.7 The NMJD has been more effective in implementing the project at the district rather than the national level.
The sensitization workshop have increased the knowledge and skills of the civil society organizations based in the districts to engage with the poverty reduction strategy processes whilst the monitoring activities resulted into improvement in the quality of community infrastructural projects, particularly of schools, health, water and sanitation facilities.
However at the national level there is little evidence of the project influencing in any significant manner the programs in the PRSP and related decision making institutions.

The main reason for this difference in result has been that the NMJD staffs responsible for mainstreaming the project findings, experiences and insights into the national policy arena were ineffective.

But, at the district level, the structures and actors were new and therefore keen to learn and collaborate with civil society.
At the national level the institutional processes are entrenched, politicized and any critical perspective from civil society is viewed with suspicion, contempt and utter résistance.

1.1.8.

The project instituted various mechanisms for learning by the stakeholders, task team members, focal persons and NMJD staff in particular.
Three of the most important mechanisms for learning in the project were the monthly review meetings for each district task team, quarterly regional task team meetings for regional task teams and national task team meetings attended by focal persons and NMJD staff.
These different meetings facilitated learning by serving as opportunities for sharing field experiences by the different stakeholders, harmonization of the strategies for example on the monitoring of contractors and to discuss problems hindering the successfully implementation of the project.
Indeed most DTT members confirmed that their participation in these different meetings by regularly connecting and exposing them to PRSP sensitization and monitoring experiences in other districts enhanced their confidence, motivation and commitment to the project.
More importantly the review meetings by providing opportunities for DTT to share practical field experiences for example in monitoring contractors made it possible for members to realize that communities across Sierra Leone are faced with similar problems, for example ,lack of access to information, low awareness of the right to development, low participation, etc.
However, these review meetings were also source of frustration because management (NMJD) failed to act effectively on some of the key lessons leant or concern raised by the participants, in particular NMJD staff and DTT.

For instance DTT focal persons and NMJD staff repeatedly raised in their quarterly review meetings heavy workload, inadequate technical skills and limited logistic support but these issues were never properly addressed by NMJD management.
1.1.9 The project design lack measurable objectives, baseline data and indicators to adequately determine progress towards performance.

This weakness in the design compromised the quality of the implementation in several significant ways.

Lack of measurable indicators that is precise, accepted and understood by all stakeholders made it difficult to collect and share information and data on the progress towards the attainment of the goal and objectives.
Efforts to address this issue during the implementation did not materialize because of the limited skills among the staff.

Also the problem of performance measurement was made difficult by the lack of baseline data and information.

Without structured baseline information it was difficult to identify measure and assess the quality of the project results and their long term impact.

1.1.

10.
1.1.

10.

The budget sensitization project in Bo was implemented strictly in line with the objectives which were to disseminate the actual contents of the national budget in the Bo District, however due to resource constraints the implementation process focused solely on civil society organizations and selected chiefdoms.

Bo district and Town Councils had very little engagement with the project.
The CSOs and DTT who 5 participated in the various educational activities of the project demonstrated high level of awareness of the actual contents of the national budget but they are unable to appraise whether or not it is promoting equitable allocation of resources for example across the political division of the country, gender, occupation, ethnic groupings etc.
Pro-poor budget advocacy usually is characterized by twin factors: empowering the poor and those organizations who work with them with critical knowledge and appraisal skills of the national budget and mobilizing them so that collectively they can ensure that government allocate national resources in programmes that maximize the well being of the poor.
However NMJD and Trocaire confirmed during the evaluation interview that the project objective was limited to mere sensitization” on the actual contents of the national budget.
1.1.11 Throughout the implementation of the PRSP Sensitization Project, Christian Aid consistently through its numerous comments on the various reports advised NMJD not to limit itself to merely disseminating the contents of the PRSP but to empower workshop participants in particular DTT with analytical skills so that they could be effective in adopting a perspective (call it critical) of their own highlighting whether or not it addresses their poverty reduction needs and aspirations.
Towards this end, it organized various training workshops for example on PSIA to equip NMJD staff with skills so that they could be effective as animators of the PRSP sensitization process.

However these seem to have had very little effects primarily because NMJD management in particular the Executive Director did not supplement the training with strong mentoring and consistent support to the field staff.
1.1.12 Exchange visits of NMJD staff to SEND Ghana HIPC Watch definitely had positive influence on the program as evidenced in the various structures established and adoption of participatory approach to monitoring, therefore it will be useful if the new project design can ensure that adequate resources are made available for the continuity of the engagement of NMJD staff with SEND’s Grassroots Economic Literacy and Policy Advocacy program experience in Ghana.

1.2.
1.2.

Key recommendations 1.2.1 Options on the way forward NMJD has two options.

The first option is for NMJD to stop the budget advocacy initiative because as highlighted in the report it is a relatively new programming area and will require technical skills that will take time for NMJD to acquire and master.

Pursuing the budget advocacy will be overstretching the existing competencies of NMJD and exposing its organizational weaknesses.
Rather, it should concentrate on implementing PRSP sensitization and contractor monitoring at chiefdom, district and national levels.

As confirmed by all the stakeholders, NMJD has been effective in building awareness on and mobilizing CSOs to engage with the SL- PRSP and it has successfully piloted contractor monitoring within a participatory framework.

Promoting social accountability (i.e.


participatory monitoring of contractors) is a novelty in Sierra Leone and all stakeholders especially state functionaries in the national economic policy making and management ministries acknowledged the need for it to be sustained by NMJD and its partners.

Therefore NMJD should focus on the PRSP Sensitization and contractor monitoring in the next phase as outlined in recommendation one below.
The second option is for NMJD to pursue a pro-poor budget advocacy project development but in a collaborative manner as outlined in recommendation two.
So far in Sierra Leone the only source of macro- economic analysis is the government and its international partners; there is no civil society based program that would challenge and there by serve as a recognized alterative platform for generating critical and independent analysis of and insights into macro-economic policy and their implications for poverty reduction.
Clearly, the main reason for the lack of civil society based program on macro-economic policy issues is that the skills required to effectively plan and implement for example pro- budget advocacy are technical and specialized.

As highlighted in the report efforts by NMJD to pilot a pro poor budget advocacy program was ineffective precisely because it did not possess the skills sets and experiences required to plan and 6 implement it.
The various training workshops organized for the staff followed by learning visits to other countries supported by Christian Aid were inadequate for NMJD to acquire the basic skills and experiences to independently champion budget advocacy program.

If NMJD is keen to pursue its experience in budget advocacy we recommend a collaborative and gradual approach involving other CSOs.
In this context, the Budget Advocacy Network development process which has involved NMJD and other Christian Aid partners offers an effective framework.

The details of this option are in recommendation two.

1.2.
1.2.

2 Establish the Economic Literacy, Contractor Accountability and Policy Advocacy Project Transform the PRSP and Budget Sensitization Project into the Economic Literacy, Contractor Accountability and Policy Advocacy Project with the goal to increase and accelerate the poverty reduction outcomes of the SL PRSP in three districts.
Economic literacy has three key interrelated components: • building awareness and interest with civil society on national economic policies and programs that • • impact on the livelihood situation of the poor; developing technical skills within society for pro-poor policy analysis of national economic policies and programs strengthening organizational capacities with society to advocate for increase pro-poor national economic policies and programs Reduce the operational districts and stakeholders in the project In order to be effective the project should be operational only in three (3) districts.
One of the operational districts in Freetown will be useful for advocacy purposes.

Other factors to take into account in selecting the two (2) rural districts are the existence of administrative infrastructure of and program by NMJD and also whether or not there are other NGOs doing similar programming so as to prevent duplications.

Also the regional focal organizations/persons should be dropped and replace by NMJD.
The district focal organizations/persons arrangement and use of Task Teams will be maintained as well as the National Task Teams.

Also the size of the Task team membership needs to be assessed in relation to the operational cost, effectiveness, sustainability and their expected roles and responsibilities.

For effectiveness of impact, the project will develop operational structures and establish Task Teams at chiefdom and district levels.
Retain the five (5) Animators Each of the operational districts should have at least two NMJD Animators whose roles and responsibilities will be as in the previous projects.

In pairing the animators it will be useful to take into account the need for them to complement each other in terms of skills and experiences.
Retain the Program Manager The present program Manager should be maintained and given adequate administrative and decision making power over the program so that he will be effective in engaging with the different stakeholders.

Accordingly he should be stationed in the Freetown office so that he can be effective in ensuring that the experiences of the district and national levels are properly coordinated and national policy advocacy agenda of the project are actively pursued.
In the new project one of the main tasks of the Program Manager will be to follow-up on the legal and management aspects of contract awarding system.

Legal advocacy for reform of public contract awarding guidelines, management system and supervisory instruments will be a key task for the Program manager.

Strengthen the capacity of the program implementation team The capacity building needs of the NMJD organization and individual staff/animator should be adequately addressed in the designing stage .
However the capacity building support be related directly to the priorities of the project.

For the NMJD organization some of the critical issues include transportation, administrative services and how to become an effective learning organization.
The program Manager and Executive Director will require result based management training whereas the program manager and the animators will require result based management communication and reporting writing, participatory action research planning and implementation, participatory monitoring and evaluation, negotiation and conflict 7 management and gender monitoring , evaluation and communication.
Therefore as part of the designing process we recommend that a rapid situational appraisal is made of the administrative system with the view to determining what contributions can be made by the project to towards strengthening it.

This appraisal should not be limited to Freetown Office but also the two other offices that might host the animators.
Maintain the monitoring of contractors The participatory monitoring of contractors should be maintained as part of the programming activities in the three(3) operational districts but within a holistic perspective to include the legal regime governing public sector contract awarding system, community participation, quality of construction work, role of local authorities in contract management and supervision.

Project development assistance.


NMJD will need technical assistance for the development of the project proposal for a period of 10 to 15 working days to work with the Program Officer and Animators.

The project design must have baseline information on all the key issues/problems that the project planned activities are expected to address and indictors to identify and measure changes resulting from the implementation processes.
External partners The two external partners Christian Aid and Trocaire should harmonize their approach to supporting NMJD.

To achieve this the organizations should support one project and not divide the districts as in the previous project and agree with NMJD on a unified financial and management reporting format.
Communication of project results and experience The relatively effective communication strategies at the district levels should be replicated at the national level targeting international donors, state institutions and their functionaries.

Regular use of the radio must be accompanied by newspaper publications but more importantly concise report of monitoring findings with recommendations should be distributed regularly to key national stakeholders.
Press conferences or statement during key movements/events in Sierra Leone will make the views of the project accessible to key players in a timely manner.

Therefore the project should outline an effective national communication strategy and allocate adequate resources to implement it.

1.2.
1.2.

3 NMJD to collaborate with other CSOs to institutionalize the Budget Advocacy Network Rather than pursuing an independent budget advocacy initiative at the national level, we recommend that NMJD continual the existing collaboration it has with other Christian AID partners to operationalise and institutionalized the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN).

This collaborative approach will have several important advantages.
First, it will enable NMJD to specialize in the participatory monitoring of contractors whilst benefiting from the experiences and information provided for example by Campaign for Good Governance monitoring of the performance of the government in promoting access to education.

Effectiveness of civil society in influencing policy changes is often dependent on having a broad based constituency that is actively driving the process.
Through this collaborative approach NMJD and other like minded CSOs can collectively strategize and execute advocacy events or campaigns on issues related to making the national budget pro-poor.

Envisaged programming areas of the budget advocacy network The BAN is envisaged as a resource center that among others would serve as a platform for CSOs to generate critical appraisal of and engagement with the national budget making and allocation processes so that its poverty reduction agenda is maximized.
Towards this goal, the envisaged programming areas are threefold: 8 • budget research and monitoring, • budget sensitization and training and • budget information and advocacy.

Envisaged steps in the implementation of the recommendation This will be initially a pilot project with 12 month life span.

NMJD and its partners in BAN should contract the services of ISODEC to mentor the process.
To facilitate this process NMJD should together with other members of BAN hire a full-time economist or public policy specialist to provide hands on leadership.

NMJD would possibly host the pilot phase but the management should be supervised by a committee comprising of other members of BAN.

Each of the core member of the BAN would nominate qualified member of their programming team who will be involved in the pilot project.
In other words form the onset the training and other support of the project should target staff involved in the social accountability promotion of their organization.

