APMAS Newsletter Issue 1 (January-February 2011)

8/7/2019 APMAS Newsletter Issue 1 (January-February 2011)

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Meeting. APMAS Steering Group(ASG), has a crucial role in deciding theoverall direction and operational ap-proach of the programme, monitoringimplementation and approving theAWPB. APMAS Programme Manage-ment and IFAD have jointly identifiedmembers of the ASG, Mr. Mark Wil-son (World Bank Retiree), Ms. ChasePalmeri (IFAD), Prof. Sudip K. Rakshit(Vice President AIT), Mr. Ouk Vuthirith (representing Mekong pro-

jects) and Mr. Lamkhosei Baite, IFS(representing Indian projects).

Through an Annual ASG Meeting inBangkok, 1 February 2011, this pro-posed Annual Work Plan and Budget(AWPB) 2011 was discussed amongmembers of the ASG. The AWPB 2011was further enriched with the inputsand suggested capacity building ap-

proaches from ASG members,

In the new AWPB, APMAS willbroaden its focus to also addresscapacity building needs for local andsub-regional service providers, whichwill in-turn be the resources for theprojects in the long run. APMAS will

also optimize its effort to share knowl-edge/experience and ensure ava ilabilityof documents/materials related to pro-poor, gender-mainstreamed project

management.

Full story is available at http://

apmasnetwork.org/node/99

Welcoming the NewYear 2011 with a spiritof improving capacitybuilding approach in

APMAS client projects, APMAS starts

off with planning activity in the firstmonth of the year. These planningefforts have taken into considerations,Professional Development NeedsAssessment (PDNA) conducted in July2010, continuous inputs from theproject, Country Portfolio Managers

and APMAS Focal Points in Cambodia,India, Laos and Vietnam during 2010.By utilizing a demand-driven approach,hopefully APMAS will be able to ad-dress capacity building needs for the

projects in improving their pro-poor,gender sensitive, rural development

project management performance.

APMAS Planning Workshop was heldon 25 January 2011 and resulting aproposed work plan to be discussedfurther in an APMAS Steering Group

APMAS Starts Off 2011 with Annual Work Planning

Summary of APMAS Activities in 2010

APMAS started year 2010 by conduct-ing Professional Development NeedsAssessment (PDNA) and Start UpWorkshop in Bangkok, Thailand, 5-9July 2010, attended by 39 projectmanagers representing 21 projectsfrom 4 countries (Cambodia, 4 pro-jects; India, 8 projects; Laos, 4 projects;Vietnam, 5 Projects). The PDNA wasdesigned to capture the capacity build-ing needs in three areas: project man-agement, community-driven develop-ment and gender mainstreaming,through CV analysis, e-survey and

further clarified during face-to-facegroup discussions in the workshop.

PDNA confirms several foci of capacitybuilding needs in three areas as men-tioned. In summary, for project man-agement, most immediate needs aretime management skills and skill inutilizing project management toolssuch as project planning and schedulingsoftware. In the area of Community-driven Development (CDD), PDNApointed out that there is an immediateneed for knowledge and skill in utiliza-tion of proper PRA tools and its pit-falls. Gender Mainstreaming area high-lights the need for Gender Basic train-

ings in Laos and Vietnam, and moreapplied trainings in all four countries,

specifically in Gender Sensitive Moni-

toring andEvaluation. It

APMAS Newsletter

APMAS Work Plan-

ning for 2011

What APMAS has

done in 2010

Recent and Upcom-

ing Activities

Useful references

and best practices

Highlights

Issue I, Jan-Feb 2011

Inside this issue:

Summary of AP-

MAS Activities in

2010

2

APMAS Training

on Gender

Awareness in Lao

2

References, BestPractice and Les-

sons Learnt from

Cambodia

3

APMAS Focus in

2011 3

Participants of 1st Annual ASG Meeting in Bangkok (left to right): front row, Ms. Jagriti Shankar (APMAS), Ms.Chase Palmeri (ASG Representative IFAD), Dr. Kyoko Kusakabe (AIT), second row, Mr. Ouk Vuthirith (ASGRepresentative Mekong), Dr. Sundar Venkatesh (AIT), Mr. Mark Wilson (Chair ASG), Prof. Sudip K. Rakshit

(ASG Representative AIT), and Mr. Agus Nugroho (APMAS)

Project Managers from Vietnam discuss capacitybuilding needs for their PMUs during PDNA

Workshop (July 2010)

Continues...

http://apmasnetwork.org/node/99







was also pointed out that there are

demands in capacity development of managers in value chain managementand market orientation, since most of the projects deal with these issues.Based on these findings, APMAS imple-mented several activities to address

immediate needs of project managers.

