Africa Governance Inventory Portal Guidelines for editors

The Africa Governance Inventory (AGI) Web Portal is an online gateway to governance-related information in Africa. www.unpan.org/AGI.asp 1

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Africa Governance Inventory Portal

Guidelines for editors

December 2006


Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3 2 Setting Up ........................................................................................................................ 7 3 Accessing the AGI ........................................................................................................... 8 4 Getting Registered as a New AGI User ........................................................................... 9 5 The Initiatives Forms ..................................................................................................... 10 6 Entering a New Initiative ................................................................................................ 11 7 Editing and Deleting Initiatives....................................................................................... 20 8 Updating an Existing Initiative........................................................................................ 20 9 Creating a Collaboration ................................................................................................ 24 10 Evaluating Completed Initiatives.................................................................................... 25 11 Editing Country Homepages.......................................................................................... 27


1 Introduction The Africa Governance Inventory Web Portal records information on on-going and pipeline governance programmes and projects, as well as on components of “non-governance programmes” (NGPC) that fall within the governance domain and are funded by governments, bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations and other donors, such as international and national NGOs and the private sector. To guide local experts charged with collecting data on governance initiatives in participating countries and to keep a consistent approach during the process, UNDESA identified 10 main governance areas for classification (figure 1) and subdivided each area into a list of initiatives identified as governance activities frequently observed in the Region. To capture the perceptions of governance, UNDESA reviewed the national governance programmes presented at the First Africa Governance Forum in 1997 and the findings and inputs of experts. The AGI was then structured to record, sort and search governance activities and financial figures by these areas of classification.

Figure I - Main Governance Areas

LIST OF GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES

Classification areas Classification components

1. Civil society empowerment Review and reform of the legislative environment for national and international NGOs (including professional associations

and unions); Support to the application of the legislation on NGO, including the rules concerning transparency and accountability for

the management and administration of NGOs and associations; Support to NGOs coordination mechanisms; Capacity building for national NGOs staff; Civic education; Promotion of civil society awareness on transparency and accountability; Community policing; Capacity building for public advocates; Special consideration to vulnerable and traditionally excluded groups, such as refugees, women, tribal/ethnic minorities

during the empowerment process.


2. Communication, press and media Media and education; Dissemination of information on transparency and accountability; Regulation of media ethics; Review and reform of media legislation and regulations; Establishment of rural, local-language newspapers and radio stations; Training and technical support to journalists, media practitioners and organizations; Strengthening human resources capacities in media management; Assistance to the Ministry of Communication/ Information and to other communication authorities; Promotion of free flows of information; Establishment or strengthening of independent media boards; Management of government information resources, including human resources development, institution building,

standardization; Government information services to the public, e.g. government information house.

3. Decentralization Formulation of legislation on decentralization, including budgetary and fiscal legislation; Capacity building for central government for decentralization; International cooperation among municipalities; Capacity building for local councillors; Identification of human resources requirements for staff of decentralized authorities; Human resource capacity building for local governments; Promotion of coordination among local authorities; Awareness raising among citizens of their new rights and duties vis-à-vis the local authorities (dissemination of

information and of relevant documentation); Capacity building for NGO/CBOs representatives; Capacity building in financial mobilization and management in decentralization; Community development in decentralization processes; Creation and strengthening of legal frameworks on local government staffing; Creation of management tools adapted to the need of municipal administration including (municipal development plans,

town plans and software for financial and fiscal management in urban centres); Establishment of performance contracts between the central and local governments (municipalities); Formulation of a framework for subcontracting public services to private enterprises; Improvement of statute of local government councillors; Promotion of fiscal and tax collection and management in decentralization processes; Strengthening of cooperation among local administrative entities.

4. Electoral system Reform of the legislation on the formation and financing of political parties; Capacity building for national electoral commissions or boards; Strengthening national, regional and municipal electoral processes; Promotion of awareness among all political actors and the electorate of the values of democratic culture; Reform of the legislation for voter registration to enable inclusive participation.

5. Leadership building for targeted groups Youth leadership programs; Women s leadership programs; Leadership programs for disadvantaged groups of the population.