1.2 Terms of Reference 9 The Terms of Reference (TOR) sets out the purpose of the evaluation as being to assess the effectiveness, results/impacts and lessons learnt against the goal and objectives of the Christian AID/Troicare support NMJD PRSP/Budget Project which was implemented between 2003 and December, 2005.
In order to achieve this overall purpose the evaluation process was expected to explore the following three broad issues: • Whether the project activities have built the capacity of civil society organizations(CSOs) to understand the structural causes underlying poverty in Sierra Leone (SL), Poverty Reduction Strategy(PRS) and budget processes and to monitor HIPC funded projects • Whether meaningful linkage and dialogue has been established at chiefdom, district and national levels between the civil society based Task Teams and state authorities on budgetary allocations and expenditures • Whether Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has been engaged in policy advocacy and influencing activities at national and district level poverty reduction strategy processes ( see appendix one for the detailed TOR) 1.3 The evaluation methods and Processes In order to achieve the overall purpose of the evaluation, a combination of participatory learning actions tools including focused group discussions, validation workshops, scoring and ranking exercises, small working groups, experience sharing, literature review ,semi-structured questionnaire and historical timelines were used.
For effectiveness the evaluation was organized in three inter-related phases.

Phase one focused on project activities at the district levels.
The purpose of phase one was to assess a number of related issues • PRSP sensitization, results and possible impact at chiefdom and district levels • Capacity building of the task teams, results and potential for sustainability • Building partnerships involving CSOs, district/town council and chiefdom authorities • HIPC projects monitoring activities and results To effectively assess these issues four out of the seven (7) operational districts were selected for in depth study and they are Kono, Bombali, Freetown East and Bo.
The information collected and insights provided by these 4 districts were used to conduct a validation workshop attended by representatives of the seven (7) District Task Teams (DTTs) and five (5) NMJD Animators.

The main purpose of this one day validation workshop was to increase the collective ownership of the key findings by the DTT leadership and NMJD Animators but also for them to make recommendations on how to improve on the next phase of the project.
Therefore they worked in small groups and plenary discussions to give feedback on the key findings, fill in information gaps and most importantly generated recommendations on the future of the project.

Phase two of the evaluation sought to assess the national policy context which NMJD and its partners are seeking to meaningfully engage with and significantly influence so that government can adopt and implement pro-poor policies, programs and projects.

The purpose of this assessment was twofold.


First to assess whether the engagement facilitated by the project generated the envisaged results and second what opportunities exist for building strategic partnerships for the advancement of pro-poor policy advocacy at the national level.
Accordingly the assessment focused on two broad issues: • direct and in-direct national advocacy outcomes of the project • NMJD national advocacy framework: strength, weakness, threats and opportunities To address these twin-questions interviews were conducted with parliamentarians, officials of the Ministries of Finance and Development, national CSOs, international non-governmental organizations, United Nations Development Program and media practitioners.
Information and insights provided by these interviews were used to hold a meeting involving national civil society organizations who are not participating in the project.

The purpose of these national interviews was to explore opportunities for increasing the program impact at the national level.
10 The last phase focused on the policy advocacy and management capacity of the NMJD in relation to the implementation of the project but importantly the envisaged/ future project; in this context the assessment covered: • Human resources at national/management and programming levels and skills, (researching, monitoring, evaluation, documentation and communication) • Resources especially office equipments for secretarial services • Management systems for staff supervision, resource control and decision making During this phase interviews were conducted with the NMJD Executive Director, Program Manager, Regional Directors and Animators and also a review of the relevant reports.
This phase ended with the validation workshop that provided opportunity for the evaluation team to present the key findings to NMJD staff, District and Regional Focal Persons for their comments and to contribute to the recommendations presented in part three of this report.

( see appendix two :Schedule and list of persons interviewed) 1.4 Challenges Encountered The evaluation team encountered a number of challenges.
The first, major challenge faced was that the project proposal lacks SMART objectives, baseline information data assess results/impacts.

Secondly, the project documentation was rather weak which made it difficult to compile and assess information especially about the different capacity building workshops and related activities.
Thirdly the project covered a wide geographical area that includes most of the poorest political sub-division of the country with very poor road network; the evaluation team therefore had to devote considerable amount of time to traveling from one district to another.

Accordingly the time allocated for field work was inadequate.

Despite these limitations we are confident that the evaluation team was able to gather information and insights to satisfactorily address the purpose of this evaluation.

1.5.
1.5.

Acknowledgement We are grateful to NMJD and its partners, Christian Aid and Trocaire, for giving us the opportunity to under take this assignment which has enabled us to learn from the invaluable experiences of the Sierra Leonean civil society work on the national poverty reduction strategy.

We are immensely indebted to the NMJD Program Manager who as our main contact provided us with all the necessary support that made it possible for us to endure what was obviously a punishing schedule.
During the nearly three weeks of hectic field work he remained calm and ensured that all our demand for documents and appointments were attended to with dispatch.

Without the animators, task team members, regional and district focal persons enthusiastically sharing with us their varied experiences this evaluation would not have been a worthwhile learning experience and therefore we owe them our greatest gratitude.
Whilst we take full responsibility for this report, we hope each of you will truly own and use it to maximize the effectiveness of civil society engagement with the poverty reduction strategy and programs of the Government of Sierra Leone.

1.6 Outline of the Report This report is organized into three main parts.

Part one above is the introductory chapter, part two presents the key findings of the evaluation and part three is the main recommendations, appendixes and references.
PART TWO: KEY FINDINGS OF THE EVALUATION 11 2.1 Project designing process did not involve key stakeholders In 2003 UNDP contracted Action Aid Sierra Leone International to facilitate civil society sensitization on the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP).

NMJD was among the national civil society organizations sub-contracted by Action Aid to facilitate the sensitization on the I_PRSP in the southern region.
It was this sensitization exercise that exposed NMJD leadership to programming potential on the PRSP process.

Subsequently NMJD developed this program in consultation with Christian Aid and Trocaire.

Efforts were made by NMJD to orientate the major stakeholders on the project implementation framework but there is no evidence that this resulted into shared ownership.

Key issues such as the target beneficiaries, network /coalition building, partnership, and capacity building were loosely conceptualized.
For instance the primary target group was defined as the “whole population” of Sierra Leone, yet operationally the project was active only in 6 out of the 14 political administrative districts.

Furthermore the project directly worked with only about 30 civil society organizations in each of these operational districts.

Another example relates to the objective to establish networks and promote networking around issues related to the PRSP implementation.
Any successful network strives on shared ownership of the agenda, reciprocity among the membership and acceptance by those involved that only through joint action that issue(s) confronting them could be adequately addressed.

However it seems NMJD conceptualized networking to imply working with other organizations to implement its agenda.
In line with this definition the fact that NMJD successfully organized diverse categories of civil organizations into Task Teams and gave them assignments which they enthusiastically implemented constitute networking.
It is therefore not surprising that there is no budget line for the capacity building of the focal organizations at district and regional levels but funds were committed solely for them to attend workshops, quarterly review meetings and carry out sensitization and monitoring activities in the chiefdoms.
However the other stakeholders, the focal organizations in particular expected their capacity building to cover knowledge and skill on the PRSP sensitization and monitoring as well as organizational development.

Notwithstanding this lack of shared understanding and ownership of some key aspects of the project, DTTs especially the Focal persons at districts and regional levels have been actively involved in the implementation process.
In the next section, we have described the extent of involvement of the stakeholders in the implementation process of the project.

In conclusion, Christian Aid the donor to the PRSP Sensitization project made numerous suggestions to address some of the weaknesses highlighted above, for example the issue of the target beneficiaries and wide geographical spread of the project.
However, NMJD management in particular the Executive Director felt strongly that the project was a pilot phase and therefore there was no need to make significant changes in the design during the implementation.

But, precisely because it was a pilot initiative changes should have been made during the implementation especially when other stakeholders were in agreement.
2.2 The key stakeholders actively participated in the project implementation processes 12 Structure for stakeholders’ active participation One of the most outstanding outcomes of this project is the successful establishment and operationalisation of DTTs, District Focal organizations/Persons (DFOs/ DFP and Regional Focal Organizations/Persons and RFOs/RFPs.
The main roles and responsibilities of these primary stakeholders have been threefold: • Popularization of the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper(SL-PRSP) at national, regional, district, chiefdom and section/ward levels • Serving as sustained platform for alternative voices and pro-poor opinions in particular to be generated and mainstreamed in the SL-PRSP • Monitoring the implementation of HIPC funded projects The discussion between NMJD and other civil society on the current operational framework of the poverty reduction strategy sensitization project started in late 2003 and by the end of the year it was operationalised at the national, regional and district levels.
At the first national workshop NMJD and more than 50 civil society organizations signed partnership agreement with NMJD as the lead agency for the Poverty reduction strategy paper task teams.

Civil society organizations from each of the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Regions of the country elected RFOs and DFOs/DFPs.
The Four Regional Focal organizations were: Women Forum for Western Region, Center for Democracy and Human Rights for the Northern Region, Sierra Leone Petty Traders Union for the Eastern Region and Forum for Democratic Initiative for Southern Regions.

In 2004 Forum for Democratic Initiative was replaced by Community 13 Solution.

Each of the six operational districts also democratically chose the following district based CSOs as district focal organizations in the table below.
District-based civil society organization serving as Focal Organizations District Kono Focal Organization Movement of Concerned Kono Youth Women Action for Human Development Bombali Freetown West Freetown East Kenema BO Tonkolili Leone Sierra Organizations Global Arts and Crafts Youth Empowerment Sierra Leone Trade Union Women in Peace Building Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) set-out clearly the expected roles and responsibilities of the Regional and District Organizations.
Among the key selection criteria for the regional focal organization were national programming coverage, office and administrative infrastructure in the regional capita and staff with facilitation skills.

According to the MOU the key role of the Regional Focal Organizations was to provide technical backstopping support to the DFOs/DFPs in the planning and execution of PRSP sensitization and training workshops but more importantly to partner NMJD in national advocacy events and activities.
On the one hand, the DFOs/DFPs were selected based on three criteria (i) indigenous to the district, (ii) well known and visibility (iii) strong and dynamic leadership.

Surprisingly, administrative capacity (i.e.

possession of office, computers, communication facilities, etc.)
was not among the selection criteria for the district focal organization, yet among their roles and responsibilities are (i) coordination of task team activities at district and chiefdom levels,(ii) preparing reports on task team activities especially monitoring and (iii) ensuring effective engagement with the local authorities at chiefdom and district levels.

Immediately after their selection, each Regional and District Focal organizations appointed a focal person.
For two of the regional organizations, the director/head, agreed to serve as the focal person, but for Women Forum a member was designated as the focal person.

Also, two of the district focal organizations, WIPNET and WAHD, the directors/head accepted to serve as the focal person whilst the other four organizations designated a member as the focal person.
Additionally, district based civil society organizations from the seven (7) operational districts were identified to serve as District Task Teams members.

A maximum of thirty (30) district based civil organizations were constituted into the respective DTT.

The criteria used in the selection of DTT were: expression of interest, district based and indigenous to the chiefdom.
These 30 civil society organizations were recruited to represent the chiefdoms of the district; on the average there are at least two task team members for each chiefdom.

Only in Kono and Freetown that efforts have been made to set-up Task Team at the section/ ward levels.

Initiatives to establish section/ward level Task Teams were constrained by the lack of logistic support.
The main purpose of these District Teams was to implement PRSP sensitization and training activities in their respective chiefdom and section/.ward followed by the facilitation of community driven monitoring of PRSP development programs especially HIPC funded community infrastructural rehabilitation projects-school buildings, health centers, sanitation facilities, bridges, etc.

However as highlighted in the report sensitization was limited to the district and regional levels and not at the chiefdom levels.
14 A minimum of 187 civil society organizations have been effectively mobilized into the DTTs in the 7 operational districts.

As seen in the table below these 187CSOs include women, youth, farmers, faith based, human rights, artisan, environmental and reproductive health organizations.
Composition and Profile of District Task Teams Team Task member Typology of CSOs in District Task Teams Bombali Kono Freetown West Freetown East Bo Kenema Tonkolili Total Rights Women Groups Youth Associations Farmer Association Human Organizations Artisans Associations Reproductive Health HIV/Aids Environmental Sanitation Faith-based organizations Others & GRAND TOTAL # 4 7 3 4 - 1 - 1 10 # 5 9 4 5 1 1 - 1 4 # 5 6 - 10 1 2 - 3 3 # 6 6 3 5 3 2 - 2 3 # 2 - - 3 - - - - 4 # 8 10 2 2 2 1 - 2 1 # 4 3 3 6 1 3 1 2 7 # 34 41 15 35 8 10 1 11 32 187 As seen in the chart above serious efforts have been made to ensure that women and youth who make- up the largest segment of the population, but are the most marginalized account for the majority of the membership of the DTTs.
Of the 7 district focal persons, three are women and o two regional focal organization are women focused organization and 18 percent of the participating CSOs serving in the district task teams are women groups.

