assessment and monitoring in nepal INGOs: a sample made by SWC

In spite of the political crises, it seems that the SWC – Social Welfare Council (newly reformed) is operating in evaluation and monitoring INGO projects.

We went to the villages of Kavre where the projects of CCS Italia are collapsing and the people received a visit from SWC officers. People explained them that since 2003 they are cooperating with CCS Italy throughput a sponsorship program directed to help children, family and community.

They told them that since two years all has been severely reduced as local operators described in past posts.

They told them that the still give pictures and photos of their children but no more help is given to them.

They told them that an Italian sponsors give to CCS Italy around Rs. 18.000 (yearly) and CCS Italy officers proposed to 42 local SMCs (School Management Committees) agreements which stated only Rs. 4.500 (yearly) for each children.

They told them that the nepali officers of CCS Italy which proposed this shame gain around Rs. 100.000 each month.

So people hope that this words will be written in the reports of SWC, not as last year when the same critics were shelved.

We spoke with people and they decided to stop this kind of robbery. If the CCS officers still use the money of our children to get high salry and benefits they could give to Italian sponsors their picture. We stop to give those of our children, If nothing is going to change in Kathmandu and Italy we organize a julus (people demonstration) to CCS office to ask for changing the thieves. We ask the Italian sponsors to press the CCS Italy HQ in order to utilize the fund they collect for our children as before, it means for the benefits of children, schools and community.

From Thulo Parsel, Mani Lama

Boat (INGO) People

In 2005 some of us started up CCS Italy offices in Cambodia. We signed agreements with MOEF (Ministry of Foreign Affairss) and we began to work in partnership with local organizations based in Kampot and Shianoukville.
The plans were to support primary schools, to create pre-primary and to help an aids-affected village near Kampot. Other ideas were to find out new way to tackle prostitution and trafficking which is a serious problems in the area where they operated and where some local missionaries are already working. We signed agreements with these local partners and we started the projects.
Now some new people should going on on these basis and so we like to receive news from our Cambodian friends still operating with that organization.
But even there something strange happen. First of all they wrote about the high running expenditure which cover more than an half of the budget of CCS Italy in Cambodia (as normally happens  in Nepal), the increase of usefulness formalism and bureaucracy and the low effectiveness of the activities.
In their Budget 2008, it seems that on Euro 215.000 given by italian sponsors for cambodian children around Euro 115.000 has gone for salary staff, expatriates, houses, and so on.
They pointed out, for example, the building of two pre-primary schools in the islands of Koh Thmai e Koh Rong, 40 kilometers far from Shianoukville where to reach takes several hours of shipping (and a lot of diesel) for about 25 children each.
As, the same CCS website describes these islands are very difficult to reach and they had to ship all materials for the buildings. Of course all has been very expensive as expensive is to monitor and to assure sustainability to the schools.
Our Cambodian friends were quite astonished by this decision because a lot of work has to be done in the schools already supported and in the near community where logistic and building costs are less and needs for people and children are higher. Safe-water, health, nutrition and so on.
But a reason, they suggested for this strange and expensive ideas, is that one of the expatriates working with CCS in Cambodia bought a boat and he has to cover the investments. So the social worker (?) boat people.

Working in the jails

It was a very good experiences and a nice project we did in 2006-2007 in the Central Jail (Female section) in Kathmandu. We provided sewing machines to more than 40 prisoner women, technical training, management training and legal assistance. We supplied them with all materials useful to produce garments for their family and children. The second step was to tailor boto (the tradition child dress) which we distributed in the Bal Bikas (Early Childhood Dev. Centers) we created in Timal (Kavre) enrolling more than 800 children. All children got a sort of uniform which was a good help for the family.
The last step should be to start production for the local market directed to foreign tourist wih the idea to channel garments to international fair trade market. The Women Tailor Group after one year of working and training were able to produce some nice garments from which we had selling agreements with local shops.
All was stopped by the donor (CCS Italia INGO) with no reasons in 2007. Even the brand we studied was put in a corner as well the works and hopes of the women involved.
This project was a namuna (sample) which could be extended, as our intention, to other jails in Nepal, and we did it in coordination with Jail authorities. The objective were to assure a little income to the prisoners, give them job opportunities out of the jail and a something to do during detention in order to avoid violence and bad attitudes.
To create opportunities and hope (it was the brand for the Inmates Cooperative) is the only way to help prisoners during detention and to help them to be reintroduced in normal life.
A recent survey showed that the situation in Nepali jails is deteriorating form many point of view and few activities are running to help the prisoners which are detained in over crowded structures.
This research shows that 38% of the prisoners it had surveyed had access to drugs even behind the bars in different parts of the country including the Central Jail, Bhadra Bandi Griha, Bhadra Mahila Bandi Griha, Dillibazaar Jail, Nakkhu Prison, Biratnagar Prison, Pokhara Prison and Birgunj Prison
Total of 351 prisoners living in the eight jails were surveyed and 15 per cent of the respondents were women.
Of the people who use drugs in the jails, 20 per cent said they use marijuana, 20 per cent brown sugar, 10 per cent injections and the rest 50 per cent said they use many kinds of drugs.
The survey stated that 50 per cent of the Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in the jails share same needle. Half of the IDUs in jails had visited treatment and rehabilitation centres and hospitals at least once while the another half had never gone to either a hospital or any drop-in centre.
Legal assistance, income generating activities might be the way to give a reasons of life to these people.