6. Parliamentary system Reform of the Constitution and creation of a greater space and enabling environment for competitive or pluralistic politics,

which is intended to build a professional relationship between majority and minority parties with opposition accorded due privileges in the operation of legislature;

Strengthening parliamentary efficiency through the rationalization of internal organization and procedures (parliamentary structures and commissions, investigative capacity, financial independence, etc.);

Capacity building for MPs and parliamentary administration; Provision of support for parliamentary activities (establishment of a library, formulation of policy-oriented research, etc.); Promotion of contacts with constituencies and civil society at large; Reinforcing networking with other Parliaments.

7. Peace and stability Support to Commissions for National Reconciliation (Truth Commission, etc.); Demobilization and re-integration of ex-combatants, particularly of child soldiers; Support to the re-insertion of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); Reform of the security institutions and sensitisation of citizens organizations in order to promote mutual confidence; Support to peace organizations, including support to mediators and support in accessing relevant international

organizations active in peace-building; Capacity building for conflict prevention, resolution and management; Post-conflict peace-building.

8. Public administration Administrative reform programmes (including revision of internal rules and regulations) Reform of the civil service; Policy coordination and formulation of public policies and strategies; Support to Ministries and local administration; Capacity building for civil servants;


Strengthening public participation and accountability Capacity building on anti-corruption mechanisms for civil servants Formulation of government policy and strategy in the use of Information Technology (IT) Formulation of laws and regulations in stimulating and managing the use of IT in government Formulation of strategic or master plan of IT use for good governance Development of various government information systems and government internet, intranet and extranet; Support to top management systems (beyond strengthening the civil service - day to day service delivery aspect - to

facilitate political decision-making at the most senior level); Ethics, transparency and accountability including measures to counteract corruption.

9. Rule of law and human rights Constitutional reforms to consolidate the independence of the judiciary; Support for Constitutional Courts, other high-level institutions of the judiciary and the socio-economic councils; Codification and harmonization of legal texts (both for formal and customary laws); Harmonization of national with regional and international legal systems; Capacity building for magistrates and for customary judges; Capacity building for all judicial staff at national and local level; Support to the judicial process; Ethic awareness training for magistrates; Review and reform of the anti-corruption legislation; Support to national and local anti-corruption authorities; Support to the establishment of special independent authority to fight corruption; Basic legal awareness programs among citizens, including production and dissemination of relevant legal documents to

the public; Establishment and support for the Ombudsman s office and Human Rights Commission; Enhancement of investigative capacity among criminal investigation staff; Incorporation of human rights messages into the curriculum for police and prison administration; Introduction of human rights education in curriculum of primary education; Strengthening the capacities in human rights monitoring, including among NGOs. Comprehensive justice system reform aimed at restructuring/building the capacities of stakeholders, including the

penitentiary, law schools, BAR associations, and Ministry of Justice. Human rights training for civil servants Human rights awareness creation through support to local human rights centres (in order to mainstream human rights

into the development process and work towards dispelling the perception that human rights should be dealt with only through the justice system).

10. Socio-economic management Support for economic and social policy-making processes; Strengthening the capacity for data collection and analysis; Support to the promotion of partnership with the private sector; Public finances and taxation; Support to ODA management and coordination; Promotion of wider access to credit; Promotion of an enabling environment for the private sector; Reform and simplification of administrative procedures for establishment and operation of small business; Organization of a regular flow of information through the circulation of IEC documents on the tax and simplified

accounting management regulations; Support to internal/external audit functions.

This list of governance activities has been and is a crucial element in the design and implementation of the AGI Web Portal because: At the national level, the list guides users in the identification of governance activities and helps them overcome doubts related to the inclusion/exclusion of relevant activities. According to this governance list, for example, humanitarian initiatives, infrastructure programmes and/or provision of equipments (unless they are instrumental to running the governance programme and projects), as well as traditional education projects, general health programmes, agriculture programmes, etc. are not considered part of the governance domain. On the other hand, interventions in all sectors, including health, agriculture, education, etc., oriented towards policy development, strategy formulation, and the restructuring of administrative systems, are considered governance activities. Practical examples include programmes devoted to the support of public sector reforms, the support to Ministries and their administrative organizations, etc. Also, this list facilitates the identification of governance components built within programmes falling outside the governance domain. These components should be recorded in the database as non-governance programme components. The database is structured around a classification list developed from the AGI classification list below. One of the objectives of the AGI system is to allocate internal and external


resources funding governance initiatives among the ten governance areas. This is a crucial exercise because it allows to conduct sectoral and sub-sectoral analyses, as well as to facilitate resource monitoring and programming. To do so, users allocate percentages of the budget of each activity to the different areas through a classification list that was extrapolated from the governance list. The governance list ensures a certain degree of standardization throughout the continent, which is reflected in the AGI regional reports. The list keeps users from different sub-regions on the same track and confines their research into a common governance “universe”.