All the women serving in the various structures who participated in the interview were articulate, assertive, knowledgeable and self-confident.

2.

3.
2.

3.

District Task Team and District and Town Council Relationship Another important outcome of the project is that the DTTs have a growing engagement and functional relationship with the newly established District and Town Councils except in Bo District where there has been no formal interaction with the local authorities.
According to NMJD there was not adequate resources in the project to sustain engagement with all the key stakeholders in the BO district but also because the project started before the Council assumed office.

Development of a memorandum of partnership between NMJD and each of the Councils are at different stages.

The main focus of the MOU is to promote the continuity of sensitization on the PRSP and project monitoring in a partnership fashion led by the NMJD.
Views among the district councils differ on the nature of this partnership.

Kono District Council for example is arguing that the monitoring team includes district councilors whilst Bombail Council is demanding joint planning to agree on what the focus, strategy and how monitoring information will be utilized and then NMJD-led DTT can independently do the monitoring.

15 Albeit the slow development of formal partnership agreement, in all the six (6) districts the DTT have undertaken various activities.
Elected members of the local councils have participated in PRSP Sensitization Workshop as a result of which some of them are serving as facilitators for example in Kono Districts.

Also some of the Councils have worked with the DTT to follow up monitoring at the sections and ward levels.

Some of the local councilors have used the information and data provided by the Task Teams to prevent shoddy public sector funded infrastructural programs from continuing.
However the success of the Task Teams in exposing shoddy construction work compelling government to take actions such as blacklisting some contractors and in one case removing the leadership of a Town Council has made some Councilors aware of the political power of the Task Teams.
Some Councilors, especially those who are interested in serving as contractors of PRSP funded infrastructural projects therefore feel threatened by the Task Teams monitoring activities as they will be subjected to its publicized community led monitoring activities.

2.4.
2.4.

Stakeholders understand the structural causes of poverty decentralization process, local government Act and content of the PRSP The NMJD PRSP Sensitization project is acknowledged as being responsible for the popularization of the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy at national, regional district and chiefdoms levels through its district based Task Teams.
Two main tools have been used by the District Teams to educate and mobilize the citizenry to engage with the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy (SL-PRS) process and they have been the mass media and PRSP Sensitization Workshops.
Once trained the district task teams supported by the NMJD District Animators have successfully planned and carried out sensitizations workshops within the districts but more importantly they have extensively used the different media, in particular the community/local FM Radio to sustain community educational activities on the PRSP.
Summary of PRSP Sensitization Activities Districts Years Total # of workshops # of participants 2003 nil nil Nil nil Freetown East Freetown West Kono Bombali Bo Tonkolili Kenema Grand Total nil 2004 1 2005 3 2006 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 9 3 3 3 nil 2 2 16 2 2 1 1 1 1 10 6 6 6 5 4 4 1 32 180 180 183 85 27 85 126 826 As seen in the table above NMJD organized nine (9) in 2004, sixteen (16) in 2005 and ten (10) in 2006 PRSP Sensitization Workshops.
Some of these workshops were facilitated by NMJD staff with personnel from government departments including Ministry of Finance, PASCO and DACO serving as resource persons especially on the budget advocacy issues.

These workshops covered different aspects of SL-PRSP including its core principles such as participation and national ownership as well as some of the key programs, for example, the good governance and decentralization.
In the Bo District the various workshops focused solely on different aspects of the national budget making process including revenue mobilization instruments such as taxation and key national expenditure areas such as health, education, water and 16 national security.

Some of the workshops were devoted to skill training on advocacy, lobbying, participatory monitoring and development /transformative leadership.
All the DTT members interviewed indicated that they have participated in radio discussion programs to explain aspects of the PRSP within their operational districts.

Although other organizations for example Action Aid Sierra Leone International started doing sensitization work on the PRSP, none has maintained sustained engagement in a relatively effective manner as the NMJD lead DTT.
Participation of the primary beneficiaries, District and Regional Focal Persons and individual Task Team members in the various PRSP/budget sensitization workshops has increased their knowledge of the causes of and significantly radicalized their commitment to promote poverty reduction in Sierra Leone.

Task Team members assigned various causes for the poverty in Sierra Leone.
Bad political and economic governance evidenced in institutionalized corruption and mismanagement of the national resources; unfair trade relationship with the developed markets of the industrialized countries and civil war that lasted for more than a decade was cited as the key underlined causes of poverty in Sierra Leone.
Task teams members are aware that the decentralization system is not new to Sierra Leone; it existed in the 1960s but it was abandoned which resulted into the concentration of power and resources in the Freetown based central government.

They know that under the decentralization policy, power for local government is expected to devolve to the district councils, chiefdom and ward authorities.
Task Team members and including NMJD staff understand the link between the effective implementation of the PRSP and decentralization policy.

They also know that it is through the implementation of the devolution of power advocated by the decentralization policy that genuine participation of the ordinary citizens will be mainstreamed in the development process of the nation.
Accordingly they are aware that the election of district councilors is not the end of the implementation of the decentralization process but it has to be accompanied by budgetary allocation to empower them to plan and implement projects.

Regarding the content of the PRSP, the Task Team members understand and could explain the relationship between the HIPC initiative, Interim and full blown PRSP.
Also they are knowledgeable of the underlined principles of the PRSP such as partnership, participation, national ownership, poverty reduction and more importantly how the Sierra Leone PRSP is operationalizing them through the three pillars of good governance, peace and security; pro poor growth through job creation and food security and human development.
Significantly, most Task team members especially those who worked in civil society before the evolution of the poverty reduction strategy framework, emphasized that it has empowered them in several ways.

First, they noted that before the PRSP government did not feel obliged to disclose and make accessible to the citizenry information on the national budget; the PRSP makes it mandatory for government to be transparent and accountable to the citizenry.
A second notable difference they underscored is the emphasis on development as human right.

This rights-based approach to development according to the Task team members has inspired and built confidence in the citizenry, especially the pro-poor organizations to demand access to clean water, health care services, education, shelter, etc.

This rights-based approach to development places emphasis on the need for the poor to be organized so that they can champion their own development.
Lastly the DTT also pointed out that under the PRSP civil society and government are development partners, therefore they have to learn to work together.

This strong feeling of empowerment among members of the DTT is further evidenced by their high level of self-confidence in the use of the different mass media to share their sensitization experiences with and disseminate monitoring results to the citizenry.
Radio, television and newspapers are extensively used to disseminate, educate and mobilize the citizenry to meaningfully engage with the SL-PRSP and different development programs emerging from it.

In all the regional capitals, the regional and district persons have developed partnerships with the local FM Radio stations that has made it possible for them to regularly participate in phone-in programs focusing on different aspects of the implementation of the poverty reduction strategy .
In some districts for example the Task teams is allocated an hour each week to 17 discuss with the public issues emerging from the implementation of PRSP.

At the national level, NMJD has developed good working relationship with the state controlled radio and television as well as private newspapers and FM radio stations based in the national capital of Freetown.
Journalists from the different media houses in Freetown regularly participate in PRSP sensitization workshops and press conferences organized by the NMJD.

More importantly, journalists from the private media who are members of the DTT for example in Freetown East Task Team have helped immensely to sustain the public sensitization activities by independently writing articles in their newspaper or producing radio programs..
However the knowledge the DTT possess of key aspects of the PRSP for example on the decentralization program and the various pillars of the PRSP remains uncritical.

None of the DTT members interviewed provided a critical opinion of the PRSP because the sensitization workshops focused strictly on the contents of the document without providing participants with analytical tools to subject policies to pro-poor analysis.
For example given the NMJD commitment to gender mainstreaming, we expected a gender audit of the PRSP highlighting gender inequalities and inequities in policies, programming and more importantly in the allocation of resources in the budget.
If participants were given gender audit tools, the , DTT could use the skills and insights acquired to sensitize and mobilize local authorities and women groups in particular not just to engage with the PRSP but to highlight its weaknesses in addressing the felt needs and political aspirations of local women.

To conclude, the evaluation team did not observe any significant differences on any of the key issues discussed above among the four districts where we did field work..
But there is significant difference among the focal organizations.

Community Solution for example has very little organizational infrastructure with which to support the DTT whereas the Center for Human Rights and Development is capable of hosting the review meetings and is sharing office facilities with the NMJD Animator.
2.5 The information on PRS contents and HIPC are understood at community level The project sensitized only a limited number of chiefdom/ward based Task Teams whose members are actively using the knowledge gained to promote their community interest in the implementation of the PRSP.

This limited effort to establish community task teams occurred in Freetown East and Kono Districts.
During the sensitization workshop the community Task Teams learnt that the PRSP will provide micro- finance and was educated on the selection criteria for accessing it.

They were also told that under the PRSP community members are expected to take keen interest and active participation in development projects being carried out in their communities.

Community members are using this knowledge in several ways.
Freetown East Ward Task Team members recently carried out a citizen arrest of the agents of a local NGO that was collecting nearly two ($2.00) from community members as registration fee for them to qualify for a government sponsored micro-credit scheme.

This is what Ms. Taylor of the Freetown East Ward Task Team who mobilized the community to report the case to the police had to say.
“I heard that some people were charging women 7000 Leone as registration fee for a micro-finance project sponsored by the PRSP.

Immediately I went there and saw the people and they confirmed.

I knew from the r sensitization workshop on the PRSP that this was wong, so I reported them to the police and they were picked-up for investigation” .
In the Kono district a chief stopped contractor from building a bridge over a river because he did not consult with the community whose population was expected to use the bridge.

A community near Makin led by their Task Team member stopped an African Development Bank financed community health centre construction project because the contractor was using poor quality construction materials.
In conclusion these experiences though limited in coverage underscores the effectiveness of the right to development education approach adopted by the project in empowering communities to champion their own development.

Guided by this approach, the project PRSP sensitization activities where possible included state and non-state actors at district, chiefdom and ward/sections layers of society.
Public office holders as district councilors, paramount chiefs, town chiefs and their administrators on the one hand and 18 on the other hand ordinary citizens and community activists such as women, farmers and youth leaders were given equal education on the PRSP.
Thus as highlighted in different parts of the report the right to development education empowered and mobilized ordinary citizens to rise up and prevent abuses by public office holders including members of parliament, chiefs and councilors serving in their so called “private capacity as contractors” of community infrastructural project.

2.6.
2.6.

Task Teams have successfully pioneered the monitoring of contractors in Sierra Leone A noticeable outcome of the project is that it has successfully pioneered and championed civil society led monitoring of government funded development programmes.
The monitoring focused primarily on assessing the performance of the contractors involved in the building of physical infrastructure for a wide variety of public services institutions including education, health care, water, sanitation, police, judicial, road and administration.

Of the 29 projects monitored, educational institutions accounted for the highest number followed by health, water and sanitation combined.
One of the key reasons why a limited number of projects was monitored was that NMJD did not know that for the past two years the Government of Sierra Leone no longer operated a HIPC expenditure account, rather HIPC funds were integrated with other incomes of government to fund development programs.

As indicated above , efforts by the NMJD to establish formal partnership with the MOF so that it would supply it with information on HIPC funds did not materialized.
Monitoring occurred between 2004 to 2006 across the six (6) operational districts with Kono and Bombali accounting for the highest number of projects.

On the average each project was monitored for a period covering four (4) months.
In conducting the monitoring the focus has been on: • Whether the community or the intended beneficiaries are participating in the project implementation, for example did they know of the contractor, are they aware of the project, do they know how much it cost, whether community labor will be used, etc.
• Quality of building materials especially blocks, or the mixture of cement to sand, • Schedule of work, especially when is the contractor expected to finish the work and handle it over to the community and • Total cost/value of the contract.

Although there is no formal or written guideline for the monitoring, it is evident that it is planned and conducted in series of related steps.

Step one involved the identification of the HIPC funded projects.
In some communities DTT members got to know about projects during the official launching ceremony in the community by the implementing agency whilst in other instances when the contractor came to start clearing the land for construction work to begin.

Also in some places the DTT heard about the project through reading newspaper publications, listening to radio broadcast, or a community opinion leader.
As soon as the DTT identified a project, effort was made by the focal person to access the contract document.

With the document they verified and confirmed personal information on the contractor, implementation schedule, types of building materials and cost of the construction.

Contract documents were accessed in some cases from the contractors or the agency that awarded the contract.
For example even thought the project did not have formal relationship with National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) most of the DTT and focal persons reported they received contractor information and data from the regional offices.

