District Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

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District Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

• Presentation for
• Visioning Workshop Decentralization Community
• Debate, Bhopal

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Issues Raised in the Forum

• Community has discussed the issues pertaining to
  district level planning on many occasions. Some
  important queries are -
• decentralisation monitoring indicators
• social watch
• Information Need for District Planning
• District Human Development Report
• Primer for monitoring Public Works Construction
• Implementation of NREGA by Panchayats

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Indicators to monitor extent of decentralisation
in States
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Social Watch

• Involvement of citizens in the affairs of
  governance institutions to assure their
  well-being
• Social Watch at local level means involvement of
  community in three critical areas of governance.
  These are
• Planning
• Monitoring and
• evaluation
• Discussion focussed more around monitoring
  mechanisms. Many processes were cited as examples
  like social audit, public hearing, mobilising
  Gram Sabha or the Ward Sabha

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Information Need for District Planning

• Many important issues were raised in this query
  and these are
• How DPC functions in Different States
• How Planning is done by local bodies
• Do Local institutions use local or district level
  data for preparing Plan

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Human Development

• Index to monitor Human Development at district
  level
• What can be indicators other than health,
  education and income
• How can we incorporate participation as an index
  of Human Development
• What could be the unit of analysis
• Proposed Indicators suggest that these reports
  are more useful for district level planning that
  monitors change in terms of Human Development

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NREGS

• Discussion on NREGA brought an interesting issues
  dividing Panchayats into different categories of
  development like
• Developed PRIs
• Underdeveloped PRIs
• Panchayats of backward districts are categories
  as underdeveloped PRIs
• There were other important issues related to
• Enforcement of Minimum Wages
• Preparation of a perspective plan with
  appropriate analysis
• Technical Competency of Gram Panchayats
• Judicious combination of PRIs, DRDAs and other
  agencies

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Issues of Concern

• The discussion in community and general
  observation of people working with Panchayats
  raise several important issues like -
• Service delivery for pro-poor by Panchayats
• Planning for social justice and economic
  development
• Implementing plans to ensure that benefit reaches
  to those for whom plan has actually envisaged
  resources
• Monitoring the implementation process so that
  corrective measures are taken during the
  implementation process itself
• Evaluating to draw learning for developing vision
  for future plan

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Where to go from here..

• Keep sharing our experiences on the topic
  whenever there is any query on this topic
  or
• Identify some core areas and do a pilot in the
  field and share the lessons learnt from the pilot

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Future Direction

• Select Few themes to work on Issues related to
  Decentralised district level Planning, monitoring
  and Evaluation
• Work on these selected issues in selected States
• Draw learning's and share back it with community
  and through community with wider audience

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Proposed Issues for pilot I

• Health
• In many States the process of district planning,
  in health sector, is being practiced
• Health is an important factor affecting Human
  Development
• National Rural Health Mission is working in the
  rural areas of 18 States.
• NRHM proposes to work with Panchayats and focuses
  on changing situation at ground level
• Issue of health is closely related with
  livelihood, human development and education and
  awareness

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Proposed Issues for pilot II

• Wage employment for poor and landless
• Issue of wage is linked with the quality of life
  of most marginalised section of the population
• NREGS is being implemented in 200 backward
  districts of country
• This scheme proposes to work with Panchayats
• It also promises to provide minimum 100 days of
  employment to poor families
• Strategy is to work by developing district
  perspective plans

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Who will take the responsibility

• Members of the community working in various
  States
• Members who are interested in taking
  responsibility
• Members who can devote time

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Coverage for Pilot

• Four States and possibly 2 districts in each
  state
• Two States where DPC is Constituted and
  functioning
• One State where DPC is constituted but not
  functioning
• One State where DPC is not constituted

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Proposed Work - Pilot

• Quick assessment of current state of Planning at
  district level in health and NREGA which should
  include
• Status of village Plan
• Role of Panchayats in planning for health and
  its implementation
• Prepare a framework for undertaking district
  planning on health and rural employment for wage
  earners

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Proposed Work cont

• Selection of block within district
• Preparing framework for initiating the village
  level plan in all the Panchayats of the block
• Sharing framework with ZP, DPC and concerned
  departments at district and State level
• Training of Panchayat representatives for
  preparing Panchayat Plan
• Beginning of planning process by Panchayats in
  the villages

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Proposed Work cont

• Consolidation of Panchayat plan at block level
• Ensuring inclusion of this plan into the annual
  plan of ZP and DPC
• Developing monitorable indicators to monitor
  progress and change at village, block and
  district level
• Assist Panchayats to collect data on indicators
  developed
• Facilitate a process for sharing the plan with
  State Planning Board/Commission

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Planning

• Developing a vision for long term Plan on the
  basis of existing situation
• Developing an approach towards plan on health and
  rural employment for wage earners
• Assessment of resources requirement and resource
  availability
• Help the Panchayats to broaden their vision so
  that plan focuses more on Planning for Human
  Development rather than planning for construction
  and infrastructure which not linked to enhancing
  quality of life
• The district Plans must consider the issue of
  developing convergence at district and
  sub-district level

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Monitoring

• While plans are developed with Panchayats and
  DPC, the Volunteer from community will devote
  time in developing simple indicators on
• Progress of implementation of plan which includes
  Physical progress, Financial Progress and
  Progress in Resource management
• Institutional performance
• Weakness in plan implementation
• Gaps in between the activities proposed in Plan
  and actual implementation of the plan

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Evaluation

• The core group involved in the implementation of
  the pilot has to prepare a strategy for
  participatory evaluation that involves all key
  stakeholders in the process of evaluation
• Evaluation of achievement
• Key learning's of Previous experience
• Setting new vision and approach for future plan
• Draw learning for Panchayats as an institution
• Draw learnings for DPC and State Planning Boards/
  Commissions as an institutions of coordination
  for better planning
• Draw learnings for CBS/NGOs as facilitating
  partners in the process of devolution

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The pilot must answer

• role of elected representatives and Line
  Management Departments at district sub-district
  level
• The issue of convergence and resource
  availability at district and sub-district level
• Issue of planning by using local data
• System of monitoring and evaluation
• Using the learnings of evaluation for future
  planning
• Issue of linking local plans with State level
  planning process