DRC INTEGRATED GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY (IGA) Annual Report - FY2020
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DRC INTEGRATED GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY (IGA) Annual Report - FY2020 This publication was produced by the Integrated Governance Activity under Contract No. AID-660-C-17-00001 at the request of the United States Agency for International Development. This document is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government. Program Title: Integrated Governance Activity (IGA) Sponsoring USAID Office: USAID DRC Contract Number: AID-660-C-17-00001 Contractor: DAI Global, LLC Date of Publication: October 30, 2020 This publication was produced by the Integrated Governance Activity under Contract No. AID-660-C-17-00001 at the request of the United States Agency for International Development. This document is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government. CONTENTS ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 2 ACTIVITY OVERVIEW/SUMMARY 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 ACTIVITY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS 6 INTEGRATION OF CROSSCUTTING ISSUES AND USAID FORWARD PRIORITIES 33 GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT 33 YOUTH ENGAGEMENT 39 LOCAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT 41 SUSTAINABILITY 45 ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE 46 MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES 46 MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND LEARNING 48 INDICATORS 48 EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT STATUS AND/OR PLANS 59 CHALLENGES & LESSONS LEARNED 62 CHALLENGES 62 LESSONS LEARNED 62 ANNEXES 63 ANNEX A. COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH MESSAGES 63 ANNEX B. TECHNICAL MATERIALS 63 ANNEX C. SUCCESS STORIES 63 ANNEX D. RESERVED 63 ANNEX E. GIS DATA 63 USAID.GOV USAID IGA ANNUAL REPORT 2020 | 1 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS CARG Conseil Agricole Rurale de Gestion (Agriculture and Rural Management Council) CODESA Comité de Développement Sanitaire (Health Development Committee) COGE Comite de Gestion (Community-based Management Committee) COPA Comité des Parents (Parents’ Committee) COREF Comité d’Orientation de la Reforme des Finances Publiques (Financial Reform Steering Committee) CSO Civil Society Organization CTAD Cellule Technique d’Appui à la Décentralisation (Decentralization Technical Support Unit) DFAP USAID Food Security Project DPS Divisions Provinciales de Santé (Provincial Health Division) DRC Democratic Republic of Congo ETD Decentralized Territorial Entities GDA Global Development Alliance HFG Health Finance and Governance IGA Integrated Governance Activity IMA IMA World Health IPS Inspection Provinciale de la Santé (Provincial Health Inspectorate) KVC Kivu Value Chain Project M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MECC Monitoring, Evaluation and Coordination Contract MEL Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning MELP Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan NGO Non-Governmental Organization PBG Programme de Bonne Gouvernance (Good Governance Program) PEA Political Economy Analysis PFM Public Financial Management PICAL Participatory Institutional Capacity Assessment and Learning PIRS Project Indicator Reference Sheet PPP Public-Private Partnership PSC Provincial Steering Committee SPR Solutions for Peace and Recovery UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development WHO World Health Organization USAID.GOV USAID IGA ANNUAL REPORT 2020 | 2 ACTIVITY OVERVIEW/SUMMARY Table 1: USAID IGA Activity Overview Activity Name: Integrated Governance Activity Activity Start Date: January 09,2017 Activity End Date: January 08, 2022 Name of Prime Implementing DAI Global LLC Partner: Contract Number: AID-660-C-17-00001 Name of Subcontractors/Sub Geopoll, Integrity awardees: Geographic Coverage Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, Lualaba, Haute Katanga, South Kivu, North Kivu, (Provinces) Haut Uele Reporting Period: October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The United States Agency for International Development Integrated Governance Activity (USAID IGA) is a five-year (2017-2022) USAID-funded activity designed to create the good governance framework and local capacity necessary for improved delivery of key services, particularly for health, education, and economic development. USAID IGA empowers a broadly inclusive set of nongovernmental actors to hold public officials to account for better services by changing the incentives of officials at all levels of government to act in the best interests of the citizenry. USAID IGA is implemented in five provinces across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, Lualaba, Haut