Report on GAPVOD (Ghana Association of Private Voluntary Organizations in Development)

Implementation of the CAP-Scan Process

by the Government of the Republic of Niger

Mission Report

v0.1 - April 28, 2009

Implementation of the CAP-Scan Process

by the Government of the Republic of Niger

Title / Implementation of the CAP-Scan Process by the Government of the Republic of Niger – Mission Report
Responsible Partners / Ministry of the Economy and Finance – General Directorate for the Assessment of Development Policies
Secretariat of OECD/Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Joint Venture on Managing for Development Results (JV MfDR)
UNDP Niger – Good Governance Program
Creator / CAP-Scan Team
Contributors
Subject (Taxonomy) / Evaluation – Capacities – MfDR – GRD (French for MfDR)
Date of Approval
Audience / CAP-Scan participants, Ministries and Institutions, and Partners

List of versions

Version / Date of revision / Author(s) / Summary of revisions
0.1 / 28 April 2008 / Boureima Gado
Samer Hachem / First version, distributed to the CAP-Scan Team and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Summary 4

1.1 Approach and participation 4

1.2 Main outcomes 5

2 The CAP-Scan process in Niger 9

3 Methodology and outcomes 10

3.1 General approach 10

3.2 Preparatory phase: Scope and adaptation of methodology

and tools 11

3.2.1 Scope 11 3.2.2 Readjustment of the analytical matrix 11

3.2.3 Definition of roles and responsibilities 14

3.3 Workshop methodology and outcomes 15

3.3.1 Self-assessment 15

3.3.2 Determination of priorities 19

3.3.3 Preparation of the action plan 19

4. Dissemination and follow-up 22

4.1 Communication strategy 26

4.2 Monitoring mechanism 28

4.3 Information sharing for future CAP-Scan exercises 29

5 Subsequent steps 30

6 Evaluation of the CAP-Scan mission 31

7 Annexes 33

7.1 The CAP-Scan matrix 34

7.2 Definition of capacity-building stages 37

7.3 Summary of meetings and activities 38

7.4 List of CAP-Scan participants 39

7.5 CAP-Scan Journal 46

7.6 Correspondence between CAP-Scan and other frameworks

and documents 62

7.7 Documents considered 68

7.7.1 National planning 68

7.7.2 Studies and analyses 68

7.7.3 Context documents 68

Report on the Implementation of the CAP-Scan Process by the Government of the Republic of Niger – March-April, 2009

1 Summary

1.1 Approach and Participation

CAP-Scan is an analytical framework and a participatory process for assessing and building Managing for Development Results (MfDR) capacities.[1]

Basically, CAP-Scan is a self-assessment exercise, through which a group of senior civil servants evaluate country capacities in relation to the following five MfDR pillars:

· Leadership

· Monitoring and Evaluation

· Accountability and Partnerships

· Planning and Budgeting

· Statistical Data Processing

The CAP-Scan matrix provides a breakdown of the above pillars into evaluation criteria or dimensions.[2]Self-assessment consists in rating progress on a continuous capacity-building scale, divided into the following four major development stages:[3]

· Awareness

· Experimentation

· Transition

· Sustainable Implementation

The CAP-Scan end result consists of the identification of priorities, based on self-assessment, and the formulation of a specific action plan focused on those priorities.

The implementation of CAP-Scan in Niger is part of the Government's ongoing efforts to put MfDR into practice, and in particular, to set up within the various Ministries units responsible for planning and evaluation, with a view to adapting the Accelerated Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2008-2012 (ADPRS). Niger is one of the countries that have established a national Community of MfDR Practitioners (CoP). UNDP Niger has provided logistical and technical support for the implementation of CAP-Scan through the Support/Guidance Team for Governance (EACG) in the framework of the UNDP Good-Governance Program.

In a broader context, the implementation of the CAP-Scan process in Niger is part of the pilot phase launched in Mauritania in July 2008.

The following Ministries and Institutions were directly involved in the CAP-Scan process:

· Ministry of Public Health (MSP)

· Ministry of Education (MEN)

· Ministry of the Economy and Finance(MEF)

· Ministry of Civil Service and Labor (MFP/T)

· Ministry of Regional Planning and Community Development (MAT/DC)

· Ministry of the Environment and Desertification Control (ME/LCD)

· Ministry of Agricultural Development (MDA)

· Ministry of Water Supply (MH)

· Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Industries (ME/IA)

· Ministry of Public Works (MEQ)

· Poverty Reduction Strategy Permanent Secretariat (PS/PRS)

· National Institute of Statistics (INS)

The following bodies and technical and financial partners (TFPs) were invited to participate in the workshops:

· High Commission for State Modernization (HCME)

· Development Analysis and Forecasting Unit (CAPED)

· Program for Good Governance and Better Shared Growth (PBG/CMR)

· Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

· World Bank

· UNDP

This report is the outcome of the contributions of all CAP-Scan participants, whom the CAP-Scan Team would like to thank for their time and high-quality interventions in the discussions.