Step two involved an assessment of the state of the construction work.

This was usually done by the Task team and representatives of the beneficiary community.

For some communities the DTT set-up a project monitoring committee involving community members and DTT.
The most important outcome at this phase was agreement on the key monitoring issues.

For example, if the project is abandoned or incomplete, then DTT wanted to find out the reasons, if the community is not involved, the DTT wanted to find out why and how they could increase community participation.

Based on the monitoring findings the contact is made with the contractor and implementing agency to discuss the findings of the DTT and recommendations.
As seen in the chart below, in the majority of cases, the DTT were effective in getting contractors and implementing agencies to adopt and implement their recommendations.

19 Dissemination of the monitoring findings and recommendations to the general public was the final step and it started with the DTT and NMJD jointly agreeing on dissemination strategy.

The dissemination usually involved using the local FM Radio Station but also the national radio and television.
Usually the focal persons and the NMJD staff were responsible for the media engagement.

Also the print media was used to disseminate the information.

NMJD` has established its own newsletter that it used to disseminate monitoring findings and recommendations.
Summary of Monitoring Information Districts/Pr ojects Location Monitoring Issues in Awarded in 2002 for 75m Le to be completed 3 months but contractor abandoned left uncompleted and 100 m allocated in 2002 to contractor complete project in 6 months but he abandoned and left project uncompleted Contractor refused information to about duration and cost; work was moving to slow m 798,725 allocated but progress of work very slow What year Shoddy rehabilitation of a five room class bock but year not givn Contractor unwilling to provide information A. Freetown Waterloo 1.
Western region area rural council Firestone community 2.

Firestone community Primary School Kissy Road Old 3.
Kissy Police Station ( Freetown east) 4.School fencing Wellington B.Bombali 1.Birch Secondary school Shebora Chiefdom 2.National Fire office force 3.District Inspectorate guest House Shebora chiefdom Shebora Chiefdom Action/strategies by the PRSP-TT Outcomes Update comments and Reported contractor to MOD and NMJD the publicized radio issue via TV and presentations MOD provided additional 100m and in 2004 Council completed project to Reported ministry of MOF, anticorruption commission presidency and provided NaCSA additional 100 m and project completed in 2004 slow MOD was informed pace by followed by media publicity; time not given to Report made MOF followed by radio TV and presentation Work tracked fast and completed but information not available in the report response from No MOF Issue raised with contractor Work completed but poorly done; year not indicated Indicate action Work completed but shoddy to get Unable information on the project 20 Shebora Chiefdom 4.Bombali District Education Primary school 5.
Water well Rogerbereh Shebora chiefdom 6.

Pamlap Health centre Makeni Mbanti Chiefdom Makeni Township Makeni Township Central 7. market 8.Culvert, Dustbin and 200 acre rice farm 9.Primary school Sanda Tandaran Chiefdom Health 10.

Centre 11.School block C. Kono 1.
Koindu Gov’t Hospital Tambakah Chiefdom Mayawlaw- Paki- Masabong Koindu Township, Gbense chiefdom 30m disbursed to contractor for rehabilitation work; work was being done poorly Contracted contractor and try to get him to improve Not much success with contractor as work was completed poorly started in but Work 2002 abandoned, materials diverted to another project to poor Noticed quality of blocks contractor but refused to gave information about NaCSA cost; sponsored Started in 2005; poor mixture of cement and sand; difficult get information Work was being poorly done by the Council Town 165 contractor; IRR sponsored project in Was and January expected be completed in June, 2005 but work stopped for a long period NaCSA started to Radio presentation of the incomplete project by Completed a another company in 2006 What actions was taken Not yet completed visits Site dialogue contractors and with Uncompleted yet Organised sustained disobedience cross CSOs in 2005 by section of Council leadership by removed government due to their implication; work in progress.
Not yet completed Through cell phone call contracted has resumed work with vigor Incomplete Information gathered that has fled to London indicate Contractor Islamic Development Bank in Delay and construction between conflict and doctors contractors over who is responsible for the project in Convened stakeholder consultative meetings world bank chiefs, health include reps, councilors, workers, Shoddy work; no furniture, poor drainage and poor foundation Restore peace and work in progress in 2006 21 2005; this is EU funded Konomanyie Partk Lorry and Tankoro market area, Konidu Town IRR sponsored in 2005, contracted to not councilors builders, poor quality of building materials Lei Chiefdom HIPC funded with community low involvement in 2005 2.
VIP Toilet Kombah 3.
Market GoSL sponsored in 2005, poor mixture of brick; use of more than sand cement and difficult to access project information; Abandoned 2006 in Poor work 4.Gbense market Koindu Township, Gbense Chiefdom 5.SABABU Project 6.VIP Toilet -UMC school Ngaya, UMC Yorgboma, Blind school, Ansarul Isamic Primary, Peyima, God is Our Light School, Saquee KDEC Tegbadu, Kono modern academy and UMC Sukudu - Dangbaidu Section Kamara Chiefdom GoSL sponsored project abandoned in 2006 Facilitated meeting between community Council representatives and 7.Women’s Center Kayiema Town, Sandor, Chiefdom Delayed in starting and later abandoned in 2006 Chiefdom consultative meeting and matter local office referred facilitated the to NaCSA and radio contractors phone-in discussion Consultative with meetings chief, council officials and site visits Project completed with improvement in construction materials in 2005 a Convened involving meeting local authorities and contractors to discuss community participation Consulted with the Council administration the issue on Increased utilization by the contractor of the local labor; work on completed schedule and with good quality materials in 2005 Improvement in the quality of bricks but still difficult to access project information Took-up the issue with at local and national levels SABABU Conducted survey to verify the report; confirmation followed by MEST organized radio discussion; stakeholder consultative meetings to improve on the construction, poor performing contractors were sacked and council improve agreed to of monitoring SABABU projects Council complained to Vice President who intervened and NaCSA Commissioner has to agreed complete the project but not yet.
local Office NaCSA request that Chiefdom take its case to head office in Freetown; work in progress 22 8.Gravity Water Supply Grandorhum and Bumbeh Chiefdom properly Not functioning with no management system in place 9.Tomdodu- Yiekuuma Rd Kongorfinja& Dangbaidu Section, Kamara Chiefdom GoSL funded and Community demanded wages and drew labour in 2006 by with of private Awareness raising in affected communities followed meeting representative the company involved Consultative meeting facilitated involving youth and contractor 10.Drying and Floor Grain storage Koakor, Town, Gbense Chiefdom funded NGO ;Community to refused contribute towards completion of the work and contractor stopped work in 2006 Investigation conducted into the funding arrangement for the project and report submitted to responsible company D. Kenema 1.Police Station Kenema Poorly built and incomplete work Kenema 2.Ansarul Islmic School Poor work done evidenced by low quality bricks Site visit, discussion with held report contractor, police to made management and discussion on FM radio Site visitation and prepared report for Ministry of Education 3.Sub-fire office construction 4.RC Primary School Reservation in Kenema Work progressing slow was too Small Bo Work was suddenly abandoned and site inspection with the councilors into and with Investigation financing arrangement discussion contractor Meeting with Contractor, discussion Council and discussion of the issue at meeting radio the set-up all Management committee covering beneficiary and communities additional materials left for repair works in the future Labor secured, work in progress but portion constructed highly rated as a good road Contractor was dismissed and work completed by a new contractor Contractor dismissed, new one hired and additional 106 million allocated and project oversee committee set-up (Please when) the Ministry responded by visiting site, contractor threatened with court case if quality of work is not improved and parents TT mandated to monitor progress of work Work progressed faster and properly done and Letter apology of written by Contractor, improved quality of bricks and work is almost completed 23 Baoma KOYA Incomplete work 5.
Barry Court matter Visited the site and efforts made to discussion hold contractors with without success No information on the where about of the contractor, The monitoring has faced a number of challenges.

Formal access to information about projects and contractors was very difficult to establish.

Efforts by NMJD to access information from the implementing agencies and contractors under a formal arrangement did not materialize.
One of the consequences was that very few projects were monitored and process of monitoring was rather slow, frustrating and time consuming.

Only 29 projects were monitored by the DTT in the six (6) operational districts where monitoring was expected to be done.

Another explanation for the low number of projects monitored was that this was a new initiative; therefore lot of time was devoted to preparatory activities such as identification and training of the Task team members.
The second major challenge was the lack of clarity between NMJD and Task Team members on the overall purpose of the monitoring of the projects.
For instance some Task members considered the purpose as being to get ordinary citizens to fully participate in development projects for their communities; other DTT members indicated the purpose of the monitoring to be to ensure that contractors implement projects for communities according to plan and not abandon it; a third group including NMJD staff suggested the purpose as being to fight corruption.
This lack of clarity among key players involved in the monitoring arose because the project planning did not involve consultation with for example civil society organizations participating in DTT as Regional or District Focal organizations.

In the case of the NMJD as highlighted below they were employed at different period and more importantly none was given proper orientation into the project.
Moreover, NMJD staff did not have the skills and experience to succinctly define and restrict monitoring to a measurable and achievable purpose.

The third challenge was lack of indicators, baseline information and agreed guidelines on how to use them to collect, analyze and present information.

Without agreed indicators it was difficult for the DTT to be purposeful in their monitoring.

One consequence was that DTT collected information and data they were unable to utilize.
Another important challenge has been the lack of monitoring skills and experience.

Majority of the Task Team members participated in a few days of training workshop on participatory monitoring and evaluation.

This workshop conducted by NMJD staff primarily shared with the DTT and NMJD Animators the Ghana HIPC Watch Participatory and Evaluation Framework.
Very little effort was made during the workshop to explore with the participants how it would be adapted to monitoring contractors involved in community infrastructural projects.

A fifth challenge has been the wide geographical spread of the operational districts.

The 7 districts involved in this project account for more than half of all the chiefdoms in the country.

One consequence was that the voluntarism of the DTT and logistic resources provided by NMJD were overstretched.
A final challenge has been the inability of NMJD to provide the required technical support to address the resources, skills and experience gaps identified by the DTT and more importantly to ensure that there is unanimity of purpose and effective utilization of the monitoring information.
Before highlighting lessons leant from the monitoring work , it is important to underscore that efforts and resources were invested by Christian aid to address some of the weaknesses in particular those related to technical skills of NMJD staff and DTT Two main reasons explain why these capacity building support had minimal impact on the staff .
First as highlighted above for NMJD, this was a pilot project, therefore its 24 management was reluctant to make any major changes or devote quality time to addressing some of the identified weaknesses.

Second, the educational background of some of the staff did not adequately prepare them to develop competency in some of the issues within the lifespan of a three-year project.

Several key lessons can be drawn from the monitoring experience.
First, the step by step approach of the contractor monitoring facilitated community participation and increased their ownership of infrastructural projects.

Second, it increased the community self-confidence and the capacity of community leaders to champion the interests, needs and aspiration of their people.
Thirdly the project by successfully targeting contractors who are among the well connected and politically powerful in rural Sierra Leone has demonstrated that indeed under the PRSP abuse of public resources can be challenged by pro-poor organizations through citizen led participatory monitoring and evaluation initiative.
Fourthly this project experience underscores the importance of partnership approach that mainstream the role of the different media (radio, television and print) in the dissemination of strategic information to the citizenry.

It is doubtful whether without the active use of the media this project would have generated the meaningful monitoring results highlighted in the chart above.
2.7 Low capacity of NMJD and Task Teams to analyze and engage with the national budget NMJD has five (5) District Animators who have direct field responsibility for the project.

They were all employed between late 2003 and early 2004.

Employment of the Animators was through a competitive process with the exception of one staff.

Of the five Animators three (3) completed university education, one (1) has a master degree in leadership and development and one (1) is a teacher training college graduate.
The professional training area of the staff include English, Environmental studies and Economics.

The animators are young, energetic, motivated and majority are native of the district.
Job description of the Animators sets out their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of the project as being to: • monitor poverty expenditure and services throughout the assigned district represent NMJD in advocacy events at district, regional and national levels • training of District Task Teams on the PRSP, M& E, advocacy, budget, self development and • transformative leadership • build networks of CSOs active at district and chiefdom levels • • coordinate, facilitate, document, review and report on the activities of the Task Teams represent NMJD on networking and meeting at all levels.
For all the five (5) animators, this project was their first experience to work in an economic literacy project covering issues of the PRSP, budget literacy and policy advocacy work.

In recognition of this lack of experience and skills, efforts were made by NMJD to train them but it was also inadequate and not orderly.

