Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Youth Employment Forum: Call for applications for Young Journalists/Bloggers


Youth Employment Forum: Call for applications for Young Journalists/Bloggers

The International Labour Organization (ILO) will offer five young journalists/bloggers the opportunity to promote and cover the Youth Employment Forum, which will take place in Geneva from 23 to 25 May 2012.





The selected journalists/bloggers will be invited to attend the ILO Youth Employment Forum, providing them with a unique opportunity to hear individual stories from over 100 young women and men from around the world who are active in the promotion of decent work for youth.
The Youth Employment Forum will serve as a platform for young people to voice their views on the current youth employment situation and to share ideas on what can be done to provide more and better jobs for their generation.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Day 2: Commercial Agriculture Development Project On Record Keeping Workshop,12th April 2012 Lagos State Nigeria.


Cross Section of Participants 

PREAMBLE
THE WORLD BANK AND OTHER DONORS OF AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS STARTED EMPHASIZING ON FORMAL MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PROJECTS IN THE LATE 1960s AS A RESULT OF RATIONALE TO ENSURE THAT DONOR FINANCE IS USED FOR THE INTENDED PURPOSE AND THAT THE EXPECTED DEVELOPMENT RETURNS ARE PRODUCED.
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT TERMS
    Project: A time-bound intervention that consists of a set of planned, interrelated activities aimed at achieving defined programme outputs. CADP is a comprehensive five- year project developed by Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources(FMAWR) in collaboration with the World Bank and other stakeholders.
 
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT TERMS
Monitoring: The WB Operational Manual defines Monitoring as “the continuous assessment of project implementation in relation to agreed schedules and use of inputs, infrastructure, and services by project beneficiaries. It is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses, aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the project.
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT TERMS
 It enables you to determine whether the resources you have available are                                                                                             sufficient and are being well used, whether the capacity you have is sufficient and
   appropriate, and whether you are doing what you planned to do.
.
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT TERMS
Evaluation is the “periodic assessment of the relevance, performance, efficiency, and impact (expected and unexpected) of the project in relation to stated objectives.
It is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans. It
looks at what you set out to do, at what you have accomplished, and how you accomplished it.
WHAT IS  AN  M&E SYSTEM ?
BASICALLY, AN  M&E SYSTEM IS A SET OF ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES, MANAGEMENT PROCESSES, STANDARDS, STRATEGIES, PLANS, INDICATORS, INFORMATION SYSTEMS, REPORTING LINES WHICH ENABLES A PROJECT/PROGRAMME TO DISCHARGE ITS M&E FUNCTION
WHAT IS THE  BASIC FUNCTION OF AN M&E SYSTEM?
An M&E  System  has 2 Fundamental Functions:
1)      The Monitoring function and
2)      The Evaluation Function
WHAT IS THE  MONITORING FUNCTION?
This involves collecting, analysing and reporting data on inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes and impact as well as external factors, in a way that supports effective management.
Monitoring aims to provide managers, decision makers and other stakeholders with regular feedback on progress in implementation and results and early indicators of problems that need to be corrected on actual performance against what was planned or expected.
WHAT IS  THE EVALUATION FUNCTION?
Evaluation is a time-bound and periodic exercise that seeks to provide credible and useful information to answer specific questions to guide decision.
Evaluation deals with periodic  assessment of  relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability.
WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF CADP M&E SYSTEM?
THE CADP M&E SYSTEM  HAS A  DECENTRALISED STRUCTURE   OPERATED AT    3 LEVELS :
  1. NATIONAL LEVEL 
  2. STATE LEVEL
  3. COMMERCIAL FARMER LEVEL

  1. THE  NATIONAL LEVEL: The Stakeholders  with their Responsibilities include:
        I)            NATIONAL FOOD RESERVE AGENCY (NFRA): This Agency is responsible for provision of oversight support and coordination of M&E through the CADP National Coordination Office.
II) NATIONAL COORDINATING OFFICE: This Agency has the following responsibilities:
i)    Provision of oversight support and coordination of M&E activities at all levels.
ii)  Consolidating  monitoring and evaluation reports from States into semi-annual and annual Progress reports and sending them to WB

iii)Provision of M&E feed back to all the decentralised levels.
iv)  Conduct of self monitoring activities at the at the NCO and Federal level.
v)   Organising and coordinating the Project Mid-Term Review (MTR)/Impact Assessment
vi)   Organising and coordinating the Project  Implementation Completion Report
vii)   Selecting Consultants for the Mid-Term Review.
  viii)            Organising the various Studies for the Project.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Commercial Agriculture Development Project Host Workshop on Record Keeping 11th -12th April 2012 Lagos State Nigeria.

Commercial Agriculture Development Project Host Workshop on Record Keeping 11th -12th April 2012 Lagos State Nigeria.


The Development Objective (DO) of Commercial Agriculture Development Project is to strengthen agricultural production systems and facilitate access to market for targeted value chains (Poultry, Aquaculture and Rice) among small and medium scale commercial farmers in Lagos State, which herewith sit before me this morning. However, other States participating in the project include: Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna and Kano.
The project will help to improve access of participating small and medium scale commercial farmers to technology, infrastructure, finance, and output markets.
The total number of beneficiaries expected to directly participate in the project in Lagos State is estimated at 10,000 over a period of five years. Small and medium scale commercial farms will benefit directly while many households will benefit indirectly through access to farm roads, energy and market
The IDA financing of the project is US$150million and will include support for staple crops production in response to the rising food prices in addition to Aquaculture and Poultry. The indicative total project amount including counterpart contribution is estimated at US$185million of which IDA will provide US $150 million.
Each State is expected to benefit a minimum of US $26million over a period of 5 years for the project.

The project commenced physical disbursement to beneficiaries under the project in May, 2010 and since then a total of One Hundred and Thirty Six (136) Commodity Interest Groups (CIGs) comprising of 1,471 individual small and medium scale commercial farmers across the three value chains of Poultry, Aquaculture and Rice have been supported under the project to expand on their farming enterprises. In addition to the direct beneficiaries of the project, an estimated 29,238 people living in the farming communities have also benefited from the project intervention. In terms of physical output, the project has supported the beneficiaries in acquiring the following equipment for their farming businesses: 
1.     571 Units of Collapsible Fish Tanks
2.     174 Units of Plastic Fish Tanks
3.     50 Units of Fish Smoking Kilns
4.     1 Unit of Fish Smoke Drying Plant
5.     985 Units of Nipple Fitted Battery Cages
6.     5 Units of Fish Extrusion Plants
7.     4No 4WD Tractor + Implements
8.     Mini Combine Harvesters and other improved equipment
9.     Storage Bins and various Agro Inputs
10.                        Improved Fish Brood Stocks for Breeding
11.                        Mini Transport Facilities of Farmers product to market (Tricycles etc)
The project has equally supported rice farmers in Itoikin and Itoga in cultivation of over 200 Ha of Farmland in the previous year and already preparing to open up new areas in Ise, Obada, Igbogun, Lekki Lepia, Okun Ajah etc (Epe Local Government Area) and Adamo, Agunfoye (Ikorodu LGA) with additional cultivable farmlands of 250 Ha.
Also, the project has constructed 10 No Rural Access Roads in 10 different locations across the state totalling 22.19Km of both paved and lateritic roads valued at about N640 million while another 10 No with additional 17.40 Km in 10 No locations across the State have been designed and will commence physical work before June 2012. The roads are to improve access for Poultry, Aquaculture and Rice Farmers in the State.