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pacts global reach, then & now

strengthened human resources at ministry


In 2007 the Ministry had been able to fill only 32 percent of its social worker positions, resulting in a persistent backlog of child welfare grants. While Pact helped the ministry fill these vacancies, it also funded 221temporary volunteers to address the backlog immediately. In Financial Year 2008 alone, volunteers handled 35,308 cases and by 2010 the backlog was gone. The volunteers role transitioned to the Ministry as planned, through technical assistance to create a new cadre of Community Childcare Workers who now provide social workers with sustainable, full-time support.

150
Number of personnel

Pact-funded volunteers

timeline of partnership with ministry of gender equality & child welfare

Countries with HIV activities under Community REACH, 20012010

Total Community Childcare Worker positions

US$27 million in grants, most to local NGOs 3.3 million people reached with prevention messages 366,000 people served with care and support

100 50

Total social worker positions

Countries with current activities, 2013

Community Childcare Worker positions filled

By early 2013 the Ministry had filled 75 percent of its social work positions and counting.

Sample 2012 figures: 7,802 partner organizations with improved performance 1,256 initiatives resulting in statesociety engagement 3,336,520 people with improved to health services 2,095,446 hectares under community management

}
2013

UNAM social work graduates who received student aid from Pact account for 50 percent of the social work positions filled since 2007.

0 2007

Social worker positions filled

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Start of student aid for social workers Peer education standards published
Objective
Support the Ministry in overall goal of implementing the National Plan of Action for orphans and vulnerable children, through targeted technical assistance and capacity building,

Development of residential childcare facility standards Site visits; stakeholder consultations with 18 facilities and 100 child residents Assistance on standards for orphans and vulnerable children Volunteer program begins clearing grants backlog

Residential childcare facility standards published Baseline survey on facility knowledge of standards Standards for orphans and vulnerable children published OVC Data Warehouse collects information from Ministry and civil society

2006
timeline of partnership with civil-society organizations

Pact begins work with Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, starting with Child Welfare Directorate

Engaged Child Welfare Directorate in logical framework planning aligned to strategies and policies

Pact opens Namibia office under USAID global Community REACH award

2007

USAID Namibia starts Community REACH associate award

2008
ohangwena oshana oshikoto

2009

USAID asks Pact to fund 15 civil-society organizations previously supported under a USAID mission agreement

18 Namibian organizations provided with grants for HIV activities Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) graduates to direct CDC funding
Objectives
Provide an effective, transparent grant award and administration system Provide implementers with access to financial resources and high-quality technical expertise Expand civil societys response by providing capacity building to provide and sustain HIV/AIDS services Strengthen linkages between civil society, government and private sector Implement gender-sensitive HIV/AIDS programming

Church Alliance For Orphans (CAFO) graduates to direct USAID funding

Requests for applications on prevention and child protection, leading to creation of Pact-designed civil-society prevention and protection network

caprivi omusati kavango

kunene otjozondjupa omaheke erongo khomas

civil-society services across namibia


Number of civil-society partners delivering each type of service, by region
region
HIV care & support, 20072012 HIV prevention network, 20102012 Protection network, 20102012

Number of civil-society beneficiaries at height of program, 2010

hardap

karas

29,184 22,749 3,471

people served with HIV care & support

people served by HIV prevention network people served by HIV protection network

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org

CONTACT Stephanie Posner, Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia

+264 (0)61 303 793

sposner@pactworld.org

monitoring & evaluation data fit for a national service


Modified objective
Strengthen capacity of the MGECW to effectively coordinate activities relating to gender equality and orphans and vulnerable children

The number of child welfare grants that the Ministry issues has tripled to reach nearly 150,000 children. Thanks to Pact160,000 advisors, the Ministry now plans its work using reliable monthly summary reports from Office of the 140,000 Prime Minister, breaking down the wealth of data by gender and location.