In the first place induction/orientation into the job and to the organization was always incomplete and poorly organized.
Some animators were given documents or reports of previous workshops to study whilst other were not; generally once employed and given job description animators were left to learn about the organization and their specific project activities without proper support from management.

The skill training workshops covered budget analysis, leadership, PRSP, participatory monitoring and poverty social impact analysis (PSIA).
The PSIA, budget analysis and leadership skills training were conducted by external resource persons.

All the Animators indicated that whilst the budget training has definitely given them confidence in their budget advocacy work, they do not yet have the technical skills to adequately engage with the national budget making process.

Also similar assessment was made of the PSIA which was expected to strengthen their monitoring and evaluation skills of the PRSP and HIPC funded projects in particular.
As indicated above PRSP sensitizations workshops have been effective in enabling Animators to understand the PRSP framework but it failed to equip them with skills that they could use to contextual policies emerging from it.

It is therefore no surprise that the work on the PRSP by Animators with DTT has focused solely on educating people on the actual contents of the PRSP.
Similarly the budget advocacy 25 was restricted to distribution of the national budget and discussions with communities about projects and allocation in the budgets that are expected to benefit their communities.

Training is among the key tasks of the Animators; although there is no evidence that anyone participated in training of trainers workshop, the high level of knowledge possessed by the DTT on the PRSP and budget suggest that they were effective in their training functions.
Nearly all the Animators indicated that they have had gender mainstreaming training, however, this tended to be limited to the need to include women in development activities and decision making structures.

There is no evidence that any of the animator is capable of for example doing gender audit of the PRSP or the budget.
Documenting and disseminating the key findings of monitoring of projects in particular is one of the key functions of the Animators and so far no skill training has be organized to make them effective communicators of change.

Project reports for workshops for example are not consistent in the type of information they record which made it difficult to use them to analyze the results of the project.
As mentioned earlier the key reason for the weak documentation by the animator was not only due to insufficient skills but also the fact that the project did not have precise indicators that they would use to collect and prepare narrative reports.

Notwithstanding this weakness, the Animators have developed good working relationship with various media houses and individual journalists that has ensure effective dissemination of the project monitoring findings.
FM Radio stations for example in the regional and district capitals have allocated programming times sometime twice a week for DTT to educate the public about the PRSP and to disseminate monitoring findings.

In this context, they have developed a “naming and shaming approach” to present the monitoring findings and recommendation.
Contractors’ names, addresses and other personal details are explicitly mentioned on radio phone-in discussion programs followed by publication in Sierra Leone Poverty Watch Newsletter.

This “naming and shaming” presentation has definitely generated quick impact at both the district and national levels.
Media persons interviewed for the evaluation emphasized that NMJD animators are among the few groups in the country who regularly access them to information on the performance of the implementation of the PRSP and related programs.

However whilst the Animators have been effective in communicating with the media, preparing effective monitoring report for NMD management is hindered by limited access to computer.

In one office for example one computer/ secretary is shared by four Animators.
As one of the animators remarked” I came to NMJD computer literate but I am slowly becoming computer illiterate”.

Each of the Animator has developed a functioning working relationship with key stakeholders, Focal Persons, Task Team members, councilors and council leadership (chief administrators and council chairperson).
However the successful management of these relationships by the Animators is being challenged by the limited resources they have to convene and support meaningful consultative processes involving all the district level stakeholders.

During the initial year of their employment with the project, the Animators relied on their immediate supervisor, the Program Manger, to coach them especially in work planning, budget preparation for planned activities and they acknowledged that he was very effective.
However regarding the technical content of their work, for example monitoring, report writing and researching he is not adding much value to their work.

Another important area where the Animators are not getting quality support from their supervisor is the utilization of the monitoring information and insights generated during the PRSP Sensitization Workshops for national advocacy purposes.

For example since 2004 the project has been monitoring contractors without publishing a single report.
To be effective in influencing public policy process and international donors, one off reportage and documentation is never effective, it has to be consistent and timely.

In 2006 an independent researcher was commissioned by the Civil Society Alternative Process of Sierra Leone who prepared a detailed report “The Stolen Happiness” which includes projects monitored by the DTT.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and National Development who discussed the report with the evaluation team were delighted that it was published and expressed keen 26 interest in dialoging with the NMJD and other stakeholders on the report.
The enthusiasm with which these high public officials received what is obviously critical report of government utilization of HIPC funds suggest that ,if the findings and recommendations of the DTT were published in a comprehensive manner for example each year and not in “ bits and pieces” , it would have generated attention of key players including state officials and donors at the national level.
Also a local World Bank official confirmed that Washington( head office of the World Bank) was interested in the findings of the report and intended to discuss it with government and like the senior civil servant, he also emphasized the need for the NMJD to improve on the quality of the monitoring and presentation of the information and data.
They acknowledged the NMJD led DTT as the only independent monitoring initiative of contractors implementing government funded development projects in the rural Sierra Leone and therefore challenged the NMJD to improve the research and analytical capacity of its staff .

Indeed both the World Bank and staff of the Ministry of Finance confirmed their interest in working with NMJD to improve the quality of monitoring capacity of its staff.
What this enthusiastic reception to the Stolen Happiness Report suggests is that the policy environment in Sierra Leone is not as hostile and near impossible to penetrate, influence and change as NMJD staff tend to argue.

In the late 1990s when NMJD initiated the Just Mining Campaign and issued the initial report, staff were threatened with arrest but that is no longer the situation, rather, the high officials and donors are eager to hold critical dialogue on the report.
What is required is for NMJD to acquire additional programming skills so that it is sufficiently empowered to take advantage of the policy advocacy opportunities made possible by the poverty reduction strategy implementation in Sierra Leone.

The PRSP Project Manager holds a degree in political science and is among the most experienced members of the NMJD Economic Justice Team.
He was recruited as the first Project Officer for the Just Mining campaign Program which he helped to develop into a best practice policy advocacy initiative.

In 2002 he was given additional responsibility for developing and promoting NMJD programming interest in and works on the HIPC initiative and later on the PRSP.

And so, until the end of 2003 he was responsible for the Just Mining Campaign whilst managing the development of the PRSP Sensitization and Monitoring Project.
Starting in 2004, Just Mining Campaign was dropped from his schedule of responsibilities and managing the implementation of the PRSP Sensitization and Monitoring Project became his main task.
As Program manager his key responsibilities include: strengthening the capacity of animators establishing national network for advocacy • • • monitoring and reviewing project implementation towards the objectives • Reporting and documentation of implementation process Given his educational background and work experience his main strength has been in developing and strengthening working relationships with the different stakeholders at district, regional and national levels.
He has been effective in working with the respective district animators to establish and strengthen working relationships with the civil society organizations serving as Regional and Focal organizations as well as the Task team members.
More importantly, all the animators confirmed that he has coached them into developing the prevailing harmonious working relationship with their respective District Councils and they acknowledged that he has been resourceful in developing their capacity to prepare work plans, budget and district level advocacy activities.
Also to his credit, the project has developed informal working relationship with several relevant Government Ministries and Departments as a result of which state functionaries have served as resource persons to various PRSP sensitization workshops.

Another area the various Focal Persons and Animators acknowledged his resourcefulness has been building their advocacy and lobbying knowledge and skills.
Whilst he has been relatively effective in building the much needed institutional relationships for the implementation of the project, his weakness are several.

First, he has been ineffective in providing 27 programmatic link between district level advocacy activities for example the monitoring of HIPC funded project by the Task Teams towards a deliberate national advocacy agenda and issues.
Consequently the monitoring results of the respective Task team that would serve as advocacy capital at the national level have remained discrete and underutilized.

Therefore there have been very little national level advocacy outcomes of the project.

Secondly the Program manager had limited skills and experience to provide technical backstopping services to the animators for effective participatory monitoring and evaluation of HIPC funded programs and budget monitoring.
This weakness is evident in for example in the lack of a clear and uniform monitoring reporting format that could be used by the animators and Task Teams to communicate effectively at national and district levels their findings and recommendations.

Third area of weakness is in understanding national budget information/data and repackaging them in an appropriate manner and making sure that the project monitoring activities are effectively aligned with it.
For example as already pointed above the national budget no longer has direct HIPC funded projects but yet the Task teams were focused on monitoring HIPC funded projects.

His technical weaknesses cited above, the wide geographical scope of the project requiring a lot of attention for effective coordination purposes and his office location away from the national capital combined, are the possible primary explanations why the project engagement with national actors and processes has been relatively low-key.
Three regional directors, Western, Southern and Eastern Provinces, have been involved in the project but not at similar levels.

The Southern Regional Director involvement has been restricted to the Budget Advocacy program.

His skills and expertise are primarily in the areas of peace building and participatory training and not in budget advocacy.
The Western Regional Director who is responsible for Freetown and Bombali was newly employed but had very little knowledge and information about the project; her professional background and work experience is essentially in the area of micro-enterprise development and management and not in economic policy work.

Therefore if she is to play any meaningful role in the future project particularly at the national level she will require not just workshop based training but proper coaching.
The Eastern Regional Directorate host the Program Officer in the Kenema Office, therefore it was expected that he could help to support him.

The Regional Director is an experienced NGO manager and development worker but not in economic policy work.

There is no evidence that he was actively involved in the programming activities of the project.
Furthermore besides his office hosting the Program Officer and therefore providing him with administrative support, he has not provided him with technical advice and support to address any of the key challenges encountered in the implementation of the project.

The Executive Director had overall management responsibility for the project but with twofold specific roles.
First it was expected that in the implementation of the project, he would support the Program Officer in ensuring that the PRSP Sensitization and HIPC funded monitoring activities are used by NMJD and National Task Team to effectively engage and influence national policy actors including government and the donor community.

Another role expected of him was to work with the Program Officer to build the technical competencies of the Animators and DTT.
Indeed he is the most experienced and professionally trained member of the project implementation team.

His professional training is in the field of education and human rights education.

His many years of work experience has focused on building capacity within Sierra Leonean civil society for service delivery interventions but importantly for policy advocacy work at district and national levels.
However his understanding and skills in analyzing macro economic information /data and some of the key policies based on them are limited.

Furthermore this project was his first experience to lead the NMJD in planning and implementing a civil society based intervention that sought among others, not only to build awareness on government development policy framework but to train and work with CSOs to monitor the utilization of financial resources devoted to infrastructural projects.
It is therefore no surprise that he did not bring to the project implementation processes the required technical expertise and insights that would have enhanced the competencies of the Animators and Focal Persons.

What he has been effective at in the implementation of the project is ensuring its active engagement with diverse groups of civil organizations at the national 28 level which has resulted into the formation of Civil Society Alterative Process(CSAP).
Among others, the CSAP is intended to serve as a national platform for civil society organizations to provide critical voice on the Sierra Leone Poverty reduction strategy implementation processes.

He was actively involved in the project conceptualization and during the initial operational phases.

For instance he participated in the recruitment of the Animators and Regional and District Focal Persons as well as discussion on the framework of collaboration with the various stakeholders.
A number of significant lessons have been learnt about the capacity of the NMJD team involved in the project implementation.

First, the senior staff that were expected to engage with national level actors and processes did not have complementing skills and experiences; therefore they did not add much value to each other.
Second although the staff at the district levels (Animators) have diverse professional background, they are isolated from each other in their day to day work situation; they only met during workshops and therefore could not complement and effectively support each other.

Thirdly the main area of organizational competency and experience of NMJD is in capacity building within civil society for social developmental purposes and not in macro-economic advocacy.
However for this project to be effective at the national level, the need for NMJD to be capable of engaging government and donors on the macro- economic policy instruments that underpin the PRSP framework and related development programs cannot be overemphasized.

Towards this end NMJD will have to strengthen its policy research, analytical and reporting skills of its staff, especially on macro-economic issues.

2.8.
2.8.

Good informal working relationship exist between NMJD and national authorities Whilst the project has made immense successes towards developing and strengthening formal working partnership with district councils, it has undoubtedly being less effective in evolving formal working relationship with state institutions and functionaries at the national level.
Efforts for example to meet with the relevant parliamentary committee have not being successful; in fact NMJD has had only one meeting with the Trade, Industry, Tourism and Development Committee.

During this meeting the NMJD shared with the parliamentarians its keen interest to support their work by providing them with information and insights generated from the PRSP Sensitization Workshops and more importantly HIPC fund projects monitoring activities.
Strenuous efforts by the NMJD to hold a follow-up meeting and establish formal relationship has not materialized with the parliamentary committee because according to the members “provision of information/education without material support to allow us to do our work is inadequate”.
Therefore, whilst the parliamentary committee is keenly interested in engaging with civil society initiatives such as the NMJD PRSP Sensitization Project for it to solicit their active participation they demand that it be accompanied by various forms of material support including secretarial, communication and transportation.