AGI CLASSIFICATION LIST

Areas Components Civil society empowerment Legislative environment for national civil society organizations and international non

governmental organizations (NGOs) Coordination mechanisms of civil society organizations Capacity building for civil society empowerment Promotion of civil society awareness Others

Communication, press and media

Media and education Promotion and dissemination of free flows of information Review and reform of media legislation and regulations Capacity building of communication entities Others

Decentralization Formulation of policy, legislation, regulation, etc. Capacity building Cooperation and coordination among local authorities Dissemination of information and documentation Others

Electoral system Reform of the legislation on the formation and financing of political parties Capacity building of national electoral commissions or boards Strengthening electoral processes Promotion of awareness Others

Leadership building Training of CSO leaders Leadership programs for youth Women s leadership programs Leadership programs for disadvantaged groups Others

Parliamentary system Institutional strengthening of Parliament Capacity building of MPs and parliamentary administration Networking with other Parliaments Others

Peace and stability Commissions for National Reconciliation Demobilization and re-integration Reform of security institutions Peace organizations Capacity building for conflict prevention, resolution and management Post-conflict peace-building Others

Public administration Administrative and civil service reforms Anti-corruption measures Formulation and coordination of public policies and strategies Support to Ministries and their regional administration Capacity building of civil servants Strengthening public participation and accountability Information technology Others

Rule of law and human rights Reform of the legislation, including constitutional reforms Capacity building and institutional support Provision of support to the judicial process Basic awareness of legal issues and human rights among citizens and civil society


organizations (CSOs) Human Rights legislation Support of Human Rights organizations Equal Status and Human Rights for women Human Rights protection to special groups Others

Socio-economic management Economic and social policy-making processes Environment ODA management and coordination Promotion of the private sector development Public finances and taxation Others

2 Setting Up • System Requirements (for Editors)

The AGI Portal contains a system allowing editors to post relevant news and information on the homepages for their countries. The information is edited online and requires the editors to be using Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. Please see Section 11 for more information on editing the content of the country homepage.

• Your web browser automatically stores web pages on your computer so that upon the next visit to the website, the browser can call the page from your machine rather than downloading the content again. This is fine for normal web pages that change infrequently, but for using online database applications, which change their content constantly, this function must be disabled.

• Choose “Internet Options” from your browser’s “Tools” menu to get the above screen. Click the “Settings” button in the middle of the screen.


• The entry “Check for newer versions of stored pages” must be set to “Every visit to the

page”. If your setting is different, change it and click OK to close the window.

3 Accessing the AGI

• To access the system type the following into your Internet Explorer “address” box: http://www.unpan.org/agiportal

http://www.unpan.org/agiportal


• The first page you will see is the AGI portal homepage. To access general information on the AGI portal , simply click the “What is the AGI Portal?” link “on the left hand side.

• The default language used by the system is English. If you wish to use another

language, click the “Changer de Langue” link on the bottom navigation rail. • Next, if you are a new user, you must register yourself with the AGI system to obtain a

username and password. See Section 4 (“Getting registered as a new AGI user”) to proceed.

4 Getting Registered as a New AGI User

• Click the “Register” link at the top of the screen to access the user registration form. • Enter the data as required. Every user has a name, email address, home organisation

(agency), country/regional organisation of administration, job title, user class (editor, beneficiary Government focal point, UNDP focal point or administrator) and of course a username and password to log in with.

• In the “Name” field enter your full name. • In the “Email” field enter the email address through which you wish to deal with AGI

issues. Then retype the same email address into the “retype email” field to make sure


the address was typed correctly. The system will check that the two entries match when you click “Send Request” and notify you if they do not.

• Select the country or regional organisation for which you will be entering data using the

“Country/Reg Org” selector. If you will be entering data for more than one country/regional org, you must create a separate user for each.