Ministry asks to expand technical assistance (logical framework planning; monitoring and evalation) to all four directorates: Child Welfare, Community and Integrated Early Childhood Development, Gender Equality, Administration and General Services Development and launch of Monthly Activity Reporting System (indicators, forms, training) with Child Welfare Directorate, which uses it to monitor against its workplan New cadre of Community Childcare Workers hired and trained, to provide support for social workers Community and home-based care standards published NamWiki launches Ministry ensures sustanability of the civil-society protection collaborative as a standing committee

120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Child Welfare wins Ministry trophy for highest-performing directorate Ministry asks to expand Monthly Activity Reporting System to all four directorates Ministry supports 59 Community Childcare Workers to enrol in one-year NamCol childcare worker course, based on success of first 10 supported via Pact Foster care grants Special maintenance grants Office of Prime Minister awards Ministry with Business Process Re-Engineering trophy Child Welfare wins second Ministry trophy for highestperforming directorate National standards for Early Childhood Development Centers published Early childhood development database launches Monthly Activity Report System database launches Transport policy decentralized Communication strategy implemented Maintenance grants

Ministrys strategic plan and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework aligned with National Development Plan 4 and National Agenda for Children Subsidies of N$10 million to 500 early childhood development caregivers nationwide Curriculum for 3- and 4-year-olds published 11 of 14 social workers hired in early 2013 graduated with student aid from Pact, bringing share of filled social worker positions 75 percent Care database launches, tracking service delivery for newly identified vulnerable children Technical assistance for improved income-generating activities Technical assistance for improved outsourcing to civil society Planning for systems-strengthening to accommodate new Child Care and Protection Act Financial Expenditure Tracking System launches Namibian childcare facility standards cited as promising practice for implementation of UN guidelines on alternative childcare

2010
Modified objective

Award modified

2011
Organizational Development Roadmap score

2012

USAID extends project an additional year

2013

Award modified from 22 subgrants to six, with a focus on developing capacity for a shift to direct USAID funding Organizational Development Roadmap developed SMS Connect orphans database launches

Catholic AIDS Action, KAYEC Trust and LifeLine/ChildLine graduate to direct USAID funding

Launch of Pacts new global Organizational Performance Index, to help track the progress of civil-society partners worldwide

Legal Assistance Centre transitions 142 active cases under its child witness support program to the Ministry

Strengthen six civil-society organizations to be eligible for U.S. direct funding while maintaining high standards of existing services

5 4 3 2 1

Caprivi Hope for Life

Catholic AIDS Action

KAYEC Trust

Organizational Performance Index by year

Organizational Performance Index by length of partnership

stronger local organizations


Pact developed the Organizational Development Roadmap in 2010, as an objective measure of the systems and structures of the six Namibian partners selected to receive its capacity-development support. The Organizational Development Roadmap rates institutional capacity on a scale from 1 (nascent) to 5 (mature) in 10 thematic areas:
Purpose & planning Human resource management Monitoring & evaluation Networking Governance Organizational sustainability Financial management Grants & compliance Operations management Projects & service

the next level in measuring capacity development


In 2012, Pact lauched its Organizational Performance Index: a cutting-edge global indicator designed to measure the impact of capacity-development initiatives on individual, organizational or system performance. The index is the mean of eight indicators, each benchmarked on a scale from one to four:
Effective results & standards Efficient delivery & reach Relevant learning & involvement of target populations Sustainable resources & social capital

results
4

results standards social


4 3 2

social

3 2

standards

2009

2012

2007

2011

2009

2011

Organizational Development Roadmap score

5 4 3 2 1

Legal Assistance Centre

LifeLine/ ChildLine

PEACE Centre

resources

2010

delivery resources
2012

< 1 year 13 years >3 years

delivery

Pact has used the index in 17 countries worldwide. The graphs at right present the mean scores for the 23 partner organizations that Pact has measured three times as of 2013. Both charts suggest increasing organizational performance during partnership with Pact.

2011

learning target

reach

learning target

reach

2007

2012

2010

2011

2009

2012

early childhood development

I expanded that classroom outside: Its another class for three- to four-year-olds. It was very small, and we made it bigger.
Jacobina Negumbo, head of Toivo Ya Toivo Preschool

