Management of implementation

3. Management of implementation

3.1 Implementation cycle

• 
  Central-level deliverables. These are typically deliverables such as agreements, development of procedures and other technical outputs. They are generally created centrally in order to direct and enable later work in provinces and districts.
  
• 
  Local-level deliverables. These are specific activities in PGOs, provincial municipalities and Provincial Councils such as training, workshops and the provision of technical support during critical processes such as planning and budget preparation. They are generally based on central-level deliverables already produced such as policies, agreements, procedures, directives and so on.
  

The planning and implementation of the SNGP will be fully mainstreamed into the normal annual IDLG planning and implementation process. In outline, the process will be use the following process:

1. 
   IDLG obtains the agreement of external agencies to support production of deliverables planned for the coming year. The first step is for the Policy Directorate to engage with relevant external agencies to ensure that they are committed to producing the deliverables specified in the implementation framework for the time period. For example, the Ministry of Economy is listed as External Focal Point for deliverable 3 of sub-output 3.2 (workshops to disseminate new PDC procedures in the provinces), which is scheduled for the first half of 2014; therefore, during 2014 work planning, the Policy Directorate would contact the Ministry of Economy to get their agreement to work on this deliverable together. The Policy Directorate would seek the support of the IDLG leadership and other directorates as appropriate.
   
2. 
   Policy Directorate communicates to the Implementing Directorates what deliverables they need to produce for the coming year. At roughly the same time, the Policy Directorate would inform the other directorates (the “Implementing Directorates”) what deliverables they were committed to producing during the coming planning period, as specified in the framework. Because the policy framework will have been fully discussed in IDLG and previously approved, implementing directorates should be ready and willing to produce these deliverables and there should be “no surprises”. This step is purely procedural, and mainly functions as a reminder to the Director and his/her key staff. The HR Directorate, for example, is listed as the Internal Focal Point for a number of deliverables in outputs 1 and 2, and so at the beginning of each planning period would be informed exactly which deliverables were due in the coming year. The Policy Directorate would provide additional clarification and explanation as and when needed.
   
3. 
   Implementing directorates negotiate with donor-funded programmes to assign responsibility for local-level deliverables. As mentioned above, local-level outputs generally involve activities in all 34 provinces or all 33 provincial municipalities, and IDLG will not have the capacity to implement all of these directly. A brief analysis of section 2 of this document shows that separate workshops and then follow-up support are needed for most of the sub-outputs in every provincial-level subnational entity. Therefore, at this stage the Directorate has to negotiate with the donor-funded projects in its sector to reach agreement to produce the deliverables, thereby ensuring that the required events and technical support are delivered as needed. For example, deliverable 4 of output 4.3 is the delivery of a workshop for each PC and for the PGO and line department heads in each province, to present and discuss guidance on PGO-line department interactions, scheduled to take place in the first half of 2014. To ensure this was delivered, IDLG’s General Directorate of Local Councils would conduct joint planning with the donor-funded projects that support it and agree which agency would conduct the workshops in each province, ensuring that all provinces were covered and there was no duplication. Likewise, the Directorate of Coordination and Local Programme Development would go through a similar process, assigning responsibility to implement various field-level activities related to PGOs to the different donor-funded projects supporting this sector.
   

4. 
   Implementing directorates assign responsibility for central-level deliverables to their own sub-units and teams. At this stage, the directorate will assign responsibility for delivering central-level deliverables such as policies, procedures and guidance. As mentioned above, the expectation is that IDLG will be able to produce these internally with some targeted assistance from international TA. Therefore, responsibility will be assigned by the Directorate to its sub-units and/or specific teams.
   
5. 
   Implementing directorates track the delivery of agreed outputs by the donor-funded projects. Once deliverables, following donor discussion and agreement, have been assigned to donor-funded projects by the relevant directorate, the directorates will verify that the planned outputs are delivered. In general, it should be possible for the Directorates to rely mainly rely on the reporting of the projects, but this can be supplemented with some independent monitoring and verification. If implementation is not taking place as planned, the Directorate will ask for corrective action, involving the leadership of IDLG if needed.
   
6. 
   Implementing directorates track the delivery of assigned outputs by sub-units and teams. At the same time, the Directorates will ensure that internally-assigned activities take place as planned.
   
7. 
   Implementing directorates report production of deliverables to Policy Directorate. The implementing directorate report, for each semi-annual period, the status of the production of agreed deliverables by their donor-funded projects and by the sub-units and internal teams, clearly indicating which deliverables were produced as planned, which were produced late and which were not produced at all, and why.
   
8. 
   Policy Directorate tracks the delivery of agreed outputs by external agencies. In this step, the Policy Directorate will liaise with the “External Focal Points” who are committed to producing policy deliverables, in order to verify whether they are being produced according to the agreed schedule. If the external agencies are not producing deliverables as agreed, the Policy Directorate will encourage them to take whatever actions are necessary to get back on track, and will involve the IDLG leadership if needed.
   
9. 
   Policy Directorate reports to the leadership of IDLG on policy implementation. Once the Policy Directorate has complete information on the production of deliverables for each period, it will be able to share this with the IDLG leadership and other relevant stakeholders. This information will be shared in a simple report format, listing deliverables by Directorate/Focal Point that were planned for the period, showing whether they were done or not, and whether they were on time or not. Reporting on field-level outputs will contain information on whether the output was produced in each SNG unit.
   
10. 
    Directorates conduct regular reporting to M&E directorate. Implementing directorates will report on their activities, inputs and outputs according to their agreed M&E frameworks. However, whether any activities, input or output relates to a SNGP deliverable will be clearly indicated, allowing the M&E unit to evaluate the directorates’ performance in SNGP implementation separately.
    
11. 
    M&E directorate conducts regular reporting to IDLG leadership. The M&E directorate will submits its periodic reports to the IDLG leadership. These will be according to the agreed M&E frameworks for IDLG, its programmes and directorates, but will also include information and evaluation of SNGP implementation.