Total number of project managers andstaff trained during the period of thisprogress report is 36 PMU membersfrom 15 projects with the followingcomposition: Cambodia, 2 projects(out of 3 ongoing projects); India, 7projects (out of 8 ongoing projects);Laos, 1 project (out of 3 ongoing pro-

jects); and Vietnam, 5 projects (out of

8 ongoing projects).

The gender composition of participantsparticipated in APMAS by end of 2010is still unbalanced with 86% male par-ticipants compared to only 14% female

participants. On the functional aspectsof the participating PMU managers andstaff, most participants have managerialfunction (67%), followed by technicalfunction (14%), Finance, M&E, Procure-ment/Admin, and External Relations

functions within the project.

To achieve the improved availabilityand sharing of pro-poor specific projectmanagement and implementation infor-mation, APMAS has been developingAPMAS website, “APMAS KnowledgeNetwork”, at http://www.apmasnetwork.org/,

which is now ready as a platform for

the projects and other stakeholders insharing and networking.

The implementation of APMAS capacitybuilding activities during 2010 faced

several shortcomings and issues, amongothers, selection of in-country serviceproviders, service delivery mechanismamong SPs and projects, time availabil-ity of project staff for APMAS activities,language barriers, and gender balancein participation. IFAD and AIT willcontinuously work together to addressand resolve these issues with the sup-

port of the projects in future activities.

Full story can be found at http://

apmasnetwork.org/node/102

gender mainstreaming activities in their

projects. Some participants also shared

Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan of

their projects.

Thirty participants attended the train-ing, including 24 female and 6 male

participants. Participant were from

IFAD projects and line ministries.

Three participants from Ministry of

Planning and Investment, 2 from Ou-

domxay Province, 1 from Champasak

Province, 1 from Sekong Province, 1

from Saravan Province, 1 from Savan-

nakhet Province, 3 from Attapue Prov-

ince, 2 from Ministry of Agriculture and

Forest, 4 from Sustainable Natural

Resources Management and Productiv-

ity Project (SNRMPEP) Project in

Vientiane.

The training was conducted by Lao

The training on „Gender Equita-ble Development Projects‟ wascarried out in Vientiane, Lao

PDR during 24-26 January, 2011. The

training was first of APMAS‟s capacitybuilding activities for Lao PDR. The

need of gender training was identified

during the PDNA workshop last year.

During PDNA, IFAD project managers

and country program manager had

expressed that projects need basic

gender training which will make pro-

jects staff aware of importance of

gender mainstreaming in projects.

Many reports and studies have shown

that most of the development projects

staff are unaware of the necessity to

mainstream gender into project activi-

ties.

The main purpose of the training was

to make participants aware of Gender

issues related to rural and agricultural

projects. The training was conducted in

a participatory manner. The training

also focused on experience sharing

among participants. The experience

sharing sessions were quite successful

as participants were quite eager to

share the challenges they faced during

Women‟s Union which is a mass or-ganization in Lao PDR and work to-

wards gender equality and advance-

ment of women with an aim to im-

prove the living standard of all Lao

people.

During the evaluation session, partici-

pants voiced that such basic gender

training was a good experience for

them, but some participants suggested

that the duration of the training should

have been more, so they could get

more time on discussions and experi-

ence sharing. Participants also sug-gested that APMAS should conduct

more trainings, some particular train-

ings suggestions from participants

were: Gender mainstreaming in project

planning and management, Gender

mainstreaming in different sectors,

gender equality in rural areas, gender

mainstreaming in management and

Summary of APMAS Activities in 2010 (continued)

APMAS Training on Gender Awareness in Lao PDR

APMAS Newsletter

“The gender

composition of

participants

participated in

APMAS by end of

2010 is still

unbalanced with

86% maleparticipants

compared to only

14% female

participants”

Number of Participating Projects in APMAS

Capacity Building Activities

(April - December 2010)

Gender Composition of APMAS Capacity

Building Participants

(April - December 2010)

APMAS tried to utilize participatory delivery

methods in its capacity building activities

Project Management

Using MS-Project

(Bangkok, 20-22 Oct

2010)

PDNA Workshop

(Bangkok, 6-9 July

2010)

Participants involved in a group work during

gender training

Participants posing for a group picture








During a public ceremony theProvincial Department of

Women‟s Affairs (PDoWA)award the title of Model Farmer of the

household of the village that best

shares the roles and responsibilities

between the man and woman in family

and community life and that also best

adapts the agricultural techniques to

increase their productivity and improvetheir livelihood.