t a time when foreign aid still pays two out of every three billion dollars spent on HIV in Africa, Hillary Clinton has praised Namibia in particular for already providing half of the financing for its fight. Relative wealth gives Namibia the means to tackle the worlds fifth-highest prevalence of HIV with less reliance on the U.S. As a result, today USAID can increasingly help Namibia channel its independent spirit into the design of quality homegrown assistance for its most vulnerable, including children under five. Namibias mortality rate among this age group has been creeping upward, even as it plummets across most of the continent. Namibians are rallying in response, and at a major national education conference in 2010 they raised a call for better programs to support early childhood development. USAID was positioned to help through this project, which since 2007 used PEPFAR money to strengthen systems at Namibias Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, via implementing partner Pact. In 2011 Pact brought in a dedicated early childhood development advisor, DeeDee Yates, who helped the Ministry and civil society develop standards for early childhood development facilities, as well as training modules for the caregivers

who work there. DeeDee also brought together information on international best practices for funding the centers operations. In the end, she recounts, We submitted a cabinet submission in 2012, for permission to give a subsidy to early childhood development caregivers. By January 2013, Namibias regional councils started distributing government-funded checks at 255 centers. The impact was visible within months. Up in the townships north of Windhoek, where the paved roads give way to corrugated-metal shacks, many single mothers pay up to a fifth of their salary for daycare while they work as domestics in town. Although the subsidy goes directly to caregivers at the centers, many invested it straight back into their facilities. Mary Mberirua, the Ministrys local senior liaison, explains: Theyre already using it to improve their centers, especially in informal settlements because of the issue with the toilets. The pilot reached 293 caregivers, each representing 15 to 25 children, and in 2013 Namibia is set to expand its subsidies from about N$3 million to N$10 million, ensuring a sustainably improved service for its most vulnerable children.

Jacobina Negumbo shows off Toivo Ya Toivo Preschool, which she runs in Havana. She has already used her government subsidy to reduce the crowding for her centers 60 learners. Thousands of underfives now attend early childhood development centers subsidized by the Namibian state
This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

aid for social worker vacancies

My father did not want me to go to university The bursary made a huge, huge difference.
Rozalina Wanga, Social Worker
Rozalina Wanga (left) displays her USAID-funded diploma at her office in the Namibia Childrens Home, where she has served as a government social worker since 2012.

hen USAID supported Namibias Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare to assess its human resource gaps in 2007, the final report found that the Ministry had filled just 32 percent of its social work positions. Sixty-eight posts were standing vacant across the country, holding up vital services for orphans and vulnerable children yet the year before, the Ministry had succeeded in hiring only four new social workers, all of them from outside Namibia. Its Permanent Secretary explained to the press: We are trying our best but for now we can only bring in those from other countries. Namibia urgently needed to grow its pool of social work graduates. USAID tackled this human resource problem under this PEPFAR-funded project, with implementing partner Pact. From 2008 to 2012, USAID offered funding to financially insecure student applicants who agreed to work at the Ministry after earning a social work degree at the University of Namibia. Pact, meanwhile, worked with the Ministry to run and plan recruitment for the program. A total of 22 social work students received bursaries to cover their full annual costs. In 2009, Pact also began supporting finalyear students to do their required

practicums at the Ministry. By offering a low-cost stipend to pay for their internship, this expansion exposed a further 50 trained students to the Ministrys work, just as they became ready to join the job market. By 2013 the Ministry had filled 75 percent of its social work positions and counting and USAID-supported graduates account for half of all new hires since 2007. Rozalina Wanga is one who could not have become a social worker before: None of her 18 brothers or sisters had a higher education, and as she recalls, My father did not want me to go to university. He told me, Better you just get a job. The bursary made a huge, huge difference. Clarice Moyo says the program lifted her results: I knew I had to work hard to keep my bursary. And it made such a difference not having to worry about the hostel. Just as important, the final-year internships have proven a cost-effective way for the Ministry to recruit graduating students. Now that USAID funding is completed, the Ministry has fully transitioned the internship program as part of its recruiting strategy, ensuring enough homegrown candidates to meet the needs of Namibias orphans and vulnerable children in years to come.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

linkages with childcare facilities

I also had a hate relationship with the government, but I can see what it is trying to do. I turned around.
Member of Namibias Residential Childcare Facility Network
Eva Neels (center), manager of Nafavi Place of Safety in Mariental, checks her facility against the official minimum standards with Amelia Musukubili (right) and other Ministry social workers.