Also regarding, the ministries, departments and agencies, NMJD has not signed a formal memorandum of collaboration/partnership.
But, it has actively engaged with several key ministries and agencies involved with the PRSP process and they include the Ministries of Finance and Development, DACO and PASCO.

This engagement has enabled NMJD to access resource persons from these agencies that have facilitated PRSP Sensitization workshops.
Indeed personnel from government agencies who have participated in the PRSP Sensitization workshops are unanimous that it was extremely valuable because it made it possible them to receive feedback from civil society activists who are engaged with government policies and programs.

However the development of formal relationship has been difficult because of the legal restriction on civil servants not to disclose information on government programs without the permission of their political overlords.
In conclusion, even though the NMJD does not have formal agreement with national institutions, this has not prevented it from working with senior civil servants and politicians.

For example the evaluation team was warmly received by high level officials in several key ministries and they enthusiastically discussed with us the work of the NMJD on the PRSP.
Generally in Africa it is difficult for a civil society based advocacy 29 program such as the NMJD –led PRSP sensitization project to obtain formal agreement with government, department and agencies therefore, the experiences of the project is not unusual.
2.9 Collaborative relationship between NMJD and other national CSOs PRSP/budget As highlighted in different parts of the report NMJD has collaborated effectively with key national CSOs during the implementation process and they have included Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Women Forum, Community Solution and Women in Peace Building Network.

These organizations as formal implementing partners are active on the National task team.
In addition, the project has supported various civil society organizations initiatives on the PRSP; the most outstanding of which was the workshop in 2005 attended by civil society organizations from across the country that resulted into the establishment of the civil society Alternative Process on the PRSP.

However there are other civil society based monitoring initiatives focusing on different programs within the PRSP that the NMJD is not collaborating with.
Campaign for Good Governance for example is monitoring the PRSP in four areas: attainment of food security, access to universal basic education, public perception of the PRSP and state of security in the country whilst the 50/50 Women’s Group monitoring focuses on women in elected public offices.

Defense for Children International is monitoring children rights issues in the context of the PRSP.
The National Accountability Group is among others monitoring government procurement processes, engages in budget advocacy and training at the district level targeting different citizen groups including teachers, religious leaders and media personnel.

Among its plans are to establish corruption monitoring teams in all the districts.
In conclusion, there are disparate civil society monitoring initiatives focusing on different aspects of the PRSP with very little coordination at national level; therefore their effectiveness and impact at the national is not visible.

Despite their different entry points their focus seems to be twofold.

Promotion of accountability and strengthening of the decentralization initiative.
What is missing is a civil society based monitoring initiative that targets macro-economic issues1 During the validation workshop with national CSOs (including non partners of NMJD) participants were unanimous on the need for a civil society initiative focusing on macro-economic policy issues so that it can generate alternative analysis and data that would be shared with the micro-economic monitoring activities that are in progress by different civil society organizations.
2.10 Mechanisms for facilitating learning across the project The project implementation included various mechanisms for promoting learning: national task force meetings, regional quarterly review meetings, monthly task teams meetings, skill training as well as exchange visits to like minded initiatives in other African countries.

The meetings of the task teams, regional task force and DTT facilitated learning by providing opportunities for participants to share field reports.
By sharing field reports and experiences participants confirmed learning from their similarities as well as differences.

Because the project did not have guidelines for monitoring, these meetings made it possible for DTT to learn from each other how to plan and carry out monitoring.
For example some DTT reported learning how to acquire monitoring information by listening to the success stories of their colleagues and others learn how to negotiate with their district councils based on the report presented by their colleagues during the quarterly review meetings.

These meetings also helped to foster solidarity among the DTTs, increase motivation and self-confidence.
Some of the meetings were also used to develop technical skills, for example during one meeting participants were exposed to the Ghana HIPC Watch monitoring framework.

However the main weakness was the lack of effective follow-up to address some of the issues that were raised by the participants.

Key problems such as wide coverage and inadequate logistic support were raised in the meetings but NMJD did not properly addressed them.
One possible explanation why these problems were not adequately addressed was that the program manager who 1 Efforts by the evaluation team to establish contact with a recently announced Sierra Leone Policy Center did not materialize but the NMJD is aware of the individual who is promoting this initiative 30 regularly confronted these problems did not have the power to make the necessary changes in the implementation arrangements whilst the Executive Director felt strongly that it was a pilot project and therefore there was no need to make any fundamental adjustments.
In a sensitization project such as this, proper documentations of workshops, meetings and conferences can serve as effective learning tool by key stakeholders.

As noted above documentation of key events was handicapped by the lack of administrative support for the NMJD staff to prepare reports in a timely manner.

For instance the bi-annual reporting format changed several times which make it difficult to compare the experiences of the project at different intervals.
Similar problems were encountered when we attempted to review the various workshops and meeting reports.

For reports to be effective learning tool, they have to be factual, short and in focused language.

The reports and document that were provided to the evaluation are listed in the reference section.
2.11 Strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats NMJD PRSP/budget project Strengths Weaknesses • Established working relationship with District Councils • Wide geographical coverage of the project • Wide diversity among the participating civil • CSOs at district, regional and national levels society organizations prepared to collaborate with NMJD • Experienced in working with wide range of • Unclear monitoring indicators • NMJD staff lack adequate skills for CSOs • Young, motivated and hardworking District • participatory monitoring Documentation of key activities not systematized • Poor project design Inadequate administrative support for NMJD • • There is no staff with skills in macro- economic analysis Threats • There are other civil society organizations with plans to set-up monitoring projects, • The setting –up advocacy programs by international NGOs animators • Office infrastructure at strategic regional • • capitals NMJD is the only CSOs with experience in successfully monitoring contractors National visibility of NMJD as pro poor advocacy and lobbying CSOs- • Good working relationship with different media organization Opportunities • to commitment The policy of decentralization aimed at devolution of power the district and chiefdoms international -Strong development partners to support civil society working on promoting good governance practices -Government of Sierra Leone is opening –up to active collaboration with civil society on issues of good governance and accountability of • • • Civil society organizations are keen to collaborate with NMJD • Parliament and other institutions are under pressure from the donors to partner civil society • Supporting civil society to engage government is a priority programming area for many NGO donor organizations • Continual iberalization of the mass media 31 landscape 2.
12 Summary of key lessons learned First, it is important that the next project designing process generates baseline information and data that could serve as the basis for developing monitoring indicators.

Without an agreed and adequately defined monitoring indicators, accounting for project results and later on impact will be difficult.
Secondly implementing partners capacity assessment to determine what skills and experiences they possess in relation to their envisaged roles and responsibilities must be done; this is important for determining what organizational capacity building support they will require and what resources they will need to perform their respective functions.
If for example NMJD decides that establishment of a network is one of the objectives, a capacity assessment will provide the necessary information about the various organizations and what is required to develop them into a strong network.

Also the results of the capacity assessment will enable NMJD to determine the human resources it will require to be able to effectively complement its implementing partners.
A third important lesson learnt is that NMJD core expertise and experience is in working at district level and capacity building within civil society for advocacy work and not working on macro-economic issues ( i.e.

inflation, budget deficit, balance of trade, exchange rates, interest rates, foreign debt , etc, etc ) and how they impact on the poor.
Effective engagement with the implementation of the PRSP will require some level of understanding and capacity to analysis how these macro-economic policy instruments are impacting on the livelihood and welfare situation of the poor.

Accordingly, NMJD will require additional programming support to develop the relevant competencies in order for it be effective in running a macro-economic policy advocacy program.
However, NMJD does not have to work on macro-economic issues (the budget) in order to be a major player in pro-poor policy advocacy work in Sierra Leone.

The potential exist for NMJD to replicate its experience in championing the Just Mining Campaign by focusing on monitoring of contractors involved in public sector infrastructural projects.
A fourth useful lesson learnt is that the workshop based sensitization activities followed by the participatory monitoring of projects adequately complemented each other.

The sensitization workshop by making communities members aware that the PRSP guaranteed the right of the citizenry to development and to demand accountability of public office bearers facilitated confidence and helped to mobilize local civil society activists to actively participate in the monitoring activities.
However the sensitization approach was weak in building critical consciousness within civil society on the PRSP; for example issue of gender inequalities were approached solely from an inclusion perspective.

In order to develop a critical perspective, NMJD may have to focus on a limited number of issues, for example, how the PRSP is addressing gender equality, environmental protection, access of small scale farmers to productive resources, or persons with disability.
32 PART THREE: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE WAY FORWARD 3.1.0 Economic Literacy, Contractor Accountability and Policy Advocacy Project 3.1.1 Goal and envisaged key programming areas Transform the PRSP and Budget Sensitization Project into the Economic Literacy, Contractor Accountability and Policy Advocacy Project with the goal to increase and accelerate the poverty reduction outcomes of the SL PRSP in three districts and the envisaged activities will be fivefold: • PRSP sensitization and training targeting faith based organizations, youth groups, women associations, development NGOs, traditional leaders, district and town councils members District Council capacity building to enhance good governance and accountability • monitoring of contractors involved in implementing infrastructural programs • • Strengthening women participation in the various local government structures • Tracking of direct expenditure in the health, education, water and sanitation sectors 3.
1.

2 Reduce the operational district of the project to only three (3) In order to be effective the project should be operational only in three (3) districts of the existing seven (7) operational districts.

Therefore four (4) of the existing operational districts will have to be dropped.

For administrative effectiveness, two (2) of the selected districts should be lying close to each other therefore possibly supported by one Regional Director.
Having one of the operational districts in Freetown will be useful for advocacy purposes.

Other factors to take into account in selecting the two (2) rural districts are the existence of administrative infrastructure of and program by NMJD and also whether or not there are other NGOs doing similar programming so as to prevent duplications.

3.
3.

1.3 Transitional support for the dropped districts NMJD should consult with the Regional Focal Organizations for the districts to be dropped to determine whether they want to continue working with the Program.

If they are keen to continue a transitional support for a maximum of one year for them would be included in the program but they must submit a convincing program of how they will sustain the initiative.
To demonstrate their seriousness, the Regional Focal Organization should independently develop a proposal which among others must indicate how it will continue the project after the transitional support ends.

3.

1.4 District and regional organizations In the new project NMJD will assume the role of the regional focal organizations and therefore the present Regional Focal Organizations/persons will no longer be necessary.
The district focal organizations/persons arrangement and use of Task Teams will be maintained as well as the National Task Teams.

However, those serving now should not be automatically maintained but they should be assessed in the light of the reformulation of the project goal and objectives.

The roles and functions of the District Focal organizations, Task Teams and National Task teams will remain as in the pervious projects.
Also the size of the Task team membership needs to be assessed in relation to the operational cost, effectiveness, sustainability and their expected roles and responsibilities.

For effectiveness of impact, the project will develop operational structures and establish Task Teams at chiefdom and district levels.

3.1.5 Retain the five (5) Animators and Program manager Each of the operational districts will have at least two NMJD Animators whose roles and responsibilities will be as in the previous projects.
In pairing the animators it will be useful to take into account the need for them to complement each other in terms of skills and experiences.

The program manager should be stationed in the Freetown office so that he can effectively ensure that the experiences of the district and national levels are properly coordinated and regularly interfacing.

His decision making role of the program should be strengthened so that he can be effective in managing operational issues.
Furthermore the role between him and other senior managers including the regional directors should be clarified with him having ultimate responsibility for program contents and related operational issues.

Also if there are specific 33 programming areas that the Executive Director should be held responsible for they should be specified in the design discussed and agreed upon.

3.
3.

1.6 Strengthen the capacity of the program implementation team The capacity building of the NMJD in relation to the goal and objectives must be given a priority, therefore it will be important that it is adequately addressed in the designing exercise.

Some of the critical issues include programming staff, transportation and administrative services but more importantly result based management and monitoring.
Both the Executive Director and Program Manager will require training in result based program development, management and monitoring.

Also as part of the designing process we recommend that a rapid situational appraisal is conducted on the administrative system with the view to determining what contributions can be made by the project to towards strengthening it.