namaste from ccs nepal web site

The blog of CCS Nepal has been closed as their message below. We are a group of people working since many years in Nepal (and Cambodia) both Nepali and foregneirs. Most of us worked with CCS Nepal or are still  consultants. We created a group called Community & Development Nepal to share in this blog our experiences and practices on Cooperation & Development.

Dear Friends

Many people from Nepal, Italy and abroad visited our blog  in these months but now we are going to close it.

A formal and written request has been made by Mrs. Chanda Rai, Country Director of CCS Italy INGO. The new people of Italy HQ and the Kathmandu Office dont like our critics directed to a better implementation of the projects we started in 2003, we apologize for this. In the last days it seems our critics have been able to change some plans of CCS Italia and, fortunately, to work again with community instead put money in official baskets. We cannot say more but only best wishes to all

Dal Nepal: buon anno ai Sostenitori italiani di CCS Italia

Before Chisthmas 2009, CCS Nepal expressed criticism on some methods and practices of the italian INGO which they were collaborating since 2003. New management and people have been appointed both in Nepal and Italy from the middle of 2007 so many activities have been reduced or cutted. We give an abstract of the letter and a table which compare the activities done in 2006 and those in 2008.

Cari Amici
Prima di tutto, ringraziamo I sostenitori italiani che dal 2003 stanno aiutando I nostri bambini e comunità nel Distretto di Kavre, I migliori auguri per le festività di Natale e del nuovo anno.
CCS Nepal, formata da gente di Kavre, iniziò nel 2003 tutte le attività per contribuire a educazione e salute in Nepal, grazie a migliaia di Sostenitori italiani.
Come abbiamo scritto nei posts precedenti stiamo ancora discutendo con I responsabili di CCS Italia INGO il budget per il 2009 e come far proseguire I nostri progetti.
Dal 2007 I fondi sono costantemente diminuiti e così l’aiuto e le opportunità che eravamo in grado di dare ai bambini e alle comunità di Kavre, come si vede dalla tavola che compara le attività nel 2006 e nel 2008.
Come siamo preoccupati per l’elevato aumento delle spese di gestione dell’ufficio di Kathmandu di CCS Italia che è passato da 4 a 22 funzionari per gestire meno attività rispetto al 2006. Ciò significa che le spese di gestione (stipendi, rents, attrezzature, macchine, etc.) sono cresciute da euro 43.000 in 2006 a 153.000 in 2008. Ciò ha gravemente ridotto I fondi per I progetti e I beneficiari.
Vogliamo estendere queste preoccupazioni ai Sostenitori italiani.
Thanks for all
The Staff of CCS Nepal NGO

activitiescompare TABLE ACTIVITIES 2006 COMPARED TO 2008 (tAVOLA DI COMPARAZIONE ATTIVITA’ 2006 e 2008)

Dear Friends
First of all we thank a lot the Italian sponsors which since 2003 are helping our children and community in Kavre District and best wishes for your for Christmas and the End of the year holidays.
CCS Nepal, formed by local people of Kavre, established 5 years ago all activities related to education and health in Nepal thanks to the help of thousand Italian sponsors.
From 2007 our budget and activities were severely reduced as well as the help and opportunities we were able to give to children and community in Kavre as appears in the comparing the activities in the table below which resume the documents already published.
As well as we are worried about the huge increase of running expenditures in CCS Italy office in Kathmandu which passed from 4 people to 22 managing less activities. It means that the running expenditures (salaries, equipments, cars, rents, etc.) raised from Euro 43.000 in 2006 to 153.000 in 2008, this has severely reduced the fund for the projects and beneficiaries.
We extend our concern to Italian sponsors.
CCS Nepal NGO staff