amibias residential childcare facilities operated in a little-regulated Wild West until as recently as 2005, when the newly created Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare began overseeing their work. Nobody knew exactly how many freelance childrens homes might be found across this vast African nation, or how many of these ensured quality care for their children or even how such services should be defined. The Ministry faced a massive systems-strengthening task: to mobilize an entire program from scratch, so that it could guarantee safe homes for Namibias most-vulnerable children while seeking stable families to take them in. USAID and implementing partner Pact offered technical assistance in 2007, under this PEPFAR-funded project. They identified 38 homes across the country: some exemplary, others totally inappropriate. Pact formalized a set of minimum standards with the Ministry in 2009, based on national and international policy, with feedback from the homes and children. Now they had a benchmark for assessment but Pact knew that relationships were just as key to make assessments work. As Ministry social worker Ilse Louw recalls, the facilities saw us as a threat. They thought we

wanted to close them down. To improve linkages with civil society, Pact worked with the Ministry to think differently about implementing their standards. Instead of a top-down training and policing approach, the Ministry now stresses longterm engagement, through joint peer self-assessments and shared follow-up actions. Members from one facility would say, I also had a hate relationship with the government, but I can see what it is trying to do. I turned around. Today the Ministry has four full-time social workers dedicated to site registration, regular inspections, monitoring the standards and ensuring that children are placed by court order. In order to qualify for the first tier of registration, homes must meet core standards on care (access to school, quality food and healthcare, and so on). The result: Of the original 38 facilities, 17 are now registered or registering, and three are reclassified as foster care providers. By using the standards to ensure quality, the Ministry has closed 16 unfit sites and integrated those children with their birth families or shifted them to foster care. The Ministry has stepped up its commitment to supporting most-vulnerable children as well: Subsidies to facilities rose from two in 2008 to 22 in 2013.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

child witness support

In all the cases witnesses have been able to give evidence and withstand the often hostile cross examination.
Head of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences, High Court, Windhoek

Florence Shivute, working as a Legal Assistance Centre support officer in 2012, prepares a group of Rundu adolescents to testify in court cases on abuse.

n February 2012, Namibias High Court convicted a man from the village of Kos, //Karas, for assaulting and raping his 14-year-daughter seven years before. The man had pleaded not guilty, but his daughters testimony on the stand helped turn opinion against him. It was a hardfought win for both the young woman and the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), the Namibian NGO that had coached and supported her through the long trial. LAC is one of three Namibian NGOs that USAID and implementing partner Pact assisted, under this PEPFAR-funded project, to promote local solutions for coordinated child protection services. Pact designed and launched the protection network, in part to improve childrens access to quality protective and emergency services after threats or episodes of violence. Orphaned and vulnerable children, especially girls, face greater exposure to abuse, and children with inadequate protection against abuse are more vulnerable to HIV infection. In 2009, this support allowed LACs AIDS Law Unit to initiate a groundbreaking Child Witness Support Program. It hired a psychologist and an educator to prepare minors to testify in court, by giving them

their first introduction to the legal system, building self-esteem to help them tell their stories in the presence of the accused, and providing personal support during the proceedings. According to the High Courts Head of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences, In all the cases where the child support persons stepped in to assist, the victims or witnesses have been able to give evidence and withstand the often hostile cross examination. A High Court advocate tells how the psychologist made one rape prosecution possible by calming a complainant who broke out in tears time and again. The scale of the problem is daunting. There were 1,193 registered cases of domestic violence or abuse nationwide in 2008 and 2009, and a Windhoek prosecutor has estimated that 40 percent of his court rolls involve rape survivors under 16. LACs witness support has contributed so far to five child abuse convictions, out of 25 concluded cases: a major advance given the difficulty of this type of prosecution. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has ensured the sustainability of the program by transitioning all 142 of LACs remaining court-preparation cases to its own social work staff.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

community action against hiv

I was just living the way everyone used to live Now I dont drink anymore I have one partner and use protection.
Briged Mary Myambe, support group member
Briged Mary Myambe working the Mahoho (Lyamuoma) Vegetable Project, a 10-hectare garden run by her HIV support group in Zambezi. Among her biggest concerns, thanks to the program: keeping out the elephants that come to eat their tomatoes.

