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| Written by Jonathan on Monday, 17 August 2009 08:47 |
However, the ZNAN secretariat is overstretched by the ever-increasing demand for skills and capacity building among member and non-member organisations. Currently, the Secretariat has one staff member in the CBO/NGO support unit, which is responsible for overseeing the support to CSOs and the efforts of this unit is complemented by other ZNAN personnel in the M&E and Finance units. However, the combined effort of these players falls far short of meeting the increasing and evolving demand for skills and capacity building from CSOs. CSOs have a tendency to define capacity needs in terms of lack of financial resources rather than defining their roles and problems in dealing HIV and AIDS and on the basis of this determining their resource requirements. As a sub-granting organisation and one that is also playing a lead role in facilitating capacity building among CSOs, ZNAN has a responsibility to guide this process among these organisations to ensure that capacity building matches capacity utilisation. The establishment of ZNAN’s Provincial Office on the Copperbelt has proven to be a cost-efficient and effective way of extending its skills and capacity building efforts. With the establishment of the ZNAN Provincial Office, there has been an increased level of skills and capacity building support, including on-the-spot technical assistance to organisations on the Copperbelt. The Provincial Office staff spend a large portion of their time providing technical assistance to NGOs and CBOs in the province. Despite this achievement however, this support is not meeting existing needs due to the limited capacity of the Provincial Office. The Lead Agencies have been providing skills and capacity building support to their sub-grantees; however, this is primarily limited due to inadequate resources available to them for this purpose. Some Lead Agencies have been exceptionally effective in providing capacity building support to sub-grantees in the areas of IGAs, proposal writing and financial management. However, it is quite evident that most of these organisations have their own limitations as mentioned above and adequate funding is essential for them to fulfil the skills and capacity building role. The setting up of provincial offices and strengthening of lead agencies and selected member organisations (see 2 above) will definitely enhance the capacity building efforts. Similarly, investments will be made to ensure that ZNAN members of staff have the appropriate tools, information and methodological skills required for effective capacity building. In addition, ZNAN will systematically harness the comparative advantages of the Lead Agencies and selected member organisations to provide technical support and capacity building to sub-grantees and member organisations. The main areas identified for capacity building are: • HIV and AIDS and TB knowledge and provider skills training, • Managerial, financial and advocacy skills training and mentoring, • Monitoring and evaluation of programme activities, • Infrastructure and equipment provision, • IGA management, and • Governance HIV, AIDS and TB knowledge and provider skills training is an on-going activity. The rapid scientific and technological changes in the area of HIV and AIDS call for regular information updates and dissemination, in addition to systematic in-service training required for new members of staff of the provider institutions. ZNAN will work closely with various selected member organisations with competences in capacity building to ensure quicker and wider coverage of the CSO provider training. Overall, most of the provider training will be covered through grants funding and the cross cutting issues (e.g. training methods and coordination, quality assurance, measuring of effectiveness and efficiency of capacity building efforts) through funding for core functions. Managerial and financial skills training and mentoring in diverse areas such as leadership and governance; proposal writing; bookkeeping and accounts; budgeting and planning; compliance and reporting is in high demand amongst the CSOs country wide. In order to ensure that every supported organization is able to access the basic managerial tools, ZNAN will make available standard tools and documents that can easily be applied without formal class training. These will be augmented through systematic mentoring and selected workshops. Monitoring and evaluation of programme activities will be enhanced so that the CSOs can more effectively monitor and evaluate their activities and, more importantly, use the results obtained to input in their programmes for better implementation of activities. Data collection and reporting systems will be standardised and skills imparted in the CSOs for the use of these data in their operations. The provision of infrastructure and equipment will also build on the positive experiences and insights gained to date. Improvements will be made to the equipment assessment tools and indicators together with systematic guidance on procurement and maintenance. Income Generating Activities (IGA) management will facilitate improved service delivery and effective management of sustainable IGAs by CSOs. This acquired capacity will help CSOs with quality skills to manage IGAs and also help them develop and implement sustainability strategies for continuing their work beyond donor assistance. IGA management targeted towards Women is of utmost importance in empowering women to be financing sustaining in order to reduce the vulnerability of women to HIV and AIDS as well as a source of revenue to provide for their families. This activity will be considered under the sustainability component. |