IFSP wp 52 lessons learnt

Lessons Learnt - Best Practices

Nikolaus Schall, Eberhard Bauer, K. Shanmugalingam, B. Sivapiragasam
Usingen, Berlin, Trincomalee, April 2003

Introduction

A ‘lessons learnt – best practices mission’ was undertaken for the Integrated Food Security Programme Trincomalee, IFSP from the 6 to 27 February 2003. Independent consultants were commissioned by both project partners; the Ministry of Eastern Development and Muslim Religious Affairs, MoED and the German Technical Cooperation, GTZ to conduct the lessons learnt exercise. The mission had the following main objectives:

Assessment of concepts, products, approaches and procedures that have been successfully developed, tried and tested within the framework of an Integrated Food Security Programme operating under the conditions of conflict and crisis.
Determine the extent to which lessons learnt could be applied in other projects operating in the North and East of Sri Lanka and/or replicated in other areas.
Definition of additional issues that should be included in the terms of reference for the appraisal of a proposed expansion or new Integrated Food Security Programme in the North and East.

Guiding principles top

IFSP pursues an integrated approach that addresses improved availability, accessibility, use and utilisation of food that in turn positively impact on the livelihoods of conflict affected communities. The main aim of IFSP is to support and promote development and not relief work. An active participation of the people in the various communities is essential. The participation of communities is measured through their contributions in cash or kind as well as the gradual taking over of responsibility in managing the assets created. Furthermore, strengthening of the self-help capacity of families and local groups is promoted, whereby the communities participate throughout all stages of the IFSP supported process of project identification, selection, planning and implementation. The capacities of services providers are also improved wherever possible. IFSP works through government institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Achievements top

IFSP has demonstrated that it is possible to work both in and on a conflict. The adherence to certain rules regarding transparency, objectivity, equality in terms of addressing target groups and constant information are essential provisions. All of this requires considerable effort and costs a great deal of time and money; something that has to be considered when planning Integrated Food Security Programmes in the context of crisis, conflict and disaster.

The pursuit of a holistic and multi-sectoral approach has proved essential if all the elements that lead to food insecurity and vulnerability are to be adequately addressed with respect to the availability, accessibility, use and utilisation of food as well as the dimension of stability of livelihoods. A careful balance has to be drawn between achieving ”tangible benefits and impacts” and institutional capacity building.

During the early stages of the programme the activities were more geared to both achieving immediate benefits for the vulnerable communities with regard to food security as well as some degree of institutional development of services providers. IFSP Trincomalee has endeavoured to pursue an approach of integrating government and non-government services providers as early as possible in order to ensure that follow-up activities, including operation and maintenance of the assets created, could be assured.

Impact top

IFSP has been able to re-build and develop urgently required community assets and infrastructure facilities. This includes roads, drainage systems, houses and utility buildings, wells and water supply schemes, minor irrigation schemes and irrigation channels, and markets. It has also created income and employment opportunities for communities and individual families, in particular.

The interrelation between improved nutrition and hygiene has had a significant impact on the overall health of the communities. IFSP has been able to change attitudes and behaviours of community members away from the receiver mentality towards greater self-reliance. This is largely attributable to the community mobilisation process.

Communities noted that they feel that they have been effectively involved in the identification, planning and implementation of development activities taking place in their villages. A better sense of ownership was noted and the communities reported that they feel the assets created are ”theirs”. This has resulted in a greater willingness of the communities to take over the operation and maintenance of the assets, an important condition for both greater sustainability and impact.

Less pronounced has been the impact IFSP Trincomalee was able to have on the institutions and organisations working in the district. A generally weak organisational capacity and lack of qualified and motivated personnel was made worse by the conflict situation. This was further compounded by the difficulty and unwillingness of the partner institutions to place their most able persons to take lead of the initiatives that were at the forefront of the reconstruction and development work. Thus, IFSP often had to provide the necessary support to the communities through its own staff or by making specific arrangements with government institutions and non-government organisations. These arrangements were designed to enable the staff of the organisations and institutions to facilitate development activities jointly with the communities.