ince 2007, Briged Mary Myambe had been divorced and living with HIV in her Zambezi community. She survived on antiretrovirals but spent what money she had on alcohol rather than food or clothes for herself and her five children. Thin and unkempt, she often woke and went straight back to drinking, forgetting her medications. I was just living the way everyone used to live, she says. I used to sleep around with no condoms. I used to have a lot of boyfriends. In 2010, USAID began supporting a Zambezi-based NGO called Caprivi Hope for Life to boost its community action for people like Briged Mary, with PEPFAR funds via implementing partner Pact. As part of the systems-strengthening goals of this project, USAID aimed to prepare Caprivi Hope for Life and five other Namibian civil-society organizations to become eligible for U.S. direct funding, while maintaining high standards of existing services. For the next three years, Pacts organizational-development specialists provided Caprivi Hope for Life with tailored technical assistance, helping it achieve substantial, measurable improvements in systems ranging from project planning and financial management to monitoring and evaluation. By 2012, Caprivi Hope

for Life was able to write proposals that secured new U.S. funding via PEPFAR Small Grants, as well as additional funds from three non-U.S. sources. Under this project, Caprivi Hope for Life provided HIV prevention messaging to an average of 762 people each year from 2010 to 2012, through teams of trained behavior-change communication promoters. The organizations endline assessment showed positive outcomes, such as the proportion of participants with single sexual partners up from 63 percent to 94 percent. Briged Mary showed how transformational the change could be: When Caprivi Hope for Life arrived in her community, she says, its lessons made her a new, different person. She completed every module and graduated in May 2012. At first her children simply laughed when she told them what she was learning. Now I dont drink anymore. I dont go to bars or shebeens. I have one partner and use protection. She works at the Mahoho (Lyamuoma) Vegetable Project, a where her HIV support group grows 10 hectares of cabbage, spinach and more. Among her biggest concerns today is keeping out the elephants who come to eat their tomatoes. Even my health, Briged Mary says. I look healthier than I did at first.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

performance management

The feeling is that there are people who are idle in the system Now people feel: I will clean the car I am supposed to clean.
Rosina Mabakeng, Deputy Director of Gender Equality
Sirkka Ausiku, then the top manager at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, applauds as Victor Shipoh, Director of Gender Equality and International Affairs, signs his performance agreement in 2012.

n March 2012, managers at Namibias Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) filed into a darkened conference room, not knowing whether that was the day they would begin holding themselves formally accountable for quality services to the countrys women and children. For a year they had worked with advisors from Pact, the implementer of this PEPFAR-funded USAID project, to lay the groundwork for a pioneering new performance management system and at last their agreements were ready. Whether they would sign was a different matter. One director still vocally opposed putting his name to the page, and questions were rippling around the room: If he doesnt sign, what then? Will his people sign? When Namibias Office of the Prime Minister selected ministries to pilot its new performance management system in 2011, the MGECW was not on the list but its Permanent Secretary felt it was ready for a head start. Pact had already helped it align its strategic plan with national policies, and from there set up a targeted annual workplan and monitoring and evaluation system, all pieces in the puzzle to inform the new agreements. Pacts Senior Advisor, Cassie Chipere, describes the next hurdle: You had the

few that followed the plan. Others, when you asked what you did this month, they had nothing to say. She studied the government plan at night to answer the Ministrys questions, and by the time the Office of the Prime Minister asked them to implement, they were able set their deadline a year early, in 2012. Pact met MGECW offices nationwide to set standards for each job class, and in early March national and regional managers convened to hash out details. As Chipere recalls, You could see the backbenchers coming to life, saying: I want to know more about this target. According to Rosina Mabakeng, Deputy Director of Gender Equality, The advisors played a big role in exhausting concerns. The feeling is that there are people who are idle in the system. People end up doing other peoples work, and there was no way to check. Now people feel: I will clean the car I am supposed to clean. The agreements were unveiled in March, but the dissenting director was still holding out. The Permanent Secretary, who had driven the process, signed her agreement first. Then he took his and signed too. The room burst into applause. By July 2012 the Ministry had signed agreements for 107 members of management.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

regional management skills

We want to encourage the staff here to have ownership not to be left behind once we dont have external support.
Beverly Gowases, Omusati regional team leader
Omusati regional team leader Beverly Gowases (far right) receives the 2011 trophy for best-performing region from the Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Doreen Sioka (far left).