1.2 Main Outcomes

The first CAP-Scan outcome, formulated at the end of the first workshop day, is a self-assessment of MfDR capacities. The following chart recapitulates that self-assessment with respect to the five MfDR pillars, adapted to Niger’s context:

The first CAP-Scan outcome is summarized in the above chart, which shows that pillar averages range between 1.50 and 2.50, with an overall average slightly over 2. On the whole, these figures reflect MfDR capacities between the phases of experimentation and transition. At that stage, although still viewed as isolated efforts, capacity-building initiatives begin to be organized on a broader basis and to bring about the first changes.

Progress seems to have been most substantial in relation to the pillars "Accountability and Partnerships" (including, for instance, the dimension "Parliament's role in oversight of Government action") and "Statistical Data Processing" (including, for instance, the dimension "Statistics strategy and plan") and weakest in relation to the pillar "Planning and Budgeting" (focused on the budgeting process and its links to planning and the results-based approach).

The above analysis is developed further in Section 3 below ("Methodology and Outcomes"), where outcomes are detailed by dimension.

The second CAP-Scan outcome, reached through self-evaluation by multi-criteria analysis based on dimensions, is the identification of dimensions for which measures for improving MfDR capacities should be taken as a matter of priority. In the afternoon of the second day of the final workshop, a proposal specifying priority dimensions was presented to the Secretaries General (SGs), whose observations were noted and incorporated.

The following priority dimensions were identified:

· "Leadership" pillar

o Responsibility and delegation at the level of senior officials of the Administration

o Integration of the decentralization dimension

o Human resources management

· "Monitoring and Evaluation" pillar

o System for measuring user satisfaction

o Administration performance geared to development results

· "Planning and Budgeting" pillar

o Budget preparation based on objectives and results

The third CAP-Scan outcome consists in an action plan addressing the above priorities with a view to building MfDR capacities within a time horizon of six months to a year. This action plan was drawn up on the third day of the final workshop and is detailed in Section 3 below ("Methodology and Outcomes").

2 The CAP-Scan process in Niger

In a broader context, the implementation of the CAP-Scan process in Niger is part of the pilot phase launched in Mauritania in July 2008.

The following Ministries and Institutions were directly involved in the CAP-Scan process:

· Ministry of Public Health (MSP)

· Ministry of Education (MEN)

· Ministry of the Economy and Finance(MEF)

· Ministry of Civil Service and Labor (MFP/T)

· Ministry of Regional Planning and Community Development (MAT/DC)

· Ministry of the Environment and Desertification Control (ME/LCD)

· Ministry of Agricultural Development (MDA)

· Ministry of Water Supply (MH)

· Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Industries (ME/IA)

· Ministry of Public Works (MEQ)

· Poverty Reduction Strategy Permanent Secretariat (PS/PRS)

· National Institute of Statistics (INS)

The following bodies and technical and financial partners (TFPs) were invited to participate in the workshops:

· High Commission for State Modernization (HCME)

· Development Analysis and Forecasting Unit (CAPED)

· Program for Good Governance and Better Shared Growth (PBG/CMR)

· Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

· World Bank

· UNDP

In order to gain experience before envisaging an extension to the Government as a whole in future CAP-Scan exercises, only a limited number of Ministries and other bodies have been involved in this first self-assessment, which, nevertheless, covered the entire area of Government action without focusing on any particular sector.

The coordination of the CAP-Scan Team at the national level was ensured by Yayé Seydou, Director General for Development Policies, DGEPD, and his team.

The various workshops were conducted by a team of two facilitators (Boureima Gado and Samer Hachem, consultants) and two rapporteurs (Messrs. Ali Galadima and Sitti Fidel Anani, DGEPD).

3 Methodology and Outcomes

3.1 General Approach

The CAP-Scan process was divided into the following four major phases:

This document describes the first three phases. The fourth phase consists in monitoring the implementation of the action plan finalized in the workshop.

The first phase included all preparatory work, particularly validation of the scope of analysis, finalization of the list of participants and adaptation of the matrix to Niger’s context.