• Enter your job title within your home organisation into the “Job Title” field. • In the “username” field you must enter a unique name by which the system will identify

you. It is recommended that you use your email address for this, since it will always be unique. If the name you choose is not unique, the system will prompt you to choose another once you click the “Send Request” button.

• In the “password” field, enter a password of your choice. The password must be at least

8 characters long and it cannot contain your chosen username. The system will notify you if your password is invalid. You must also retype your password to ensure that the system receives the password you intended to type.

• When done, the “Send Request” button will send an email notification of the new user

request to the focal point user of the selected country/regional organisation. That focal point user must then determine whether or not to allow the new user access to the system. Links are provided in the email notification through which the focal point user can “accept” or “reject” the new user.

5 The Initiatives Forms

• The dropdown selector on the top left contains countries, regional organisations and


collaborations. Select the country/regional org to which you are registered. You are now viewing, editing and reporting on data from that country/regional organisation or collaboration.

• Click the “Initiatives” link, which will allow entering a new initiative or updating an existing one.

• Note that when you wish to enter data on an initiative that is shared with another

country/other countries, to avoid duplications and multiple reporting of the initiative in the system, you need to refer to Section 9 (Creating a Collaboration). If the initiative belongs to a regional organization, it must be entered under the concerned regional organization and not under an individual country.

Advice in the event of a loss of Internet Connection • If your internet connection is broken for any extended period of time, simply print out the

initiatives data form and fill it in using a pen until such time as the connection is restored, if possible.

The form can be found at the AGI web address www.unpan.org/agi.asp under “Other

Documents on the AGI” – Sample AGI Questionnaire.

6 Entering a New Initiative • Following the identification of the governance activity to be recorded into the database,

information related to such activity shall be entered in the data bank through the “initiatives” section.

• To enter a new initiative into the system you must first be logged in as an editor. Click

the “Editor Login” link on the AGI Portal Homepage.

• Log in with the username and password chosen at registration. If you have not yet

registered with the system, please follow the steps to “Getting Registered as a New AGI User”, section 4 in this document.

http://www.unpan.org/agi.asp


• Click “ok” to continue then enter the “initiatives” section. • You will notice that the initiatives editing screen contains add, delete and update

buttons. The textboxes are also editable. • When the initiatives section is first entered, the form is ready to accept new initiatives. If

you have an initiative open on the screen, to add a new initiative, simply hit the “create new initiative” button to return the form to this initial state.

• To begin entering your new initiative, enter the initiative title into the “title” field at the

top of the form (mandatory field). Insert the official title of the activity as stated in its original documents. If the title has changed over the years, but the initiative official number has remained unchanged, the latest title should be taken into account. For governance components of non-governance initiatives (see type, or position the mouse on the NGPC field, for definition), the title to be recorded is the title of the whole initiative.

• Hovering the mouse pointer over the field labels will display a short description of that field.

once you enter your new initiative. • The new initiative must be one of the three available initiative “types” (mandatory field):

project, programme or “non-governance programme components” (for definitions of these terms, hover your mouse pointer over the term to see a tooltip definition). The latter option must be used when, in a programme dealing mostly with issues not related to governance (non-governance programme), one or more governance components are identified (components of a non-governance programme). The selection of this option requires users to estimate the governance component budget (see “budget” section).


• The initiative must also adopt an initial “status” (mandatory field). The four possible states are: pipeline, ongoing, postponed and completed. Note that you will not be able to mark your initiative as completed until all the activities defined in the “Objectives/Classification” section are also completed.

• The “initiative reference” (not mandatory) field is intended for the entry of a reference

that uniquely identifies the initiative for administrative purposes. This is normally referred to as ”project number”.

• The “unique reference” field does not need to be manually entered since it is

automatically populated by the system. The data consists of a system-generated unique reference for the initiative.

• The “start date” field is the official start date of the initiative (referred to as project

signature date, which is a mandatory field). Since this date may not actually be the same date that the initiative is entered into the system, it is not automatically generated. The user must enter this date. To assist with this, a calendar tool is supplied.

• Click the calendar tool button to enter a date without typing. • The “intended duration” field requires that you enter the number of months for which

the initiative is intended to run (mandatory field). • In the “location of project execution” (mandatory) field, you must name the locality in

which the initiative is to be carried out. • When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will

be saved to the AGI central database.