s you travel Namibias dry hinterlands from the capital to the far northern Omusati Region, the percentage of orphans and vulnerable children rises from 17 percent to 34 percent of all children yet local officials capacity to address this crisis has also tended to grow thinner on the ground. Before 2009, when one foster care consultant asked to see a workplan at the Omusati office of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, the staff could not find it hidden among their piles of documents and simply stated they had none in place. The Ministry knew it had to upgrade the organizational skills of personnel nationwide. Through USAID support, funded by PEPFAR and implemented by Pact, in 2011 upwards of 70 national and regional officials trained on management, planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, empowering themselves to provide support to their teams. Pact further assisted them through onsite missions to help develop regional workplans, offering technical documents, facilitating planning sessions and mentoring groups of 15 to 25 people on the job. Beverly Gowases is one of the key participants in Omusati. As the regions

Team Leader and Chief Social Worker since 2010, she always dresses in coordinated colors and heels, even deep in the countryside. Gowases took her new planning skills and ran with them, writing to the Ministrys Permanent Secretary that her team fully grasps the workplan: We want to encourage the staff here to have ownership not to be left behind once we dont have external support. The Permanent Secretary forwarded her reply to all staff: Your response is very encouraging, that the training is paying dividends. Of Namibias many highperforming regions by 2011, Omusati was singled out as the winner of the Ministrys trophy for best-performing region. In 2012 a national workshop consolidated the regional workplans into one national plan, ensuring local buy-in and relevant programming. Today the staff of Omusati and of every region in the country can proudly present their annual workplan, explain how they use it at monthly planning meetings, manage results using digital spreadsheets and feed these into regular reports: a great stride forward for the welfare of Namibias HIV-affected and other children, as well as the Ministrys efforts to promote gender equality.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

data use to boost child grants

We were able to see where the obstacles were, to perform even better.
Amelia Musukubili, Control Social Worker
Erastus Negonga, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, with the trophy that the Office of the Prime Minister awarded in 2012 to recognize his Ministrys innovative use of grants data.

IV has hit Namibia hard. A whopping 250,000 children have been orphaned or made vulnerable because of illness in the family, and it is the job of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare to give these children a safety net when their families often cannot. Between 2002 and 2008, the Ministry had expanded its welfare grant rolls from just 9,000 recipients to 90,000 and climbing. But it knew precious little about the children it was helping: Social workers would trek out to homes and help the families register, but then their information disappeared into the bowels of the Office of the Prime Minister, where the payments were processed. Social workers who wanted to use the data to understand more about these children were at a loss. USAID moved to help the Ministry improve its data use, through a PEPFARfunded project with implementing partner Pact. In 2008, Pact met Jay Haase, a Peace Corps volunteer who had done computer consulting in the U.S. Jay was the person who made the crucial breakthrough. Leverage data the Ministry already has, he said: Get into the Office of the Prime Minister. The project hired Jay to figure out how to access the files. The Prime Ministers office had a big tech team, and he found

the database administrator sitting behind a closed door at the back of a maze of cubicles. When Jay saw how well the administrator maintained his data, he knew hed hit the jackpot. Because that tech team only needed the data to print out the addresses for grant payments each month, nobody had ever looked at when particular children entered or left the system, whether they were girls or boys, or how many of them lived in a given area. Jay had the skills to build automated queries for all these things. Suddenly the database administrator could produce monthly reports that gave social workers a deeper picture of the children. By 2010, Jay recalls, the reports showed weve got a high proportion of orphans covered. Its vulnerable children who are being left out right now. The Ministry was able to use that knowledge to advocate for more resources. According to Control Social Worker Amelia Musukubili, We were able to see where the obstacles were, to perform even better. The Ministry still uses the monthly reports, and in June 2012, the Office of Prime Minister recognized this U.S. Namibian data-use alliance by singling the Ministry out for a Business Process Re-Engineering trophy.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

data-driven human resources

Im really happy with what the U.S. is doing I just wanted to insert myself in the work.
Amos Booi, Community Childcare Worker