Katanga, Sud Kivu – and the territory of Walikali. USAID IGA’s specific objectives are built around the interaction of the governance cycle as follows: Objective 1: Strengthen capacity of select government institutions to fulfill mandate; Objective 2: Targeted subnational entities collaborate with citizens for more effective development; and Objective 3: Citizen demand for accountable, transparent, participatory services increased. During FY20, USAID IGA was able to not only resume activities with DRC government institutions, but also expand its geographic reach. In October 2019, TIP sanctions were lifted allowing the project to implement and fund activities involving DRC government institutions. The project also worked closely with USAID to align geographic priorities and modify the project’s scope permitting IGA to extend its influence beyond the boundaries of the original target provinces. With this, IGA began providing USAID.GOV USAID IGA ANNUAL REPORT 2020 | 3 assistance to decentralized territorial entities (ETDs) deemed of high strategic importance by the USAID Mission. These ETDs include those receiving royalties from commercial mining companies and others in ebola affected areas. As a result, IGA revised the Year 4 Annual Work Plan to reflect the changing priorities, including identifying ETDs within the new areas and opening a new provincial office in Butembo, North Kivu to better reach ebola-impacted areas. FY20 also marked the first COVID-19 case discovered in Kinshasa on March 10th. The DRC Government reacted quickly implementing mitigation measures, including issuing passenger flight restrictions between Kinshasa and all locations within DRC and limiting gatherings to 20 participants. Additionally, circulation in Gombe Commune within Kinshasa was restricted from April 9th through April 23rd, hindering access to the IGA Kinshasa office. Essential IGA-Kinshasa staff were able to resume going into the office once restrictions were lifted. Meanwhile, IGA provincial offices continued to operate working within locally initiated constraints to implement activities as planned. Offices worked to obtain provincial and/or local dispensations to travel and hold activities adhering to the mandated 20 participant maximum. Despite COVID-19, IGA implemented numerous priority activities during the period including the strengthening of ETD financial management, notably the strengthening of revenue collection, the training of local tax collectors and the development of support networks to promote citizen participation in budgeting and citizen control, and supporting joint ETD/civil society budget committees. With the expansion of the number of ETD partners from 18 to 40, IGA began implementing start-up activities in the newly identified ETDs by collaborating with the communities to draft local implementation plans. Based on the plans, IGA facilitated the formulation of a five-year local development plan and assisted the newly-selected ETD staff along with other stakeholders to work together preparing local participatory budgets. Other activities this period included developing a cadre of school government auditors to conduct audits in partner schools, and subsequently strengthening their financial management and increasing transparency. USAID IGA also provided assistance to a network of civil society organizations (CSOs) to enable them to produce a handbook for ETDs on how to plan and account for mining royalties. Additionally, the project assisted public facilities by introducing community scorecard activities resulting in recovery plans for the facilities and strengthening their oversight committees (parents’ committees [COPAs] and health development committees [CODESAs]) also resulting in a sense of ownership by the community for the targeted institutions and their operations. Local CSOs were strengthened by reinforcing their links with provincial CSOs and improving their capacity to represent the community. IGA also commenced its grants program by soliciting proposals from partner CSOs. Another IGA activity completed this year was a political economy analysis (PEA) study of government relationships in North and South Kivu with particular attention to the health and education sectors. An initial draft of the PEA is included in Annex B. Technical Materials. The objectives of the PEA were to: • Analyze the dynamics and interactions between the national government and new centers of political power at the provincial level, and how the technical and financial arms of central government affect the decentralized bodies in the areas of education and health. It aimed to identify the niches where the interventions and support of USAID IGA are likely to make these structures more effective, particularly in the education and health sectors. USAID.GOV USAID IGA ANNUAL REPORT 2020 | 4 • Identify