The identification of the Model Farmer

is based on the following eight criteria:

1- No cases of domestic violence

2- Men are involved in the daily domes-

tic tasks

3- Good morale and relations with the

neighbors

4- General health status of the family is

good

5- Encourage women participation in

the community development related

activities

6– Encourage school attendance and

achievement of the children with equal

attendtion given to daughters and sons

7– Both spouses are engaged in close

consultation for decision making

8– Active in the group activities imple-

mentation

This story is taken from the publication

„Reaching Poor Rural Women: GenderMainstreaming in Agriculture‟, „IFAD

Cambodia Country Program: Lessonslearned and emerging best practices

Year 2010‟. Available online at:(http://www.apmasnetwork.org/node/98)

Credit:

Mr. Ouk Vuthirith

Deputy National Project

Director,

RULIP, Cambodia

Certificate for Best Gender Performing Household

APMAS Focus in 2011

engagement, delivery of services, ratingby the project users, identification of capacity building needs and implemen-tation of capacity building programme

for service providers.

There will be also focus to engage with

relevant national agencies and NGOswhich concern with pro-poor, gendermainstreamed rural development ef-forts. By involving them and developawareness on tools, case studies and

approaches introduced within APMASProgramme, hopefully will contribute

to stronger policy development in ruraldevelopment area.

With regards to the demand-based

approach of APMAS, hopefully withmore interactions with APMAS focalpoints and the projects itself, will openup more channels to capture demands.Among of these channels is onlineforum and mailing list which will beestablished and activated during thisperiod. APMAS will also establish asystem to document and publish theongoing demands and continuous cap-turing of new demands and inputs from

projects.

During the previous year,APMAS focused on basic

capacity building needsfulfillment which was identi-

fied during PDNA, namely: UtilizingProject Management Tools (ProjectManagement Area), CDD and participa-tory tools (Community-driven Devel-opment Area) and Basic GenderAwareness (Gender MainstreamingArea). These interventions were tar-geted directly to project managers andother members of project managementunit. Capacity building of local/sub-regional service providers was not amain priority during previous reportingperiod, interaction were limited onlyon engagement for services, such as

done with ITSS and MDF Indochina.

This year, there will be emphasis toexplore and engage with potentialservice providers (local/sub-regional).During this period, there will be selec-tion process for service providers,

Issue I, Jan-Feb 2011

“This year,

there will be

emphasis to

explore and

engage with

potential local/

sub-regional

service

providers”

Components % of achievement to

date (estimation)

Focus for new

AWP&B period?

Component 1, ProjectManagement Cap Building

15% Yes

Component 2, Awareness

Raising for Govt and NGO

10% Yes

Component 3, ProgrammeManagement

50% No

Summary of Main Achievements to Date

and Focus in New AWPB Period

Component 1

60%

Component 2

6%

Component 3

34%

Budget Allocation by Component in 2011

I. Workshops,

Seminars

5%

II. Training

Mentoring and

Other Cap Build

Activities

62%

III. Service

Contracts

3%

IV. Programme

Management &

Admin Costs

30%

Budget Allocation by Expense Category in 2011

APMAS Knowledge Network, a

web-based sharing and net-

working platform in APMAS

apmasnetwork.com

Supporting Community-Driven

Development Process (New

Delhi, 7-10 December 2010)APMAS Gender

at Facebook



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APMAS Project Investigators

Vice President - Research Office

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)

PO Box 4, Klong LuangPathum Thani 12120

Thailand

T. +66 (0)2 524 5551

F. +66 (0)2 524 8001

E. [email protected]

E. [email protected]

Asian Project Management

Support Programme (APMAS)Asian Project Management Programme (APMAS) is a 3-year regional pro-gramme aiming at improving the development effectiveness and efficiency of pro-poor rural development programmes in the Asia and the Pacific region.Initially, APMAS supports the development of national project managementcapacities in Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam (grouped as Mekong sub-region) andIndia. Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), a regional institution specializing in

management education has been entrusted with the implementation of AP-MAS.

This Newsletter serves as a media for updating APMAS stakeholders on therecent, ongoing and future activities within APMAS, and also connecting thesestakeholders in various issues within pro-poor, gender sensitive, rural devel-

opment project management area . APMAS Newsletter is issued bimonthly

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Follow us virtually at:

People Recent APMAS Activities:

APMAS Training Course onGender Equitable Develop-ment Projects” (Vientiane,

24— 26 January 2011)

APMAS Steering Group Meet-

ing (Bangkok, 1 February 2011)

APMAS Training Course on“Gender Sensitive Value

Chain” (Hanoi, 14-17 March

2011).