• If you see an “initiative disabled” message, this indicates that not all mandatory data

has been entered for the initiative. The initiative will not be included in the system reports until the listed mandatory data is entered.

• According to your Terms of Reference, you are required to use the “add/remove

editors” field for selecting organisations that also may edit this new initiative in the future. To select more than one editor from the drop down list, hold the CTRL key as you select. Please note that the system does not allow to add an editor before the initiative is saved after entering all mandatory information and clicking “Update Database”.

• To enter the initiative budget into the system, click the “Budget” link at the top of the

screen. • The “current spend of total funding” display is automatically calculated by the system

by totalling the budget allocated to “completed” activities of this initiative. Completed activities’ budget is deemed to have been “spent”.

• The “notes” field is for free use. Any information pertaining to the initiative budget or

funding agencies can be entered here. • The link “view currency exchange rates” links to the UN standard exchange rates

page. This must be used to convert all currency values entered into the system into United States Dollars. After accessing the above page, select your country/currency to be converted and select the rate of exchange of the latest month shown on the page (on the right end side).

• Select a funding source from the dropdown list provided. If the funding source required


is not present in the list notify the System Administrator providing relevant details of such organization including its full name.

• Enter the amount donated by the funding source in US dollars into the “amount box”

(below the “add funding source box”). • Select the nature of the contribution from the “contribution” box. The options are

monetary grant, loan or “in kind” (non-monetary). If the contribution is in-kind, the equivalent amount in US dollars must be calculated.

• The type of contribution and whether it is in the pipeline must also be specified before

clicking “Add” (note that by choosing the ongoing option in the status column, users have still the possibility to identify a pipeline portion of the budget). The “type” provides the following four options:

1. Trust Fund: when the contribution of the agency comes from a separate account

established by e.g. UNDP and an agency to finance common programme activities. 2. Cost-sharing (C/S): when the contribution comes from a third-party to supplement

UNDP regular resources for a specific activity. Cost-sharing is fully integrated into the UNDP budget and reported on as part of project or programme budget.

3. Parallel: when the contribution comes to finance a common programme but the

resources are administered separately from UNDP funds. Resources are not entered in UNDP accounts but are managed by the respective donors themselves. In this case, each party is responsible for the resources it contributes and for carrying out their respective components of the programme.

4. Others: when the contribution comes from a different arrangement than the ones

presented above.

• The funding source and the amount donated will then appear in the list. If the initiative has several funding sources, each of them can be added following the above procedure. The total budget is automatically calculated.

• Funding source entries and their donations to this initiative can be removed from the list

by clicking “[delete]” on the right. • When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will

be saved to the AGI central database. • The “Objectives” field takes text describing the general objectives of the initiative. This

field is mandatory. • The “direct beneficiaries” field is where those who are intended to benefit from the

initiative are listed. • The “indirect beneficiaries” are those who benefit as a consequence of the initiative,

but who were not directly intended to benefit. • The “performance indicators” field takes a list of factors that indicate success or failure

of the initiative. After entering data into these text fields, click the “Update Database” button.


• Each initiative must have “outputs” and “activities” required to produce them. Outputs

must be added to the system by entering the output name into the “Add Output” box and clicking “Add”. Once an output has been added, note that the option to add activities to that output is added.

• Enter an activity for the previously entered output by entering a name for the activity in

the “new activity” field and an amount of the initiative budget allocated to this activity in the “allocated funds” field. Then click “Add”. Any number of activities can be added to each output, but the initiative budget must not be exceeded.

• Note that each activity has a status: Completed, Ongoing and Pipeline. The activity


status is important since this is how the budget expenditure is calculated. The funds allocated to “completed” activities are deemed spent. The activity status also determines the status of the parent output. When no activities of an output are completed the output is deemed “not achieved”; when at least one activity is completed the output is deemed “partially achieved” and when all activities of an output are achieved the output is deemed “achieved”.

• Note also that if no information is available on the status of initiative outputs, the

corresponding radio buttons can be left blank. However, this will indicate that the current spend of the total funding will be zero, and the initiative will appear not to have delivered.

• When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will

be saved to the AGI central database.

