Government of Nepal Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development CIM ASSESSMENT, ANNUAL REVIEW AND MUNICIPAL ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP JHAPA Rural Access Programme (RAP) Phase 3 September 2017 A Report on CIM Assessment, Annual Review and Municipal Engagement Workshop, Jhapa CONTENTS Acronyms And Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. ii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 1 Part I: CIM Assessment and Annual Review ..................................................................................... 2 1. Background ..................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Objectives of Workshop .................................................................................................................. 2 3. CIM Assessment ............................................................................................................................. 2 4. Annual Review ................................................................................................................................ 3 Part II: Municipal Engagement Workshop ......................................................................................... 5 1. Background & Context .................................................................................................................... 5 2. Objective of the Field Mission ......................................................................................................... 5 3. Expected Outcome of the Mission .................................................................................................. 5 4. Summary of Activities ..................................................................................................................... 6 4.2.1 Opening session ............................................................................................................. 6 4.2.2 Discussion Session ......................................................................................................... 6 5. Workshop Expenditure ................................................................................................................... 9 i A Report on CIM Assessment, Annual Review and Municipal Engagement Workshop, Jhapa ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS AR Annual Review ASP Annual Support Plan CBID Capacity Building and Institutional Development CIM Continual Improvement Matrix CPD Continuing Professional Development DCC District Coordination Committee DFID Department for International Development (UK Aid) DLI Disbursement Linked Indicator DOLIDAR Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads DRCN District Road Core Network DTMP District Transport Master Plan DTO District Technical Office EW Engagement Workshop GON Government of Nepal HQ Head Quarters IMCW International Management Consulting Worldwide LRN Local Road Network M Municipality MCPM Minimum Conditions Performance Measurement M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MOFALD Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NRSAS Nepal Road Sector Assessment Study RAP Rural Access Programme RM Rural Municipality RMG Road Maintenance Group RTI Rural Transport Infrastructure SWAp Sector Wide Approach TA Technical Assistance ii A Report on CIM Assessment, Annual Review and Municipal Engagement Workshop, Jhapa EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rural Access Programme – Phase 3 (RAP3) is a 6-year DFID funded project covering 14 Districts in Nepal. It aims to improve people’s incomes and resilience through employment, sustainable access to markets and improved access to economic opportunities. Expected outputs include improved and sustainable access due to climate resilient rural transport infrastructure, maintenance, upgrading and road/trail-bridge construction. Out of the 14 Programme districts, RAP in four new districts undertakes construction of 97.5 km of seven new roads whilst the other 10 districts focusses only on the maintenance of prioritised LRNs of around 2,000 km along with CBID in all districts and economic development activities in some selected core districts. RAP conducts review of programme activities carried out in the district every year to share progress and achievements of the Programme with the relevant district stakeholders. This year RAP conducted district annual review and municipal engagement workshop in Sept 2017 in all the programme districts. District CIM assessment was organised prior to the annual review and the municipal engagement workshop. The main objectives of the engagement workshop were to identify the local development issues with a particular focus on LRN sub-sector and then to look out possible areas where RAP3 can provide support to the local governments in future under the new federal structure. The report summarises CIM assessment and score, annual review of progress and municipal engagement. CIM Review - A meeting, chaired by Mr. Khem Raj Ojha, LDO of DCC Jhapa was held on 12th Sept 2017 for CIM evaluation of LRN asset management in DCC Office in Jhapa. LDO of DCC, Chief of DTO, DCC planning officer and other officials from DCC and DTO along with RAP DTA and CTA representatives were the attendees of the meeting. Following in-depth discussions on each sub- themes of CIM assigning unanimous scores against each of them, the meeting concluded with a total score of 8.55, which is 0.73 point more than the last year’s score. Annual Review - The annual review and engagement workshop was organised on 14th September 2017. Although annual review and municipal engagement workshop were lumped into a single event annual review and engagement workshop were separated in two separate sessions, the first session was dedicated for annual review programme and the second one was allocated for the municipal engagement workshop. The annual review session was chaired by LDO and Chief and Deputy Chief of DCC represented as the chief and special guest in the workshop. DTO chief delivered a welcome speech followed by some highlights on objective of the workshop by DPM RAP. GE gave presentation on overall programme activities carried out by RAP 3 in Jhapa. Various questions and queries were raised by the participants, which were clarified by DTA and TMO representatives. Major concerns were related to the improvement project, which were clarified by the RAP team. The DCC Chief, Mr. Som Nath Portel highlighted on sustainability issue of infrastructure projects and suggested not to make waste of limited recourse building substandard infrastructures of inferior quality in future. The LDO of DCC from the chair in his concluding remarks appreciated RAP’s contribution introducing maintenance system of DRCN in the district and also need to handover of roads to local bodies. Municipal Engagement Workshop - The engagement session ended up identifying major issues and hindrances of local development through discussions and subsequent presentations. Unclear LRN policies in the changed context, weak organisational structures that lack competent human resource and office logistics/facilities, haphazard planning and implementation approach, inadequate 1 A Report on CIM Assessment, Annual Review and Municipal Engagement Workshop, Jhapa funding, need for greater roles of local level etc. were the major impediments identified during the group discussions. PART I: CIM ASSESSMENT AND ANNUAL REVIEW 1. BACKGROUND Jhapa is one of the RAP3 pilot districts for maintenance work. DCC Jhapa has shown commitment to implement the plans of RAP3 by giving priority on DRCN maintenance as per the approved ARAMP. All together 17 numbers of DRCN roads are in the district out of which RAP 3 is monitoring RMG’s working in all of the road corridors. Continual Improvement Matrix was scheduled on 12th September, 14:00 - 15:30 hours where LDO, DTO-Chief, DCC/DTO officers and TMO/DTA team were the assessors. CIM (Continual Improvement Matrix) is a scoring tool that helps analyse the performance of the district in compared to the previous year. Different categories like planning, finance, technical and social are categorised in the matrix and different levels of markings with the explanations for each marks are provided. The key GoN staffs like DTO, LDO, Planning Officer, Account Officer discuss and give score in the various fields and through the matrix tool, the overall performance is calculated. The annual progress review workshop of RAP3 activities of FY 073/074 was organized for DCC technical members, R/Municipality Representatives, stakeholders and line agencies on 14th September 2017. 2. OBJECTIVES OF WORKSHOP To review the performance and progress made during the past year (FY 073/74). To review the CIM scores, identify areas of poorer performance and solutions for ASP. To share implementation modality. To clarify concept and importance of Continual Improvement Matrix. To get an overview of and feedbacks from the stakeholders and quantify the performance of the programme in the district. To update and explain the work progress of this fiscal year. To discuss the future exist plan of RAP in the district. To establish good will and cooperation at local level To discuss the issues faced by the programme in implementation and identify solutions. To provide a platform for relevant stakeholders to come together and discuss common issues and form common