Upcoming APMAS Activities:

IFAD Workshop on“Monitoring and EvaluationRIMS and Knowledge Manage-ment” (Bangkok, 16-20 April

2011)

APMAS-IFAD Vietnam OfficeTraining on “Annual ImpactSurvey”(Bac Kan, 5-19 April

2011)

APMAS Training Course on“Project Management using MS

-Project (Basic)” (Ranchi, 2-6May 2011)

This people column in this newsletteris dedicated to share profiles of peoplealong with their role and experience inIFAD-supported projects and most

importantly their achievements.APMAS is hopeful by sharing people‟sprofile, their role, work and achieve-ment, will encourage more personalnetworking and sharing among APMAS

Stakeholder.

The current edition introduces APMASProject Investigators (PI) who have rolein providing technical and managerialguidance in the overall implementation

of APMAS.

Dr. Sundar Venkatesh

Dr. Venkatesh holds aPhD in Managementwith specialization in

Accounting and Con-trol. He is a qualifiedprofessional accountant.

He is currently a tenured adjunct-faculty at the School of Management,Asian Institute of Technology andAdvisor to Director of AIT Extension.He has considerable experience inacademic program administration. Hisrecent positions include AssociateProfessor, School of Management(SOM), Asian Institute of Technology(AIT); Coordinator SOM-AIT International Business Field of Study, Course Director for AnsellLeadership Development Programme-GTZ Distance Learning Project. Dr.

Venkatesh has been consistently ratedas an "exciting and innovative" teacherand has won best teacher for the fiveyears in a row at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He can be

contacted at [email protected].

Dr. Mokbul Morshed Ahmad

Dr. Morshed is an Associ-ate Professor in Regionaland Rural DevelopmentPlanning, School of Envi-ronment, Resources anddevelopment, Asian Insti-tute of Technology, Thai-

land. His main research areas includeeconomic geography, regional and ruraldevelopment, Non-GovernmentalOrganizations (NGOs)/civil society,disaster management etc. He holds aPhD in development geography fromDurham University (UK). He did hisfirst MSc in geography and environmentfrom Dhaka University (Bangladesh)and the second in Regional and RuralDevelopment Planning from AsianInstitute of Technology. He started hiscareer in the Bangladesh civil service

and worked in the ministries of Estab-lishment and Commerce. He alsotaught in Dhaka University in the De-partment of Geography and Environ-ment. He can be reached at mor-

[email protected].

Dr. Kyoko Kusakabe

Dr. Kyoko is an associateprofessor of Gender andDevelopment Studies atSchool of Environment,Resources and Develop-ment, AIT. Her specializa-tion is on gender issues in

the informal economy, especially focus-ing on women‟s work and livelihoods in

relation to cross-border mobility,migration and trade. It has been morethan a decade since she started towork on gender mainstreaming withIFAD. She also has been working ongender mainstreaming with otherinternational and bilateral organizations

such as UNDP, World Bank, UNFPA,ILO, FAO, ADB, CIDA and JICA. Shehas worked on gender mainstreamingin various sectors including fisheries/

aquaculture, transportation develop-ment, integrated rural development,development of indigenous communi-ties, land management and national andlocal planning. She speaks Thai and hasworking knowledge on Khmer and Lao.She can be contacted at kyo-

[email protected]

Dr. Philippe Doneys

Dr. Philippe is an assis-tant professor in theGender and Develop-ment Studies program atthe Asian Institute of Technology. He receivedhis B.A in Development

Studies from the University of To-ronto, M.A in Southeast Asian PoliticalEconomy from the School of Orientaland African Studies (SOAS), Universityof London, England and Ph.D. in Inter-national Relations from the Institutd‟Études Politiques de Paris(SciencesPo), Paris, France. He teacheson issues related to gender politics,civil society and human rights, migra-tion and human trafficking, gender andHIV, gender and new technologies andgender-friendly policies. His interest incapacity building in the context of development projects include howgender is integrated in design, imple-mentation and monitoring, how gender

empowerment is used by developmentpractitioners, and how civil societyorganizations influence or shape devel-opment policies, programs and plan-ning. Dr. Doneys joined AIT in 2007.He can be contacted through his email

at [email protected]

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APMAS Newsletter Issue 1 (January-February 2011)

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Transcript of APMAS Newsletter Issue 1 (January-February 2011)