Main lessons learnt top

IFSP Trincomalee has developed a systematic and exemplary approach for targeting of communities according to the three criteria of war-affectedness, social deprivation and food insecurity (vulnerability criteria). These criteria were used for identifying the prioritised needs of communities and poverty groups within most affected and vulnerable villages. They were also used for mobilising communities and individual families during the support process with the aim of enhancing self-reliance.
IFSP has successfully field tested a combination of methods including ‘village data sheets - vulnerability profiles’ (vulnerability assessment mapping, VAM), combined with a ‘set of basic thematic maps’ and the ‘community mobilisation approach’ which includes the ‘participatory needs assessment’. The methods are well documented and are suitable for replication in other areas of Sri Lanka’s North East.
IFSP has developed and implemented a systematic and exemplary approach for ‘interdisciplinary micro-project planning and implementation procedures’. The procedures follow clearly defined ‘technical support packages’ for the different areas of intervention. In addition, a ‘project book approach’ was introduced to guide project implementation, improve supervision and monitoring as well as to increase sense of ownership. The ‘technical support packages’ and the ‘project book approach’ are well documented. The ‘interdisciplinary micro-project planning and implementation approach’ still requires further systematic documentation. All three IFSP-products are suitable for replication.
Implementing partners or services providers are mainly government institutions. These include sector departments as well as the provincial administration at sub-district level and non-government organisations. Intensive support is provided by IFSP that include joint meetings and workshops, providing equipment and training and conducting joint field work. This has both improved the implementation capabilities as well as impacting in a positive way with regard to the attitudes of service providers towards the target groups. However, functions that relate to the supervision and monitoring of the operation and maintenance of assets after IFSP comes to an end are not yet adequately rooted. There is a particular need to concentrate on these aspects during the remaining months of the programme.
Development of social and economic infrastructure is by far the most important activity undertaken with the support of IFSP. The implementation of micro-projects and medium-scale projects is mostly done by CBOs. They in turn are supported by services providers (GOs and/or NGOs) as well as through the IFSP’s community mobilisers and civil engineers. Technical aspects as well as mobilisation and awareness creation for regular use and maintenance of the assets created are addressed.
Among others, 237 km of rural roads and 50 small scale irrigation schemes will have been developed and/or rehabilitated, 7 utility buildings and 350 houses completed by the end of 2003. Initial indications are that the minor irrigation scheme development programme alone will probably benefit around 1,300 farm families with an estimated total generated income of US$ 650,000 per annum.
Health and nutrition including water supply, sanitation and solid waste management is the second component of Integrated Food Security Programmes. This component addresses both better use and utilisation of food security. Communities will have been supported with the construction of 66 wells and water supply schemes and 850 toilets the end of 2003.
A combination of different measures is needed to effect behavioural change for improved health, hygiene and nutrition on a sustainable basis. In other words, more than one measure has to impact on the community simultaneously in order to effect the desired change. Here, an integrated multi-sectoral approach is essential.
The school-feeding programme (mid-day meal for school children in remote locations) combined with nutrition and health awareness and education at schools not only targets children but indirectly targets parents as well. A mid-day meal dramatically increases attendance. This in turn challenges the education system to deploy more teachers, improve teaching and undertake greater efforts to raise the standard of rural schooling. At the same time, parents are addressed to take better care of their children.
Hygiene measures, especially toilets and related awareness at the level of individual households have proven successful. However, this is not the case at the communal level, mainly due to lack of ‘ownership’ of the public toilets. Toilets have to be seen in conjunction with water availability.
A low cost system of health care can be successfully established in remote areas both in times of crisis and in peace. The IFSP village health volunteers were often the only health services providers available in remote areas during the conflict period.
Support for employment and income generation opportunities for poverty groups has been the third major component of IFSP. Among others, 100 school gardens, 4,400 home gardens will have been supported and around 5,000 farmers will have benefited from improved paddy seeds by the end of 2003. The many income generating activities and small-scale businesses promoted require careful selection. Projects and enterprises must not surpass the managerial capabilities of the target groups. This requires close monitoring from the start to determine successes, failures and impacts.
A structured community mobilisation approach, such as the one developed by IFSP Trincomalee, is necessary in order to reach as many people as possible. This requires that an awareness strategy is implemented and that clear guidelines, procedures and technical packages as well as mechanisms for open communication are in place.
Communities need to learn that services are not always free and that they may have to pay for quality services. Dialogue with communities and active involvement in all activities ensures comparatively high contributions and also contributes to ownership.

Main recommendations top

The lessons learnt – best practices mission recommends that the request by the Government of Sri Lanka for the expansion of the existing IFSP or for a new Integrated Food Security Programme outside of Trincomalee district should be considered favourably. The mission recommends that a detailed appraisal and assessment of the ground situation should be commissioned as soon as possible. The mission is of the opinion that the numerous products and approaches developed by the present IFSP could be immediately applied with little or no modification by other projects and programmes.

The application of tested approaches and products will greatly reduce the development costs of a future IFSP and will also greatly increase the short and medium-term impacts such a programme is likely to have. In addition, the mission feels that a decision should be taken as soon as possible to start the new programme in order to be able to make use of the know-how presently available in the IFSP including the highly qualified team of community mobilisers, civil engineers, monitoring and support staff.

The future structure of a new Integrated Food Security Programme has to be adapted in such a way that it can easily adopt the best practices and lessons learnt from IFSP Trincomalee. This refers in particular to the process orientation and community centred approach. Since the MoU of February 2002 a stronger integration into partner institutions and organisations is possible and should be considered in any new project design.

When considering the expansion of the existing IFSP Trincomalee or a new IFSP in the North and East, care should be taken to ensure that different conceptual approaches that may be mutually exclusive are not applied in the same areas. For example, the IFSP approach of making use of food-for-assets may prove incompatible with the approaches being undertaken by the Jaffna Rehabilitation Project or by the North Eastern Community Restoration & Development Project. Therefore it would be important that the spatial and thematic areas of intervention are streamlined. On the other hand, it would be good if other German supported projects such a the Rural Banking Innovation Project or CEFE, etc. take over some of the income and employment promotion activities so that a future IFSP can concentrate on its core competencies.

The mission recommends that the current IFSP project consolidates activities in its focal areas within the framework of the annual work plan 2003, thus ensuring that all ongoing activities are completed by the end of 2003 (separate report; Bauer, 2003).

Download Working Paper 52 Lessons Learnt - Best Practices, Report pdf (944 KB)

Selected Annexes:
Annex 6 Summary of lessons learnt - best practices pdf (110 KB)
Annex 7 List of project achievements pdf (15 KB)
Annex 8a Capacity building pdf (27 KB)
Annex 15 Minutes of meeting pdf (32 KB)
Annex 16 Additional issues to be considered during the appraisal of the proposed new IFSP for the North and East of Sri Lanka pdf (60 KB)

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