Result Monitoring & Information Management (RMIM) System for Donor funded short term emergency/recovery projects in Sri

Lanka (Period Covered: 2010-2011)

W. D. C. J. Hewawasam, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, (Chandana.Hewawasam@gmail.com) National Programme Coordination Unit, Smallholder Plantations Entrepreneurship Development Programme, Ministry of Plantation Industries, 172,2nd floor Elvithigala Mawatha, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka

Abstract
The Result Monitoring and Information Management (RMIM) is an initiative system that has defined, promoted and supported a common approach to monitoring recovery and relief efforts and assessing their impacts in short term emergency projects in Sri Lanka. Post conflict recovery represents both a humanitarian imperative and an opportunity for accelerated development. RMIM initiative arose out of the recognition that most of the recovery programmes are developed to replace the lost assets or seeds for planting or chicks or livestocks for rearing and tracking the input level activity from planning, procurement, quality assurance, delivering at field sites, temporary storage if appropriate and finally handed over to the beneficiaries for their use by which an enabling environment to build back better. It provides opportunity for learning from the experiences in order to get things right in the future as well as influence future capacity development actions of the project team and use of beneficiary perspectives to triangulate and better understand how affected people view the quality and relevance of the recovery assistance. RMIM initiative also face the common challenges, including how to collect the data and assure its quality; how to present data in a way that decision makers can use; question about who owns the system and how it should be sustained. More fundamentally the RMIM needed to be improvised and designed at the time of project formulation and perhaps an investment in the a recovery monitoring system for small projects with short project durations six to eighteen

List of acronyms
RMIM SPEnDP M&E NPCU FAO UN GoSL LTTE IDPs DAPH OFC KIQ FGD DBM Result Monitoring & Information Management Smallholder Plantations Entrepreneurship Development Programme Monitoring & Evaluation National Programme Coordination Unit Food & Agriculture Organization United Nation Government of Sri Lanka Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam internally Displaced Persons Department of Animal Production & Health Other Field Crops Key Informant Questionnaire Focus Group Discussion Data Base Management 1

List of tables
Table 01 Mullathievu Table 02 Results Summary -Seed paddy Outcome Monitoring (Maha 2010) Summary Sheet of Outcome Results - Red onion 2011 Yala

List of Figures
Figure 01 Figure 02 Figure 03 Figure 04: Field staff and the officers from Implementing Agency (DAPH) taking the signatures of poultry and OFC beneficiaries Result Monitoring & Information Management (RMIM) System Two widows in Kilinochchi District with their preferred input package Backyard Poultry Jaffna happy beneficiaries with their Red Onion Harvest (Yala -2011)

Author Biography
Mr. W.D.C.J Hewawasam: joined SPEnDP in March 2012 as the M&E Specialist of NPCU. Prior to joined SPEnDP, he was the M&E Officer of Northern Recovery Programme of FAO of UN Sri Lanka for last two years (2010-2011). Mr. Hewawasam has graduated in 1997 from the University of Peredeniya, Sri Lanka with BSc Special Degree in Agriculture and also holds a M.phil Degree (2003) in Agricultural Biology from the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, He bears over 14 years of experience in Rural Agriculture, Research & Development and Project Management. Further, his multidisciplinary training have enabled him gather a wealth of experience in the fields of Agricultural Project Analysis, Monitoring & Evaluation and DBM.

Introduction
Agriculture is the backbone of the Northern Province in Sri Lanka. Crop farming is the main pillar of the economy in terms of food security, income generation and employment. About 80 % of the population is directly or indirectly based livelihood activities. The 26-year civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has seriously disrupted peoples lives and the economic development of the country. The conflict came to an end mid-May 2009. Since then the GoSL has regained control of all the districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces which were previously under LTTE control, and started the process of de-mining and resettling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their former villages and agricultural lands. Various International Organizations worked in Sri Lanka during this period aimed to rapidly restore agricultural and livestock activities to help rebuild the livelihoods and dignity of the worst-affected poor and food insecure households. Their funding contributed to GOSLs overall recovery program in response to resettlement of IDP families aimed at the immediate resumption of agricultural and livestock livelihood activities. Many donor supported projects of six to fifteen months duration provided hand tools, quality seeds, water pumps to support paddy, vegetable and other field crops cultivations. Government provided assistance for land preparation and fertilizer at subsidized rates. Approximately 110,000 acres paddy, 20,000 acres other field crops and 7,000 acres vegetables established over one main cultivation season thus bringing back the abandoned lands to crops. The main input seeds, procured and distributed over a short period of time to complete the planting within the season.

Methodology Employed
Three levels Mental Model for monitoring results (Inputs, outputs and outcomes) was introduced

Results Monitoring & information Management Levels

A) Activity Level
Inputs procured

Inputs procured by the Funding Agency following its standard procurement rules (Data collection format available) and regulations. They should ensured that the varieties provided are preferred by the farmers, adapted to the target agro ecologies, and approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and that seed meet Donor Agencys technical standards. The seeds procured met or exceeded the quality declared standards and conformed to the standards for emergency seeds of national government. A minimum standard of 80% germination was requested to ensure the availability of quality seeds to the farmers. The services of independent superintendence company were obtained to ensure the quality/quantity and proper packaging and delivery of seeds. As much as possible, inputs were procured locally. Inputs Delivered

Transportation of the inputs to the store/warehouse of the implementing partners at district level coordinated by Donor Agency. Delivery of inputs in time was closely supervised by the field staff of the Donor Agency under the overall supervision of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) focal person in the Head office in Colombo (Special Data collection formats available).