Trainings, reports and workshops development

In a recent article it has been pointed out the paradox of local level governance in Nepal is that much money and effort have been poured into it over the decades but with no visible improvement.
In 1996 UNDP and DANIDA pushed on the government to introduce the Local Self-Governance Act 1999 which failed to include the vital provisions regarding the user groups which showed good performances in managing the forestry community development which has been fully domestically managed by local community.
With no provisions regarding the formation of local groups, the enormous fund to decentralization has been managed by, as the article points, local bodies were invariably composed of the hand-picked favourites of the village elites.
As a result, the billions of rupees that went through the DDCs (District Dev. Office) and VDCs (Village Dev. Office) in various tied and untied grants over the years made little dent on the problems of poverty and deprivation that continue to remain rampant in Nepal’s villages. The same seems happened for other local authorities as DHO (health) and DEO (education).
The misuse of huge funds and the needs of a serious reforms of local body, most of them not working or bad working due to that lack of elected officials and good mnagement should suggest to international donors to go directly to the primary stakeholders: it means community through local user groups (for specific projects), community schools, etc.
This work should be a priority for INGOs and NGOs which must operate gross route level as their guiding principles should require. Unfortunately this is not happening for some of them. It is the case of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO (CCS Italia) which during the last two years left good community tied projects in Kavre moving towards funding the local DEO (district education office) and DHO (district health office). This negative attitude seems directed to void the role and capacity of the local NGO working in Kavre since many years. The reasons could be the strong critics  the local NGO moved regarding the ineffective use of Italian fund and donation made by the officers of the INGO and their incapacity to operate directly with the community. Maybe also their laziness and high salaries.
The same misadventure which is running, in a great scale, DANIDA. They decided to support a 10 million rupies project (19 months) project entitled “Promoting Local Governance for Effective Service Delivery” in six selected districts.
It was said to be “supply-side” governance strengthening initiative and comprised workshops for government officials, local politicians, NGO/CBO officials, and “service receivers”. The project developed training manuals, formed coordination committees and “good governance pressure groups”, and held public hearings with government officials including the CDOs in attendance.
It seems the same trend followed by Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo (CCS Italy) in which instead to work in the community, it is easier to work through local bureaucrats. It is the training and workshop development which is the main activity wide spreading among INGOs and institutional donors.
This kind of “projects” doesn’t need many activities, fieldwork, and accountability of service given.
The single most important contribution that the government and donors could make to promote good governance and development in the villages is to empower the stakeholders and assuring effective service delivery and the only way is to go in the villages working with people. 

Guna Dhakal- Social Worker-Kathmandu

The strange story of a training center

We received

Dear Friends
I came in 2005 in Nepal to visit CCS Nepal projects places and I was really happy to see how they worked for the benefits of children and community we sponsored from Italy.
Now on the web I read about a strange story related to the Training Center built in Thulo Parsel. It seems that what has been written in the house magazine of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo ONLUS (Progetto Solidarietà –http://www.ccsit.org/archives/docs/pages/jchia47b-PS2007-3.pdf) , it is not true.

They wrote to italian sponsors of the association they built the Center so “Finalmente la comunità di Thulo Parsel può contare su uno spazio polifunzionale costruito dal CCS Italia”. In September 2007 (translation: Finally the community of Thulo Parsel has a multi -function space built by CCS Italy)

They wrote the Center has been paid by CCS Italy INGO but on the web it seems it has been paid by a local farmer. So I like to ask you what it is true and why they wrote so to  italian sponsors of the organization.
With friendly regards

Claudio Parodi-Italy

 

Dear Friend
in 2006 CCS Italy decided to built the Training Center in Thulo Parsel, in order to train teachers and people directly in the community. CCS Nepal, signed an agreement with a local farmer, it stated: CCS Nepal have free use of the land for 15 years and after that time (if no further agreement will be signed)  the building will be property of the land owner.
In may 2007 CCS Nepal (and community) finished the building and it started to be used by teachers and people but at the end of 2007 Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO changed idea with no reasonable explanations. So they ask the farmer to give back the cost of the building. All people were surprised and  shocked by this negative approach. The farmer decided to avoid problems and gave back around 9 lacks (euro 9.000) spent for the construction with some problems due to the high amount.
It is quite surprisingly to hear by you that Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo ONLUS which not paid the Center market it to italian sponsors. But as you could see in other posts, since 2007 the new officers of the INGO have not a correct attitude towards community and people involved in the Timal projects and most of them has been stopped or reduced.  
In 2006 CCS Nepal decided as primary activities for 2007 to enforce quality education in the ECDs, primary and secondary schools supported in Timal area. So they need a place where to held trainings and courses avoiding to stop the regular lessons in the schools. Of course the building could be used by community or other organizations working in the area.

nutrion with DEO Kavre

As in our integrated project on education, from 2005 we provided integration daily meals to around 880 children enrolled in Bal Bikas Kendra (ECDs) we created in 5 VDCs in Timal area (Kavre District).