• “Classification components” may also be applied to individual outputs. Click the “Edit

Classification” link associated with an output to assign classification components. • When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will

be saved to the AGI central database. • The “Objective Classification”. Editors are requested to classify each governance

initiative by using the classification list (see introduction) available under the “Objective Classification” link underneath the “Objectives” field. Please complete this section carefully. In fact, in order to determine the contribution of donors and Governments to the different aspects of governance, it is crucial to assign the correct components and percentages to each activity.


• Select a “classification area” and then a “classification component” addressed by

this initiative. For example, an initiative on Capacity Building for Local Governance, whose activities include the strengthening of the Ministry of Regional and Local Authorities and the Ministry of Public Services, the reform of the civil service at local level, the training of staff and the promotion of networking among local authorities, may involve the following classification areas and components:

Decentralization – Capacity building for decentralization Decentralization – Cooperation and coordination among local authorities Public Administration – Support to Ministries and their regional administration Public Administration – Administrative and civil service reform

• Each classification that is assigned must have a percentage of the initiative budget

allocated to it. You may associate as many classification components as you wish with your initiative but the total budget allocation must be 100% of course. For example, for the above Capacity Building for Local initiative the following allocation may be estimated:

60% = Decentralization – Capacity building for decentralization 10% = Decentralization – Cooperation and coordination among local authorities 18% = Public Administration – Support to Ministries and their regional administration 12% = Public Administration – Administrative and civil service reforms

• A governance activity can address multiple governance areas and components.

Although it would be possible to list at the same time all areas and components in the classification list, it is strongly suggested to describe each activity by using a limited number of them.

• Click the “agencies” link at the top of the screen to enter information on agencies. • Tabs are provided for the purpose of recording the role of agencies associated to an

initiative. The ”executing agencies” section (mandatory field) requires, in addition to the agency name, that a percentage of the initiative budget be allocated to each agency.

• Agencies are involved in the initiative in various capacities. There are 4 classes of

agency: executing agency, implementing agency, national executing agency and co-operating agency. “Executing agencies” are those entities responsible for the management of a specific programme or project. These responsibilities include accountability for the effective use of the allocated financial resources. If the executing agency you require is not present in the dropdown list, please notify the System Administrator and provide all relevant details on such organization.


• “Implementing agencies” are those entities that carry out the initiative activities and

may differ from the executing agencies. “National executing agencies” are those entities that monitor budget use at the local level. “Co-operating agencies” are those entities that assist implementing agencies in carrying out activities. Hovering the mouse pointer over the field labels will display the definition of each type of agency. The system requires that each agency in each role is identified for each initiative.

• The “links” screen is intended to list other initiatives that the current initiative is in some

way related to. The list of initiatives in the system is provided from which to make a selection.


• It is important to highlight linkages of the current initiative to other existing initiatives to

ensure greater coordination of governance programmes, optimal funding allocation and to avoid duplications. You may delete entries from the list of linked initiatives using the “[delete]” link on the right.

• Return to the “main” screen and note that the “initiative disabled” message has now

disappeared. Your initiative is now live and included in system reports. • IMPORTANT! When you have entered all data for the first initiative, click the

“Create New Initiative” button to add information concerning a new initiative.

7 Editing and Deleting Initiatives • To edit an initiative you must firstly be logged in. Click the “editor login” link on the left

of the screen to perform this action. Once you are logged in as an editor of your chosen country/regional org/collaboration you may simply edit the fields required directly and then click “Update Database” to save your changes.

• To undo any updates you have made, do not click the “update database” button. Click

the browser’s refresh button, instead, to retrieve the previous data.. • To delete an initiative you must be either: the creator of the initiative, a focal point user

of the current country/regional org/collaboration or an administrator. However, please note that an initiative must be deleted only if it is a duplicate or if it was previously recorded with the pipeline status and the beneficiary government and/or donors decided not to implement it. Completed initiatives must not be deleted from the database which will store them once their status has been changed (from “ongoing” into “completed”).

• To make a deletion, select the initiative for deletion and click the “Delete this initiative”

button.

8 Updating an Existing Initiative • After having logged in to the system (following the instructions at the beginning of

Section 6), choose an initiative to update from the “Select Initiative” tool. • The fields in this “Main” section are concerned with general information on the initiative,

such as its status, title and start date. • Hovering the mouse pointer over the field labels will display a short description of that

field.