B) Output Level
Inputs Distributed

The distribution of the inputs done jointly with the DoA, and other local government authorities as appropriate. The related services (e.g. transportation) contracted locally following Donors relevant administrative procedures. At field level, monitoring of the input distribution taken place through the implementing partners who were responsible for the progress of distribution of inputs to households (Special Data collection formats available) .Implementing partners will be closely supervised by the field staff of the Donor Agency (Figure 01) and the overall supervision done by the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) focal person in the Head office in Colombo,

Figure 01: Field staff and the officers from Implementing Agency (DAPH) taking the signatures of poultry and OFC beneficiaries

C) Outcome level
Inputs Used

Donor Agency took the lead directly at this level to provide the conceptual and operational mechanism for monitoring and outcome assessment of the Project at two (pre defined) different occasions as 1st round & 2nd round Outcome Monitoring (Special Outcome Monitoring format available ). M&E officer applied several M&E tools (E.g.: Random Beneficiary Surveys, KIQ, FGD) and found that there were some significant progress towards achieving expected Project Outcomes/ Results for several project interventions on targeted beneficiaries (Table 01, 02 & Figure 03 & 04)

(D) Generation of quarterly & annual Performance reports

The M&E Officer monitored the progress of the project against the outputs and evaluate the performance of the project against the indicators set out in the project logical framework. Donor Agency (M&E Team) prepared monthly monitoring and progress reports on project activities and shared with the project management, Government counterparts and the
4

donor. This information helped to alert Donor agency and the line Ministries to problems (if any) that may be encountered so that they could addressed in a timely manner. Figure 02: Result Monitoring & Information Management (RMIM) System

Result Monitoring & Information Management (RMIM) System for Donor funded short term emergency/recovery projects in Sri Lanka

Programme Implementation

1.Activity Level
Inputs delivered

3.Outcome Level
Inputs used

2.Output Level
Inputs Distributed

1. PO information record
Based on the Pos issued under different project codes- Colombo Office Summary of project specific input deliveries completed up to the delivery points disaggregated by Project No. and locations

1st Round- Outcome Monitoring

Seed Paddy - 2.5 months after distribution Fruit Trees - 1 month after distribution OFC - 2 months after distribution Vegetables - 1 month after distribution MOC - 2 months after distribution

2nd Round- Outcome Monitoring

Seed Paddy - 4 months after distribution Fruit Trees - 4 month after distribution OFC - 4 months after distribution Vegetables - 2.5 - 3 months after distribution

1.Monthly Distribution reports Project specific input distribution data from the implementing agency*

2. Bi- weekly Progress Delivery Report

Project-specific progress updates of actual input deliveries against set targets disaggregated by location Vavuniya Office

MOC -5 months after distribution

2.Bi-weekly distribution summary (to be generated through the web based data base )
-Project specific progress updates of actual inputs handed over to targeted recipients against set targets disaggregated by gender

Quarterly & Annual Performance Reports

Data analysis and monitoring of the project results, based on the data provided by all three level of monitoring

Table 01: Results Summary -Seed paddy Outcome Monitoring (Maha 2010) Mullathievu
No of farmers visited Average Extent Cultivated (Acres)/HH Average (bushels) received/HH % Crop Damage

110 4 11

Fully Damaged (100%)

Heavy Damaged of (50-75%) Moderate Damage (25-50%) 13

Low Damage less than 25% No Damage

Poverty status (%)

2 13 21 52 12

% % % % %

Wage Earners(WE)
Full-time Farmers (FF)

Have Small Business ( SB) FF/SB FF/WE

Yield & Income data Average yield harvested ( Bu)/Ac/HH Average Bu reserved for Family Consumption (Food)/HH Average Quantity (Bu) Sold /Ac/HH Average Price (Rs) of 1 kg Average income (Rs) /Ac/HH

0 81 % 0 7% 12 %

61 Bu 12 Bu 50 Bu 28 28476

762,5 Kg 151 Kg 1017 KG

Average (expected) profit gained =( 28476- 12,000( production cost) ) = 16,476 Rs/Ac/HH/Season

Figure 03: Two widows in Kilinochchi District with their preferred input package Backyard Poultry

Table 02: Summary Sheet of Outcome Results-Red onion 2011 Yala Mannar Jaffna Average No of seeds (kg) given per HH 180 30.4 Extent of crop damage (%) 25-50% 0% 30.8 50-75% 5.8 100% 19.2 Main course of crop damage No disease evidence reported fungal rot Average yield (kg) received per HH 700 107.1 Current average market price (Rs/kg) 90 55-60 Average % of yield thay sold already (kg)/HH N o sales yet 52.8 Average income they received (Rs)/HH No income yet ( expected 3168.0 income in Dec.-Jan = 1,40,000 (700Kg x Rs 200) Average % of yield (kg)kept for home consumption No use for home consumption* 7.1 /HH Average % of yield (KG) kept as seed materials for 25 12.0 next season/HH Average % of yield (KG) kept for selling when mkt 75 28.5 price is good in Dec-Jan/HH Average members of the family 4 4

*-

Cultivation of Red onion in Jaffna in 2011 yala season was a success story. They recorded zero (0%) percentage of diseases with average 700kg yield per House hold. Special observation was in Jaffna, they normally did not use their Onion harvest for home consumption. Main reason for that was they want to prolog the keeping quality of the bunches when stored as seed material and to keep the bulbs in good quality until the market price goes high (200 Rs/kg) in Dec - Jan in every year.

Figure 04: Jaffna happy beneficiaries with their Red Onion Harvest (Yala -2011)

References
Christina, R.D. 2011.Evaluating the effectiveness of Short-term Humanitarian Aid.Thesis Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos 97 pp. Dieter, M.Praefcke: Lai, K.C.,William S. 2010.The use of monitoring and evaluation in agriculture and rural development projects. Findings from a review of implementation completion reports. Investment Centre Division,Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome, Italy. 60 pp