To follow up on the finalisation meeting of the Project Management Manual for the Provincial Road Improvement and Maintenance (PRIM) Program, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) hosted a meeting on 22 April to discuss the issuance of the grant channelling agreement letter, also known as the SPPH (Surat Perjanjian Penerusan Hibah). The meeting was chaired by Adriansyah, Director of Financing and Capacity Development at the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance. MoF affirmed that the SPPH can be issued before the Direct Funding Agreement (DFA) is finalised. This letter also gives the green light to the Local Government of Nusa Tenggara Barat to commence any eligible physical work. To keep the momentum going, Adriansyah stressed the importance of DFA issuance and asked all stakeholders to work together as soon as possible. The DFA must also encompass the total amount of the grant, as agreed by representatives from Bappenas and the Directorate General of Highways. The PRIM Project Manual is scheduled to be issued at the end of April, and the SPPH will be signed by mid May.
A result based management approach is crucial to support IndII in delivering the outcomes expected of each programs. Therefore, IndII has organised an Impact Evaluation Training on 16-19 April 2013, aimed specifically for the Water & Sanitation (Watsan) and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) team. The training was conducted by Chris Nicoletti, Senior Impact Evaluation Analyst from NORC at the University of Chicago. The 4-day training includes introductions and overview, evaluation design, sample design and data collection, indicators and questionnaire design. The overall massages are (1) Impact evaluation is useful for validating program design, adjusting program structure and communicating to the Ministry of Finance and Civil Society. (2) A good evaluation design requires estimating the counterfactual such as what would have happened to beneficiaries if they had not received the program and the reasons why beneficiaries receive the program and others are not. (3) Monitoring and evaluation are separate but have complementary functions; both are keys to result based management. The training was well received by participants, particularly by the IndII WATSAN team who have been exposed to randomised and quasi experimental designs for impact evaluations previously through the water hibah program. Future steps will involve technical teams working with the IndII M&E team to identify current and future Activities that lend themselves to solid quantitative impact level studies. This will involve some key strategic Activities across the IndII program.
PRIM (the Provincial Road Improvement and Maintenance program) is a new IndII-supported initiative, about to be piloted in Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB). Its focus is on improving local road management using output-based grants as an incentive. A detailed Project Management Manual (PMM) is being prepared. This will guide all activities under PRIM, including those of the NTB provincial government, the central oversight team in the Directorate General of Highways (DGH), and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which will disburse the grants. A series of meetings were held in early 2013 to solicit inputs from stakeholders. These culminated in an event on 16 and 17 April 2013 at the Novotel Hotel in Bogor to finalise the PMM. Participants included representatives from NTB, DGH, MOF and Bappenas. The discussions ran well into the night as stakeholders made tough decisions on how to finalise the content of the PMM. Approval of the Manual by the Director General of DGH is anticipated in the near future. Once PRIM is underway in NTB, planning will start on rolling out the approach to other provinces.