We provided them a daily allowance of Nrs. 2.5 each children managed by the School Management Committees charged of the ECDs. In the past post, it is underligned as daily meals for children helps enrollment and attendance to the ECDs as well it is a support for poor family.

Actually we had the idea to create Ama (mothers) Groups charged to produce and cook pito (high nutrient flour) and to distribute it to the children. Unluckly Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo ONLUS severely reduced the amount stated for this project from Rs. 2.5 each children daily to only Rs. 1. With this amount is very hard to give any good food to the children.

We received

Dear Friends

I am a teacher of Narayansthan and i was really involved in your projects in my VDC, they were very useful for children, family and schools. I know and I read on your website that quite all acyivities are collapsing due the mismanagement of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO. This is very sad and  we are very worried too because several teachers before supported by CCS Italy INGO were laied-off.

I really don’t understand which is their ideas and their future programs. They are destroying years of work and also all well has been done by your NGO which is formed and directed by people of the community. They speak about partnership at community level but in the Coordination Nutrition Committee of DEO (District Education Office) of Kavre they obliged you to leave the seat for a member of CCS Italy, one of the well-paid officer of Kathmandu which has not knowledge of our Timal.

This is really a pity which I hope the italian sponsors of our children will let to Know.

Friendly regards

Binod Kumar

letter from the villages

We received

Dear Friends
at the end of September people of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO came to our village and we told them we dont give sponsorship letters from around 300 students because the support to secondary students, teachers, and 10+2 (high secondary) has been cut. The same happened for distribution of copy-books, pens, pencils, and other materials to all the children (around 6000) in Thimal. Some schools decided dont give letters.
We ask the italian but he told us that the responsibility of this cutting on the activities is due to the new Country Director of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO, Mrs. Chanda Rai. But this lady has never came to our village and she cannot understand our needs.
The sample is the new Children Clubs which are not very useful for our community and they were simple copied from some other INGO. Time and money used for this  activities could be used to reinforce our Bal Bikas Kendra (ECDs) and to distribute materials to our children in order to alleviate the education cost burden to the poorest family.
Months ago we sent letters to  Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO nepal and HQ asking better management of the projects but they were without answer. Now we still ask you as local NGO always working in close cooperation with  community to appeal to Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO to resume these activities. You perfectly know how they gave benefits to students and family which cannot afford many money to educate children.
In faith
Saila Tamang, Dhane Bahadur Dong, Raj Magar, Krishna Mainali and others.

During the past year we asked them several times to implement all projects which have been cut from the second half of 2007, like didacticl material distributions and 10+2 support. As you know we started these projects since 2003 with full cooperation of the community, teachers, people and schools.
From 2007 many changes happened in italian Head Quarter and in nepali office, new people arrived and some activities have been cancelled. Some priority is going to be done to new projects in Kathmandu which are more easily managed by the INGO office.

Contrarily to the past, we have no voice in deciding the strategies of the INGO and they declared, also in your village,  their budget declined in 2007 and 2008.
In June 2008, they published  2007 Budget on http://www.ccsit.org (in the past it was also in english now only in italian), translated it appears:

-Amount of fund collected from italian sponsors: euro 35,078,60   (-16% compared to 2006)
-Amount distributed to supported countries : euro 19, 485,82    (55,55% of total collected. In 2006 the amount was 68,81%)
-Amount used in Italy for office running expenses : euro 15,592,78      (44,45% in 2006 it was 31,19%)

 

 

 

 

 -Amount for Nepal Projects and running expenses (3558 children sponsored): euro 3,563,38 (-2% compared to 2006)
-Amount used for projects (Kathmandu Chitwan, Kavre):     euro 2,175, 58    (60,9%)
-Amount used for running office expenses CCS Italy IMGO: euro 1,387,80     (39,1%)

 

 

 

 

 The huge increasing of administrative expenses in italian HQ and in the INGO Kathmandu Office (compared to the previous years) is due to the strategy to enlarge the number of officers (in Nepal from 4 to 22) in order to assure a better projects management. It should be noticed, around 40% of the projects budget has been spent  in Kathmandu and Chitwan projects.
Of course our NGO received less than 60% of the 2006 amount and following the decisions of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO Nepal office (enlarge the office, new projects in Kathmandu, etc.) we were obliged to cut many programmed activities in spite of project agreements signed.
It is worth to note that the majority of sponsored children (around 3200) are located in Kavre but we didn’t receive an equivalent percentage of funds.