The second phase consisted in meetings by department, with the twofold objective of gathering observations on the matrix adapted to Niger’s context and launching the self-assessment in a core group—which consolidated all results by Ministry in order to identify any possible points of divergence—in preparation for discussions by the entire group of participants in the third phase.

The third stage consisted in a workshop, attended by an inter-sectoral group of senior officials of the Administration, towards the following objectives:

· Ensuring finalization of the CAP-Scan self-assessment by the entire group of participants

· Analyzing results in order to formulate an early draft of action priorities

· Setting priorities for MfDR capacity-building action

· Formulating a common platform of priorities with the SGs

· Developing an action plan

· Defining post-CAP-Scan steps and monitoring

3.2 Preparatory Phase: Scope and Adaptation of Methodology and Tools

3.2.1 Scope

The preparatory phase began by determining the scope of analysis and choosing between the following two options:

· An inter-sectoral analysis approach focused on the MfDR capacities of the Administration as a whole

· A sectoral analysis approach focused on the MfDR capacities of the participating Ministries

The first option was adopted, mainly because it offered the possibility of a broad view without hiding any differences in capacity development between individual Ministries or sectors.

3.2.2 Readjustment of the Analytical Matrix

The matrix used in Mauritania for the first implementation of the CAP-Scan procedure in July 2008 was used as a basis.

The changes introduced are summarized in the following table:

Pillar / Dimension Mauritania / Pillar / Dimension Niger / Commentary on Changes
Leadership / Leadership
Commitment / Commitment / Clarification of the decision level through the inclusion, as an example, of a decision issued by decree or taken by the Cabinet in the definition of Transition
Clarity and articulation of vision / Clarity and articulation of development orientations / Modification of the heading and of the definitions of the development stages by introducing the harmonization of the time scales and terminologies of the various program frameworks
Responsibility and delegation / Responsibility and delegation at the level of senior officials of the Administration / Modification of the heading
Involvement of non-governmental stakeholders / Participation of non-State actors / Modification of the heading
Donors' coordination and alignment on national priorities / Shift of this dimension to the Accountability and Partnerships pillar, as two distinct dimensions (coordination and alignment)
Integration of the decentralization dimension / Integration of the decentralization dimension / Updating of development stage definitions in order to focus on "decentralization" rather than "deconcentration"
Management of change / Change in management / Modification of the heading
Human resources management / Human resources management / No change
Monitoring and Evaluation / Monitoring and Evaluation
National planning geared to development results / National planning geared to development results / No change
Monitoring and evaluation capacity / Capacity for monitoring and evaluation of public policies / Modification of the heading
Information system and decision-support tools / Information system and decision-support tools / No change
System for measuring user satisfaction / System for measuring user satisfaction / No change
Administration performance geared to development results / Administration performance geared to development results / Readjustment of development stage definitions in order to focus on the internal performance of departments
Harmonization of information requests by donors / Harmonization of information requests by TFPs / Modification of the heading
Accountability and Control / Accountability and Partnerships / Reinstatement of the standard heading
Independence of Justice and of the higher Audit Institutions / Independence of Justice and of the higher Audit Institutions / No change
Parliament's role in oversight of Government action / Parliament's role in oversight of Government action / No change
Media independence / Media independence / No change
Public access to results / Public access to results / No change
Coordination among TFPs / A dimension initially under Leadership in the case of Mauritania - Here, focus on coordination
Alignment of partners on national priorities / A dimension initially under Leadership in the case of Mauritania - Here, focus on harmonization and alignment
Budgetary Process / Planning and Budgeting / Reinstatement of the standard heading
Budget consistency with national priorities / Budget consistency with national priorities / No change
Budget preparation based on objectives and results / Budget preparation based on objectives and results / No change
Participation of non-governmental actors in budget planning and preparation / Participation of non-governmental actors in budget planning and preparation / No change
Intra-departmental coordination / Intra-departmental coordination / No change
Inter-sectoral coordination / Inter-sectoral coordination / No change
Statistics / Statistical Data Processing / Reinstatement of the standard heading
Statistics strategy and plan / Statistics strategy and plan / No change
Data disaggregation / Data disaggregation / No change
Extent of data / Added on the basis of lessons learned from the Mauritania exercise
Data quality assessment / Data quality assessment / No change
Survey capability / Capacity for conducting and exploiting country-wide surveys / Modificationof the heading and of development-stage definitions in order to add survey management (filing and dissemination) over and above the capacity for carrying out surveys
Analysis and modeling capacity / Dimension added

3.2.3 Definition of Roles and Responsibilities

Focal Points