• To update the initiative, check if all sections are correctly entered and make required

changes or add missing information (e.g. location of project execution etc.). • When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will be

saved to the AGI central database. • Clicking the links (main, objectives, budget etc.) at the top of the screen will move

between sections that contain data on the different aspects of the initiative. • Click the “budget” link at the top of the screen.

• The above screen provides details of the initiative budget. Each funding source is


entered here, along with the amount of money contributed and what form that contribution takes.

• When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will be

saved to the AGI central database. • Click on the “objectives classification” link. You may see the following alert:

• If you do, simply enter the location of the initiative in the country you selected into the

“location” box then click “objectives/classification” again. • The screen below contains information on the initiative objectives. If the outputs have

not been entered in previous updates, they can be entered here. Add outputs using the box at the bottom following the instructions provided in Section 6.

• Each output has a number of activities that must be performed to produce it (please see

Section 6 for details). • To edit the amounts allocated to activities, simply change the figures in the “allocated

funds” boxes and click “update database”. The activity and output names are fixed once entered, so to change these, the output/activity must be deleted and re-entered.

• Note that each activity has a status: Completed, Ongoing or Pipeline. When all activities

of an output are completed, the output is deemed “achieved”. Similarly, when all outputs have been achieved the initiative as a whole can be marked as “complete”.

• Each activity also has funds allocated to it. The funds allocated to the activities must be

available in the initiative budget. If you wish to make changes to the funding allocations, simply change the figures directly, then click “update database” to save the changes.

• The initiative objectives also have a “classification”. Click the “objective


classification” link underneath the white “Objectives” box to proceed. If you wish to delete objectives, just click the adjacent “[delete]” link on the right hand side.

• This screen allows for the application of “Classification Components” to your initiative

objectives. A percentage of the initiative budget is applied to each. Now click “done” to close the classification window.

• Classification components can also be applied to individual activities by clicking the link

shown below: (please refer to Section 6)

• When all the data has been entered, click the “Update Database” button. The data will be

saved to the AGI central database. • To make amendments concerning the agencies associated with the initiative, click the

“agencies” link at the top of the screen.


• On this screen, the various agencies associated with the initiative are identified. • If an executing agency is not present in the dropdown box, please notify the System

Administrator providing all relevant details for such agency. • If you wish to make changes to the initiatives linked to the current one, click the “links”

link at the top of the screen.

• Other initiatives related to the current initiative in some respect can be identified here.

Add some to the list using the supplied dropdown box and the “Add” button.

9 Creating a Collaboration • Countries and Regional Organisations are maintained by the administrator. However,

any registered user can create collaborations between countries. • This function is used whenever an initiative is shared among countries that do not

belong to an established regional organization. This serves to avoid that different countries, benefiting from the initiative, enter it separately creating duplications in the system.

• The countries belonging to the collaboration are defined here and one of the focal points

of the participating countries, is chosen. Thereafter, the collaboration may have initiatives in the same manner as the countries and regional organisations, with reporting and search functions as normal.


• Therefore, after a collaboration has been created (with a title that can be the same title

of the initiative, data can be inputted in the system following instructions under Section 6 (Entering a New Initiative).

• News, notices and information on a collaboration homepage can only be posted by the

System Administrator.

10 Evaluating Completed Initiatives • Once an initiative is completed, the beneficiary government focal point may evaluate the

success of the initiative or record in the database existing information concerning the evaluation of the initiative. Under exceptional circumstances, the beneficiary government focal point may delegate this function to an editor, who will receive temporary access to the evaluation section.

• To evaluate an initiative, enter the “evaluation” form in the “Initiatives” section. • The first component of the form is a list of the initiative outputs with a prompt to specify

whether the output was relevant to the beneficiary country’s needs. Select “Yes”, “No” or “Somewhat” depending upon the usefulness of the output.


• The next field: “factors affecting delivery of outputs” is provided for the entry of a

description of any factors that may have interfered or assisted in the delivery of the initiative outputs.

• “Partnerships established” indicates whether any partnerships were formed in the

execution of the initiative. • “Participation by beneficiaries” indicates whether the beneficiary government or other

individuals who benefited from the initiative had a role in its execution. • “Sustainable” indicates whether the initiative outcomes are sustainable, or whether they

will deteriorate or expire in time. • The “recommendations” field is provided to allow the beneficiary government to make

recommendations for future initiatives based upon the lessons learned specified in the next field.