hen Marthas* husband took another woman, he left his wife with two young daughters and a shack in Havana to raise them in. She fought to scrape together their basic food and school costs, setting up shop at their front door and selling pieces of stewed goat tripe at N$1 a bite. Then in-laws stepped in to sell the shack out from under her which luckily was when Amos Booi, a young USAID-funded volunteer at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, began reaching out to needy families in the neighborhood and helped turn their story around. Although Namibias child welfare services are much-needed in a country where the burden of HIV has obliged over half of rural homes to take in an orphan or foster child, the Ministry, in the past, has had challenges getting staff where they are most needed. USAID lent its weight to the issue through this PEPFAR-funded project via implementing partner Pact, with an objective to bolster the Ministrys human resource capacity. Across the years, Pact stipends mobilized 221 volunteers like Amos: an inventory of USAID-supported healthcare workers who proved so useful to nationwide outreach that by 2012 the Ministry

had transitioned Amos and 40 others to the full-time government payroll, as the backbone of its new cadre of community childcare workers. Next, Pact is helped the Ministry take its staffing patterns to the next level. In 2012, Pact facilitated two review sessions on data from the previous year. The child welfare team fell into lively debate when they were able to see that they took from three to four months to process child support applications, depending on the region, and they drafted an action plan to mainstream the tracking of application forms, with suggestions to distribute field staff according to need. Amos, for one, appears to be where he is needed most. He registered Marthas family for child support and stood up to the in-laws trying to sell her home, going so far as to establish the childrens legal rights to the property. Im really happy with what the U.S. is doing, he says. When I started, I didnt care about the salary. I just wanted to insert myself in the work. Now, Amos is employed full time with the government, bringing expanded, essential services to orphans and vulnerable children. * Not her real name

A USAID-funded volunteer turned fulltime government childcare worker, Amos Booi (center) helps Martha light her familys cooking fire during a visit to his clients in Havana.
This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

state & civil-society linkages

Without bragging, we can say that in Namibia we are so fortunate to work so closely with civil society.
Veronica Rose Theron, Control Social Worker
Veronica Rose Theron shows off a flowchart of the new national referral protocol for child protection: the collaboratives solution for integrating previously fragmented services, from physical and sexual abuse to child labor.

n 2007, USAID supported the launch of new service standards for Namibias estimated 250,000 orphans and vulnerable children: a group that represents one in every eight Namibians. The catch was that the government was too understaffed to deliver the services on its own: the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare had hired only a third of its social work team. If services were quickly to reach the children who needed them, it was imperative that this Ministry join forces with civil-society groups already in the field. They agreed to form four collaboratives, to cooperate on child protection, HIV and health, psychosocial support and after-school centers. Fast forward to 2012, two years after USAID-funded consultants handed the reins to others, and the protection collaborative was still going strong. So strong, in fact, that government has adopted it as a standing committee. Veronica Rose Theron, a control social worker at the Ministry, reflects on what set the protection collaborative apart. Pact started it all, says Veronica. Since 2007, Pact has been USAIDs implementing partner on this project that uses PEPFAR money to shore up the Ministrys systems. Pact brought government and civil society together for the initial meetings of all four

collaboratives. We realized we really overlap a lot. Everyone was working on their own island before. If a local NGO focuses on traditional leaders, and the Ministry will focus on professionals, we could reach much better the population. From the beginning, Pact provided focused facilitation for the protection collaborative. Pact assisted a core group of protection partners the Ministry and selected NGOs to design a suite of complementary activities, which it funded through 2012. What was nice was that they were really committed, says Veronica. The people who kept it alive, each of them got money from Pact to have a child protection component. They were advised to form a consortium. This incubation laid the basis for their continued cooperation today, even as they move to new funding. At a two-day meeting in October 2012, the protection partners decided to promote one-stop regional service centers for the Ministry, NGOs and police. And in December 2012, the Ministry resolved to perpetuate the collaboratives success, by formalizing it as the standing National Childcare and Protection Committee, under the Permanent Taskforce for the National Agenda for Children.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

internal policies: transport

Were now able to have proper control Its really made our work easier.
Caster Mumbela, Transport Clerk
Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare clerk Theofelus Kahuure jots down the details of his latest trip on a vehicle control form, below the Ministrys new Windhoek offices.