This appraisal should not be limited to Freetown Office but also the two other offices that might host the animators.
Another area of capacity building will be training of the animators on results based monitoring system and reporting so that they can be effective in accounting for the project outcomes and impact on the target district and their population.
3.1.7 Contractor monitoring should be maintained The focus of the monitoring should be strictly on contractors working in the three (3) operational districts but it should not only be limited to whether he/she is working according to schedule, community participation and quality of work, but legal regime for public sector contract and infrastructure in particular, the process of awarding and managing government funded contracts should be included.
To achieve this holistic approach, during the design stage of the phase (2) two consultation should be held with selected ministries to explore possibility for formal partnership.
Also formal agreement should be signed with the district councils of the operational districts but NMJD should maintain its independence in planning and carrying out the monitoring but they should agree on the procedures of how the monitoring information will be fed into the various structures of the districts so that they influence the decision making process.

3.1.

8 Program development assistance.


To be effective in developing the program NMJD will need technical assistance for the development and operationalisation of the program.

Initially NMJD will need technical assistance for a period of 10 to 15 working days to work with the Program Officer and Animators to develop the program proposal.

.

3.

1.
.

3.

1.

9 Strong district partnerships to be established Whilst NMJD will be the principal driver for this project but its effectiveness and sustainability will be determined by the quality of partnership it forge with district based civil society organizations.

District based local NGOs should not be mere implementers but as partners who are committed to owning and sustaining the process beyond this projects.
A social accountability promotional initiative such as this project requires a strong and broad based ownership arrangement.

In order to establish a strong local owner arrangement, the designing process must be participatory so that the potential partners contribute to defining the goal, objectives and planned activities but importantly to afford them the opportunity to include their capacity building needs in the project.
It is important to keep the membership at a manageable level so that it is functional and cost effective.

3.

1.10 Learning visits to be continued.

Study visits to like minded projects should be encouraged as they provided staff with the opportunity to learn from the experiences of similar initiatives in Africa and other parts of developing world.
The relationship with Social Enterprise Development Foundation (SEND Foundation) and Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC) has been useful in exposing the staff to innovative experiences of the two organizations and it should be continued.

However, to increase the impact of the learning visits, upon 34 return a staff should he/she be made to prepare an action plan indicating how they will utilize the knowledge, skills and insights acquired.
3.3.0 NMJD to facilitate the institutionalization and operationalization of the Budget Advocacy Network 3.3.

1 Why should NMJD adopt a collaborative approach to the national budget advocacy Rather than pursuing an independent budget advocacy initiative at the national level, we recommend that NMJD continual the existing collaboration it has with other Christian AID partners to operationalise and institutionalized the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN).
This collaborative approach will have several important advantages.

First it will be building on an existing initiative that NMJD has been a key stakeholder of.

Second it will involve partnering actively with other CSOs who are independently programming on some aspects of budget advocacy and have expressed interest in and commitment to mainstreaming at the national level.
Thirdly the collaborative approach will free the project of any parochial institutional interest or existing internal weaknesses that NMJD may be currently suffering.

Fourthly, the partnership approach will strengthen the autonomy whilst maximizing its legitimacy and effectiveness as a national budget advocacy initiative.
Fifthly whatever analysis and insights it generates of the national budget, the stakeholders will serve as the principal conduits for engagement and dissemination at district, regional and national levels, therefore it need not have a large scale infrastructure; it will rely on the membership to facilitate engagement with government functionaries at different levels.
Lastly effective national budget advocacy program in the context of Sierra Leone will require multiple skill sets and experiences that NMJD by itself will definitely have great difficult in acquiring and mastering.
This collaborative approach will provide opportunity for NMJD to specialize on for example monitoring of contractors who are implementing larger scale public sector projects funded by the national budget whilst benefiting from the experiences and information provided for example by Campaign for Good Governance monitoring the performance of the government in promoting access to education.

3.3.2.
3.3.2.

Envisaged programming areas of the Budget Advocacy Network The BAN is envisaged as a resource center that among other would serve as a platform for CSOs to generate critical appraisal of and engagement with the national budget making and allocation processes so that its poverty reduction agenda is maximized.

Towards this goal, the envisaged programming areas are threefold: • • • -budget research and monitoring -budget .sensitization and training and -budget Information and advocacy.
Budget research and monitoring unit will plan and conduct impact assessment studies (PSIA) focusing on key policy instruments such as revenue mobilization/taxation strategy , privatization of social services( eg.

water privatization), pursuing of low inflation or low budget deficit and its impact on the livelihood situation of poor, women, farmers and youth in particular.

Information and insights generated by the unit will be shared with the member of the BAN and other advocacy organizations.
Budget sensitization and training unit will have as it purpose to educate key stakeholders about their national budget so that they can develop a critical perspective of it and they will include • • • civil society organizations especially women groups, youth associations, farmers organizations and organized labor, development NGOs, etc faith based organizations local government authorities 35 The skill training will aimed at equipping women and youth groups in particular with budget auditing skills so that they can analyze the national budget and develop appropriate advocacy strategies and activities that highlight the gender equality gaps/ insensitivity or insufficiency/inadequacy in addressing youth needs and aspirations.
Another important area of training will be budget tracking and expenditure monitoring skills; members of the network could be trained on how to plan and engage in budget tracking.

Budget information and advocacy unit: Budget information to be disseminated will include findings of the research, monitoring and training reports.
The main purpose of the budget advocacy will be to ensure that the national budget remain focus on poverty reduction and therefore the target will be key public institutions( Parliament and key Ministries Finance and Development) in the designing and management of the implementation of the national budget.
3.3 3 Envisaged steps in the implementation of the recommendation Step one NMJD share this recommendation with the other members of the BAN and get their feedback on it as well as NMJD interest and willingness to host the pilot phase for at maximum of 12 months.

During this 12 months NMJD would lead the operationalisation processes of the BAN in initially working with the other members to hire a qualified and experienced person.
However if any of the existing members of the BAN has a staff member who has been part of the process and they are keen to second she/he to lead the pilot phase that should be considered as the best option.

If a new person has to be hired than we will recommend that the person is a trained economist or public policy specialists.
The advantage of the secondment approach is that a staff who is from a member organization will not be new to this initiative because she/he probably participated in previous training activities and is familiar with all the stakeholders , however if the person is not an economist that will be a major constraint.

With respect to hiring a new person, he/she will be an outsider and therefore not familiar with the partners and may not have experience in civil society work.
We strongly recommend the secondment option because it will accelerate the operationalisational process.

The Program Manager will not be under NMJD management but the BAN will constitute a management committee to whom he/she will be responsible to, however, NMJD as the host will provide financial management services.

Step two: Project development and implementation ISODEC Ghana should be contracted to mentor the development and implementation of the pilot project.
It is precisely to make the mentoring process effective that the members of BAN must agree on the Project Manager who will work directly and regularly with ISODEC.

First, ISODEC should work with the Project Manager to develop a 12 months pilot project proposal.

This project development phase could be for consultancy period of between 5 to 10 days.

The design should emphasis resident mentoring approach and learning by doing rather than short term workshops/training schemes.
To be effective the pilot phase should consider focusing on one or two critical cross cutting development issue: gender equality promotion, education, environment, health, etc.

We will recommend that the pilot project focus on gender equality budget advocacy.

Based on the design the contract agreement would be signed between the project and ISODEC to cover the implementation.

Step Three: Evaluation and scaling-up At the end of 12 months the project should be evaluated and scale-up strategy developed.
36 PART FOUR : APPENDIXES Appendixes One : TOR Evaluation NMJD PRSP/HIPIC/National Budget Programme, Sierra Leone Introduction The Irish Aid funded PRSP-HIPIC and Civil Society Inclusion Project commenced in July 2003 as party of MAPS (Multi Annual Programme Scheme).
The NMJD Programme is a component part of the CA/Irish Aid MAPS partnership which over a 3 year period focused on 2 key thematic areas of CAs work, namely sustainable livelihoods and sustainable security, across CA’s established country programmes in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Colombia and IOPT.

The MAPS Programme therefore aims to contribute to CA’s overall goal through addressing the poverty, marginalization and lack of security arising form or linked to current or recent conflict.
Common to all four countries are clear linkages between the various manifestations of social and economic exclusion and conflict, and the importance of addressing the former in order to manage or resolve the latter in the longer term.

The Programme is therefore concerned with identifying and addressing the root social and economic factors in conflict, as key to a long term approach to conflict management but also as long term development needs in their own right.
The conflict imperative in Sierra Leone has been fuelled by poverty, inequality and weak governance.

Structural issues remain and undermine the prospects for lasting peace.

It is especially important in SL that root causes of the war are addressed, of which government transparency and accountability and public access to information and resources are paramount.

Sierra Lone is ranked next bottom on the UNDP HDI.


Given that GOSL has identified poverty reduction as the major focus of its political agenda, there is a need for civil society to actively participate in the process.
A key purpose of the NMJD programme therefore is to ensure grater transparency by authorities in relation to PRSP processes, the national budget and HIPIC funded projects by strengthening civil society to both understand the detail of the PRS and budgetary processes and to engage collaboratively to hold authorities at all levels accountable for public budgets and expenditures.

The NMJD model emphasizes the creation of CS Task Teams at chiefdom, district and national levels.
These have the responsibility for public information dissemination at community level, for linkage and dialogue with relevant authorities, and for monitoring HIPIC funded projects.

District and national level task teams were created form the start of the project and over the past one year NMJD has also been developing task teams at chiefdom level.
Task teams are composed of representatives from local CSOs and CBOs and a major programmatic emphasis has been to build the capacity of task team members especially in economic literacy.

At district level NMJD and other national NGOs were identified to lead to process; NMJD is lead agency in Kono and Kailahun Districts.

Part of the programme plan was to also establish a national forum of PRSP agencies.
A primary aim of the evaluation is to determine the extent to which these civil society processes have progressed in the 3 year period and the degree to which the technical capacity of TT members has been built, and the degree to which they can effectively engage in budgetary processes, dialogue with the authorities, and monitor HIPC projects The CAID programme operates in six districts.
Trocaire also funds a similar programme in Bo District, also with Irish Aid funding and it has been agreed between all parties that this evaluation will include Bo District.

There is no significant baseline for the programme and monitoring systems are not well developed.

A planned baseline mapping of civil society and government authority linkage to be taken forward by the 3 MAPS partners was not completed.
37 Purpose of Study The purpose of the study is to undertake an evaluation of the CA funded NMJD PRSP/HIPIC project and the Trocaire funded project to assess achievement against purpose and objectives.

The consultant will assess the effectiveness, impact and lessons learned from the NMD project and make recommendations with respect to future strengthening and programming.
The main focus of the evaluation concerns the extent to which a/ the project activities have built the capacity of CSOs to understand those structural issues underlying poverty in SL, PRS and budgetary processes, and to monitor HIPIC funded projects and b/ meaningful linkage and dialogue has been established at local, district and national levels between CS task teams and the authorities on budgetary allocations and expenditures c/ NMJD has been able to engage in policy advocacy and influence national and district level budgetary processes The work will involve assessing project outputs and the relevance of project activities at a practical level, as well as their strategic impact in relation to broader project objectives.
This will require an analysis at different levels including: strength of Task Teams at chiefdom, district and national levels; role and strength of district focal points; relationships and linkage with national institutions and authorities; and the broader linkage to national level processes and advocacy work.
The study will include an assessment of NMJD management and institutional aspects of NMJD in relation to project effectiveness including staffing levels, knowledge and technical capacity, planning, reporting, management and monitoring systems.

The evaluation will be conducted in a participatory manner through constructive open dialogue that promotes a learning environment.
It is expected that this will involve focus groups with: communities; Task Teams; focal contact organizations; NMJD staff and managers; and main target groups including poor and vulnerable women, youths and disabled people; key local partners including other CSOs, NGOs, local and national authorities; as well as CA and Trocaire staff and other key CS players in PRS, HIPIC and budget literacy work e.g.

GCAP and ENSIS etc Primary users will be NMJD,CA and Trocaire.
Special attention will be given to recommendations and guidelines to strengthen the future work of NMJD in this area, including greater programmatic linkage and collaboration with other national players in PRS and budget advocacy work.

The evaluation will serve as a useful tool for all project stakeholders and therefore should be designed and presented accordingly.