• The “lessons learned” field describes any new observations that were made during the

execution of the initiative. • The “cross cutting” issues are those issues, aside from the central objectives of the

initiative, that were addressed in some respect by the initiative. • The “additional comments” field is provided to make any remaining points for future

reference. • Remember to click “Update Database” after filling in the evaluation form, and after any

subsequent changes.


11 Editing Country Homepages • Editors can post news, notices and information on their country homepages on behalf of

a focal point. As you can see in the following screen-shot, the content of the homepage is organised into two sections: “Welcome Message” and “News and Notices”.

• A “welcome message” is posted on the homepage and can be displayed in French,

English or both languages at the same time. If the message is provided in only one language, only that one will be shown on the homepage.

• As the full content of the welcome message is displayed at the top of the homepage, the

message can be used to provide an introduction or to draw attention to some information of particular interest.

• Until the first message is submitted, the welcome message section will remain blank. • The “news and notices” are made up of dated headlines, which are shown as a list

(sorted in descending date order) on the homepage. Each headline links to its own page with the full content of the news or notice. The homepage can contain as many headline links as required. These can also be deleted and removed from time to time.

• Both these sections need to be created and edited by the logged-in editor or focal point

user. Also, the content of both sections can be given in English, French or both languages at the same time.

• The country homepage is blank by default and until some content is created. Once the

content is created it can be modified at any time online using the built-in content management system.

• The content management system used for editing the country homepage uses an online

editor, allowing the user to edit HTML text with a WYSIWYG interface (What You See Is


What You Get). • The online editor works with Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. If you are already

using Internet Explorer, please check the version by clicking “Help” and “About Internet Explorer”. The version will be displayed. If the version is less than 5.5, then please upgrade your browser to a higher version (version 6 as of this writing).

• Also, please be sure that your browser is set to “automatically check for newer versions

of stored pages” by checking the following browser settings in Internet Explorer (otherwise you may not see your most recent updates):

• Tools • Internet Options • Setting (General / Temporary Internet Files) • Under “Check for newer versions of stored pages”, be sure to select “Every visit to

the page”. • The focal point or editor must first be logged into the system (as per “Editor Login”

Section 6). • Click the “Edit Homepage” link on the AGI Portal Homepage (left frame). You will then

see the main homepage editing screen for your country (South Africa is used in the second sample screen shot below).

• To create or modify the ENGLISH version of welcome message, click the link that says

“Click here to edit your Welcome Message in English”. • To create or modify the FRENCH version of your welcome message, click the link that

says “Cliquer ici pour modifier votre message d'accueil en français”


• You will then see the following text editing screen.

• Using the editing controls:


> Highlight the text to edit > Click the buttons to format: o bullet points o numbered list o outdent o indent o bold, italics or underline o align left, centre or right o insert a horizontal rule o insert a hyperlink o New paragraph (skip 1 line) = Enter o New line (linebreak) = Shift + Return o When inserting hyperlinks, be sure to enter the full URL (address) beginning with

“http://” • To create a news or notice in English, click the link called “click here to insert a News

or Notice”. • To create a news or notice in French, click the link called “cliquer ici pour ajouter une

actualité ou annonce”. • Please edit in the language you selected, and submit the News or Notice. These actions

create a first instance of the News or Notice in the language you selected. • Please note the date and headline are both mandatory fields. • Please note that by clicking “back: retour (without saving)”, you can return to the

previous screen (without saving).


• Beneath the headline of the News or Notice that you just created, you will see a link to write the same in the alternate language. For instance, if you created the first instance in French, you will see the following link next to the French headline:

[[ Edit this notice in English ]] • Alternatively, if you created the first instance of the News in English, you would see the

following link next to the English headline. [[ Ecrire cette annonce en francais ]]

• The News or Notice can be deleted when it is no longer relevant or no longer required.

To do this, simply click the headline and click the “delete / effacer” button in the lower right hand side of the screen.

• You will be prompted “Are you sure? / Etes-vous sûr ?”. Click “OK” to permanently

delete the News item. • If you have created both French and English versions of the same News item, then you

will need to delete each one in turn (this feature also allows you to keep the News in one of the languages only). The News item will be completely removed when both language versions are deleted.

Africa Governance Inventory Portal Guidelines for editors

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