ou dont get far without a car in Namibia, where a visit to a friend is often measured in hours or days on the open road: At fewer than seven people per square mile, its among the most sparsely settled places on Earth. In 2010 the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare bought the fleet of cars it needed to reach its farflung clients, including orphans and vulnerable children in villages where HIV affects up to 40 percent of the population. By 2011, though, it still had little idea how its staff used the cars off the lot. It turned to a USAID project, implemented by Pact, for help. Since 2007 USAID has used PEPFAR funds to pay Pact advisors who help the Ministry strengthen its operations: everything from strategic workplans to financial tracking, all to help its budget reach the children and families who need it most. A new transport policy was right up their alley. When the advisors looked at the Ministrys driving habits, they saw it had allotted an equal 3,000 kilometers of road trips a month to each region regardless of the area or the population involved. Whats more, people everywhere ignored the limit, in some places by 10,000 kilometers a month. The challenge was to make sure the staff

could meet their real transportation needs, while allowing management to keep tabs. The advisors found that whether you measured the distances between settlements in a region, or tallied up the travel implied by staff workplans, you came to the same fair distribution: about 5,000 to 13,000 kilometers a month, depending on the region. Staff who needed it were going to be able to drive a lot more. The project also worked with the Ministrys Department of Administration and General Ser-vices to come up with electronic management tools: monthly regional transport planners, a vehicle control list, inspection and accident reports, and more. Whereas before it might take 25 months for handwritten forms to make their way to the head office, in October 2012 the project trained regional drivers to share their numbers online right away. Today, clerks and managers can log onto a shared file and immediately see who is where, and how theyre really helping Namibias children, virtually in real time. According to transport clerk Caster Mumbela, Were now able to have proper control If a car is due for service, if its being misused. Its really made our work easier.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

reliable financial data

They would say, You said there was N$200,000, but now theres no money! recently I havent got things like that.
Engela Diergaardt, Chief Accountant in 2013

Shivute Indongo (lower left), Director of Administration and General Services at Namibias Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, reviews the Ministrys improved financial data with his team. Engela Diergaardt (lower right) was Chief Accountant at the Ministry until 2013, when she became Deputy Director of General Services at the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement.

he tab for all HIV activities in Namibia is about $200 million a year and, with one of the lowest levels of perceived corruption south of the Sahara, Namibia is likely to get that money to the people who need it. This should have given Engela Diergaardt a straightforward job as Chief Accountant at Namibias Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW). Yet through no fault of her own, her Monday reports to management refused to add up: They would say, You said there was N$200,000, but now theres no money! she recalls. They were so frustrated. Somewhere, the Ministry had to find reliable figures. Since 2007 USAID has used PEPFAR funds to help strengthen the Ministrys systems via implementing partner Pact. One of Pacts Namibian advisors, Eben de Klerk, dialed the Ministry after poring through its ledgers: I said theres a bigger problem than they think. In August 2012 he convened the top bookkeepers in a back office of the old Ministry building, where they sketched out a giant flowchart to see where their money was going. Theyd stopped using data from the Ministry of Finances central system, thinking it was slow to update travel expenses but their substitute system in-house had issues of its own. It had no checks to make sure staff

corrected old commitments for cancelled activities, and the resulting conflicts were metastasizing over time. In September Pact secured fact-finding visits to the Ministry of Finance and the company that runs that ministrys accounting system: It turned out theyd added new modules that keep all data dependable and up to date within three days. In October Eben performed a reconciliation and variance analysis against the MGECW in-house system: They realized how far their report was really missing the mark. The in-house records were off by an average of $300,000 a month. This was the turning point for the MGECW, which has shifted to the superior Ministry of Finance data for its weekly reports, under an agreement that makes it available on demand. Engela says she had no more complaints: I think its now fine, because we just give them the report out of the system. Her director, Shivute Indongo, agrees: In March 2013 he had Pact help him train the rest of his Ministry on the new data. Two accountants who used to work full-time generating inaccurate in-house reports are now free to do other work, and Namibia is better-equipped to own its HIV response.

This work was made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implementing partner Pact, with funding from the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The views expressed in this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR or the U.S. Government. Pact, August 2013 www.pactworld.org CONTACT Stephanie Posner Country Director and Chief of Party, Pact Namibia +264 (0)61 303 793 sposner@pactworld.org

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