Scope of work The consultant will undertake an assessment against the project objectives and outputs as outlined in the project documents.
This will look at the extent to which the following objectives were achieved: Objectives - - - - - create civil society networks that can effectively advocate for broad consultation and transparency with respect to PRS and HIPC processes build and strengthen the knowledge base of civil society regarding PRS processes, content and budgetary allocations increase public awareness of the PRSP and HIPIC funded programmes ensure effective tracking of HIPIC allocations and expenditures encourage GoSL engagement with Civil society in the development of the national budget The evaluation will: - - - review the work of NMJD over the last 3 years against the objectives look at other actors in this area of work in SL; advise on future NMJD programming with respect to a/ plans for the next phase of MAPs of between 2-5 years ; b/ synergetic programmatic linkage with other actors working in this area c/ 38 geographic scope d/ operational strengthening including capacity development and mentoring needs of NMJD programme staff e/ effective monitoring f/ programme sustainability The consultant will review: 1/ Outcomes to date: - - - - - - - the extent to which there is active involvement of stakeholders in the project implementation process including common understandings of the purpose of the project the extent to which task teams at chiefdom, district and national levels understand structural causes of poverty, decentralization processes, Local Govt Act, and the content of the PRS the extent to which NMJD and Task Teams have disseminated information on PRS content and HIPIC that is understood at community level the capacity and effectiveness of task teams in monitoring HIPIC projects the technical capacity of NMJD staff and TT members to analyse the national budget and engage authorities effectiveness of NMJD strategies to develop formal linkage and dialogue between Task Teams and chiefdom, district and national authorities effectiveness of strategies to develop stronger formal relationships between NMJD and national authorities/line ministries - NMJD collaborative work with other key national CS actors in PRS/budget advocacy/HIPIC work eg GCAP or establishment of a national forum of PRS agencies 2/ Technical and institutional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints, including staffing levels, management/supervision and geographic coverage 3/ Sustainability and scope for replication of approaches, influencing advocacy 4/ The criteria and approaches used by the project for monitoring, evaluating and measuring impact 5/ The mechanisms for lesson learning across the project Outputs of the evaluation - - - presentation of initial findings and feedback to NMJD staff 1st draft evaluation report with executive summary of no more than 30 pages submitted within one week of completion of in-country work.
Final report no more than 2 weeks later.
The report should include an executive summary and clear recommendations regarding the future focus and strengthening of the NMJD programme Timing 4 days 21 days 6 days Consultant preparation time Consultant in field Report writing and finalisation Total 31 days 39 Appendix Two Schedule and list of persons interviewed 1.0 9th -11, June, 2000 KONO , INTERVIEWEE LIST NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION PLACE Tamba Allieu Sahr M. K Gbondo Komba N. C Backarie Tamba Nelson Moiwa Tamba Musah Gbanyah James Kumbadaiz Tamba Komba Timothy Mrs Isatu Ngebuua Tamba B. Gbenda Abdul-Rahaman Jawara Ps Momoudu S Bangoura Mohammed Jabbia Francis S.Y Koanah Mohammed Kabbah Rosaline Ngangekia Richard Menjor Mabel Haruna Joseph sahr Ansumana Tamba Sogbeh Sahr E. James Veronica Komba dawda Ramatu S. Jalloh Sahr haruna Chief Kono D.C Kono D.C Kono D.C Kono Town Council (T. C) Deputy Administrator Kono District.
Council (D.C) Councilor Councilor Councilor Deputy Administrative Councilor Councilor Councilor Chairpersons Representative Program Officer Representative President Kono T. C Kono T. C Kono T. C Women Mouthpiece Cooperative Movt of Kono Youth Action Aid International Kono District Humana Rights Movt of Concern Kono Youth (MOCKY) Soa Chiefdom Kamaa Chiefdom Kamaa Chiefdom Kamaa Chiefdom Nimikoro Network Movemwnt of Justice and Development (NMJD) Sandor Youth Dev Association Kamara Youth Dev association CDHR Sierra Leone Teachers Union MOCKY Beneficiary Beneficiary Beneficiary Beneficiary Beneficiary Animator TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member Focal Person Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Soa Tombodu Tombodu Tombodu Small Mgaiya Koidu Sandor Kamara Koidu Koidu Koidu 40 12TH – 14 , JUNE 2006, BOMBALI DISTRICT INTERVIEWEE LIST-MAKENI NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION Moses Gbetto Alimani B. Koromah Eric Dura Sesay Benjamni M Kargbo Ramatu M Fornah S. A Samko Kuukol koromah Kapotoho Kamara Ramatu S Kamara Osman Koroma Hawanatu Mansaray Ibrahim Daramy Alpha Kamara Martin Toure Philip M Bangoura Isatu Mansaray Jibril Massibah for Human Deputy Administrator Bombali District.
Council (D.C) Deputy Administrator Makeni D.C Makeni D.C Chairman Makeni Town Council (T. C) Deputy Chairman Women Action Co-ordinator/Focal Dignity/ Bombali TT Person Acton Aid international Staff World of Hope Staff Sierra Leone Teachers Union Staff Grassroots Empowerment for Self Staff Reliance Bombali TT Bombali TT Bombali TT Bombali TT Makari Gbante Chiefdom Makari Gbante Chiefdom Makari Gbante Chiefdom CDHR Member (CDHR) Member (Student) Member (CSO) Member (Media) Beneficiary Beneficiary Beneficiary Director Alusine Koromah Animator Network Movement of Justice and Development (NMJD) PLACE Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Panlap Panlap Panlap Makeni Makeni 41 15 JUNE 2006 , BO DISTRICT INTERVIEWEE LIST-BO NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION PLACE Isaac Tocker David Kobi B. K Mannah Patrick Dawda E.F Bongah Mani Koroma Maxwell Kemokai Dr Wusu Sannoh Chief Rashid Bongay Kenneth Amadu Josehine Kpaka Rosetta Sobula Abdulai Tommy Kamanda NMJD, Bo D.C Bo D.C Bo D.C Bo D.C Bo D.C Animator Chairman Councilor Councilor Councilor C chief Administrator Regional Focal person Southern Region Caiman Paramount Chief Bo D.C Kankpli Chiefdom TT Member TT Member District Focal Person WIPNET Beneficiary Boama Chiefdom Disabled Rights Movement Women’s Forum Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Samande 42 16TH JUNE 2006, FREETOWN EAST DISTRICT INTERVIEWEE LIST-MAKENI NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION Williams Dauda Animator NMJD Jonathan Pearce District Focal Person Global Arts and crafts Chairman Freetown East D.C Iddris Ali kamara Councilor Freetown East D.C Abdul Keddi mansaray Abu Jalloh Councilor Councilor Freetown East D.C Freetown East D.C Michael John Beneficiary Waterloo Community Mrs Nafisatu Taylor Beneficiary Rokel Community PLACE Freetown Waterloo Waterloo Waterloo Waterloo Waterloo Waterloo Rokel Sulaiman Sesay Beneficiary Waterloo Community Waterloo 10 Ahmed J Kargbo TT Member Koya town community Freetown 11 12 13 Mohammed Konneh Juliana N Koroma Mariama Seasy TT Member TT Member TT Member Texas Community Texas Grassroots Ngonga Organisation Freetown Freetown Freetown 43 19TH -24TH JUNE 2006, NATIONAL LEVEL ACTORS NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION PLACE STATE ACTOR-PARLIAMENTARIANS Hon.
J. Q.

B Sawi Chairman 1 3 4 5 Hon.

Buya Kamara Hon.

Momoh C Koy Hon.
E. S Koromah Member Member Member MINISTRIES/DEPARTMENTS/AGENCIES 6 Sahr Jusu Charles Conteh Joseph A. Thullah Alhassan A Mansaray Solomon A Thomas Sheka Bangura Director Economist Economist Economist Economist Programme Officer 13 14 Lamin Tarawallie Kona Koroma THE MEDIA Mrs Razia Bash-Kamara Abubakari Munu Mohammed Konneh Mariama Sesay Assist PO Development Secretary Journalist Journalist Journalist Journalist Select Committee on Trade, Tourism and Development Do Do Do Freetown Freetown Do Do Debt Mgt Unit, MOF Do Do Do Do Devt Aid Co-ordinating Office (DACO) Do Ministry of Development and Planning Freetown Do Do Do Do Freetown Do Freetown SL Broadcasting Corporation Awareness Times News Papers Standard Times News Papers Citizen Radio FM, Kissy Freetown Do Do Do 44 25TH -27th JUNE 2006, NMJD STAFF NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION NO 1 2 Abu Brima Executive Director NMJD Aminata Kelly Lamin Paul Koroma Salamatu Fofana Regional Western Area Director, NMJD Regional South Animator Director, NMJD NMJD Adama Jusu Animator NMJD NAME Ibrahim S Kamara ORGANISATION POSITION Programme Specialist UNDP DFID Social Development Officer PLACE Bo Freetown Bo Tonkolili Kenema PLACE Freetown Freetown 45 NATIONAL ADVOCACY ORIENTED CSOS 23rd JUNE 2006 NO NAME ORGANISATION Zenobia Maddy NAG Salia Kpaka Alfred Carew Charlie J Hughes Morlai Kamara William Dauda Christian Lawrence NAG NFHR FORDI NMJD NMJD CGG Abdul Manaff Kemokai DCI-SL Falla Ensa-N’dayma CSAP-SL 10 Jemilatu Lewally 50/50 PLACE Freetown Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do 46 VALIDATION WORKSHOP – KONO DISTRICT 11TH JUNE 2006 NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION PLACE Sahr Aruna Yei Morsey District Focal Person MOCKY TT Member Motomoyana Community Kombah Tandoneh TT Member Kaamayah-Miisu Community Koidu Motomoyana Kaamayah-Miisu Sahr David Moiwo TT Member Voice of Disabled Association Koidu Clint M. Foday Veronica K. Dawda Finda Z. Nyandemoh Dominic T. Lebbie Eric N. Sondfor David TNK Moiwo Hannah Charles Regina K. Elle Joseph Ansumana TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member TT Member Animator DED (MEST) Centre for Democracy and Human Rights MCH.
M. PRSP Bike Retailers Association Community Animation for Dev’t (CARD) AEA Vocational/ Young Women Development Organisation Tankoro Youth NMJD in Need of Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu Koidu 47 VALIDATION WORKSHOP – BO 15TH JUNE 2006 NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION PLACE Isaac P. Tucker TT Member NMJD Bo Fansa A. Koroma TT Member Resource Literacy (RECAL) Centre for Adult Bo Mohammed Mansary TT Member Petty Traders Union Bo Rosetta M. Sovula TT Member Women Network in Peace Building Bo Kenneth Amadu TT Member DRIM – Disabled Josephine Kpaka TT Member Womens Forum Bo Bo 48 FINAL VALIDATION WORKSHOP 16TH JUNE 2006 NO NAME POSITION ORGANISATION William Dauda Animator NMJD Mohammed Konneh TT Member Texas Community District Focal Person District Focal Person Global Arts and crafts Waterloo Joseph Sahr Ansuma Animator MOCKY NMJD TT Member Reg Focal person Animator Co-ordinator/Focal Person Member (CSO) Reg Focal person Animator Prog Co-ordinator Director, Area Animator Western Action DRIM – Disabled CDHR Network Movement of Justice and Development (NMJD) Women Dignity/ Bombali TT Bombali TT Freetown Tonkolili NMJD NMJD for Human NMJD Mohammed Sahr Aruna Kenneth Amadu Gibril Massie Bah Alusine Koroma Ramatu M Fornah Ibrahim Daramy Cleopatra Brown Salamatu Fofana Paul koroma Aminata Kelly Lamin 15 Adama Jusu End Notes: 1.
2002, GoSL, Fighting Corruption: A National Concern, 2.

2002, GoSL, Report on Public Expenditure Tracking Survey.” 3.

2003, GoSL Report on Expenditure Tracking Survey 4.

2003, GoSL, Population data: National Recovery Strategy 5.

2003, GoSL, Strategies for National Transformation 6.

2003, NMJD, 1st National Task Team Meeting Held in Freetown Report 2003, NMJD, Proposal on Good Governance Through Civil Society Participation in the PRSP 7.

2004, GoSL, Report on Public Expenditure Tracking Survey 8.
2004, NMJD, Annual Report 9.

2004, NMJD, 2nd National Task Team Held in Makeni Report 10.

2004, NMJD, Consultative Forum on HIPC funds Report 11.

2004, NMJD, 3rd National Task Team Meeting Held in Freetown 12.

2004, Proposal on Budget Monitoring Programme to Troacaire 13 2005, GoSL, National Anti-Corruption Strategy 14.

2005.
2005.

NMJD, Annual Narrative Report PLACE Freetown Freetown Koidu Koidu Bo Makeni Makeni Makeni Makeni Freetown Magburaka Bo Freetown Kenema 49 15 2005, GoSL, Progress on the MDG in Sierra Leone 16.

2006, NMJD/CASP, Civil Society Appraisal Report on HIPC funded Projects, 2002-2005 17.

The evaluation team had access to e-mail communications between CA and NMJD covering the 2003 to 2006 50