Annex J1 - Additional Details about Sector-Specific G2G Agreements.docx

ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT SECTOR-SPECIFIC G2G AGREEMENTS

HEALTH-SPECIFIC CONTEXT

The 2021-2026 Health Project Appraisal Document (PAD) is directly responsible for achieving Intermediate Result 2 (to improve the health status of the Senegalese) of the second Development Objective of USAID/Senegal’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and is closely aligned with the PSE’s Pillar 2 on human capital and sustainable development. It builds on the successes and lessons learned from the 2016-2021 PAD and the legacy of USAID’s investments in the health sector, including the extension of G2G programming at the regional level. From 2021-2026, HPNO will provide regional and/or district-level health authorities with direct financing to support service delivery, health systems strengthening, and social and behavior change activities. HPNO will also directly finance central-level health entities and/or regional-level entities and chiefs of programs to technically support and oversee G2G activities.

When requested by USAID, G2G Ops will play a support role in facilitating coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Budget (MFB) and Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS) entities. The Contractor must coordinate with USAID technical and support teams before engaging with GOS ministries. The Contractor is expected to support the following entities: Direction de l’Ordonnancement des Dépenses Publiques (DODP), Direction de la Planification de la Recherche et de la Statistique (DPRS), Direction de l’Administration Générale et de l’Equipement (DAGE), Direction Générale de la Santé (DGS), Direction de la Santé de la Mère et de l’Enfant (DSME), Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme (PNLP), Agence Nationale de la Couverture Maladie Universelle (ANACMU), Pharmacie Nationale d'Approvisionnement (PNA), Inspection interne, regional medical authorities, local governments, and the heads of the Documents de Programmation Pluriannuelle de Dépenses (DPPD) programs.

The G2G Ops mechanism represents one of six major implementation modalities that make up HPNO’s overall investment in the Senegalese health sector, so the Contractor must also coordinate with other HPNO implementing partners. HPNO’s Central-Level Health Systems mechanism focuses on strengthening key systems within MSAS and the GOS, including policy and governance, information systems, human resources for health, supply chain, health financing, and MSAS engagement with the private sector. To streamline communication with central-level entities, the Contractor should work closely with the Central-Level Health Systems mechanism. Additionally, the New Partner Initiative (NPI) will provide grants to Senegalese civil society organizations to support social marketing and advocacy efforts to hold the GOS accountable for effective service delivery and investment in the health sector. NPI will provide organizational and technical capacity building to the subgrantees, targeting their needs in financial management, grant writing, human resources, leadership and management, and advocacy skills and communications. To ensure local organizations in G2G regions receive needed capacity building, the Contractor should coordinate with the NPI mechanism’s sub-grantees to facilitate capacity building training opportunities.

Lastly, HPNO’s Integrated District Health (IDH) mechanism will support the implementation of comprehensive health plans at the district level that address the key drivers of maternal, neonatal, and child morbidity and mortality. Over the five year period, regions of Senegal will transition from receiving development assistance through IDH to enrolling in HPNO’s G2G programming to receive direct financing. To support the transition and enrollment of new regions, the Contractor should also work closely with the IDH mechanism. G2G Ops will develop capacity building plans for each IDH region based on the weaknesses identified in the PFMRAF Stage 2 and joint donor risk assessment. In collaboration with IDH, G2G Ops will also develop a transition plan detailing when and how IDH regions will transition to G2G; this plan will need to be approved by HPNO and MSAS. During the Health Program 2021-2026, IDH will be responsible for providing technical assistance and financial resources to support IDH regions in addressing their capacity building plans. Once a region officially transitions to G2G, the G2G Ops mechanism will be responsible for facilitating technical assistance and supporting the region to continue addressing weaknesses. For G2G beneficiaries, technical assistance needs are primarily provided through milestones with the central-level GOS entity that has the necessary expertise. To avoid duplication of technical assistance efforts, G2G Ops will focus on providing G2G process-related technical assistance to beneficiaries and coordinate with MFB, MSAS entities and/or other HPNO implementing partners for the provision of health technical assistance to regional and district-level health G2G beneficiaries.

EDUCATION-SPECIFIC CONTEXT

From 2007-2016, the USAID Senegal Education Office engaged in the Partnership for the Acquisition of Reading Skills in Primary Schools (PALME) project, a G2G agreement to construct middle schools and improve learning outcomes in reading and mathematics. Despite the technical capacity that was present at the Ministry of Education (MOE), the PALME project experienced, amongst other challenges in its implementation, a lack of coordination between the different directorates involved, as well as recurrent strikes at the MOE. Realizing that these circumstances would not make it possible to achieve the intended results,, both USAID and the GOS decided to end this agreement.

Based on the learnings of this first experience, a smaller and more focused Early Grade Reading G2G program was carved out for the region of Saint Louis in 2018. This activity is closely tied to the implementation of a similar activity undertaken by a traditional implementing partner (IP) in 6 other regions. The purpose is that the GOS will replicate the model used by the IP, using its own personnel and procedures, where the IP serves as a technical adviser to build capacities of MOEpersonnel.

After two years in this new partnership, new insights and lessons have been learned. The MOE’s commitment to the G2G approach showed itself extremely strong, both technically and financially, thus facilitating a smooth implementation of activities. This was also driven by the quick reactions from the MOE, which are clearly an important catalyst. The lengthy design and approval processes within USAID and GOS on the other hand have slowed down the start-up and the implementation. This resulted in an un-alignment to the school year, which is highly undesirable with regards to the intended impact. Other areas where there is clearly room for improvement, especially with regard to delivery on time, are: the mobilization of GOS cash contribution, the submission of reports and the procurement of learning material that specifically needs to be made available at the beginning of the school year in October. Additionally, local governments and executives requesting greater decision making authority and accountability versus the national level authorities’ level, as well as the heavy workload for USAID staff to monitor field based activities, will both need the necessary attention.

The MOE has a good system for planning, technical implementation and financial management. Procedures are in place, staff is well trained and there are several layers of budget planning and execution controls. An annual performance report outlines the achieved results and the challenges to cope with.

The members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) intend to reform their financial management by improving the efficiency of public action for the benefit of all (citizens, users, taxpayers and public officials) and establishing real transparency in public management. Senegal is one of the pilot countries and the MOE was one of the four Ministries to be included in the pilot.

Based on the strong commitment of the MOE and the encouraging experience in theSaint Louis region, USAID intends to expand the G2G education portfolio with a multi-level award at the central and decentralized levels. This extension will increase USAID staff’s responsibilities, thus jeopardizing their ability to sufficiently monitor field-based activity. It is recommended that in addition to the financial experts and a specialist in monitoring and evaluation, an education specialist will be added to the team in order to address specific issues related to the education sector (policies, training, etc.).

During the 2021-2026 period, EDU expects to partially fund seven regions for G2G activities. The regions of Saint Louis, Kaolack, Fatick, Louga, Kaffrine, Matam, and Diourbel will receive funding through both a G2G agreement and the traditional USAID implementing partner approach. The partial G2G financing will likely include activities like teacher training, and coaching.

WASH-SPECIFIC CONTEXT

The Sustainable Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation project (AADEPA) is a G2G project, part of the USAID Economic Growth Office (EGO) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) portfolio. It is designed to complement ongoing projects like ACCES (Assainissement Changement de Comportement et Eau pour le Sénégal) to increase access to drinking water and sanitation in the regions of Ziguinchor, Sedhiou, Kolda, Tambacounda, Kedougou and Matam. It is aligned with ongoing GOS reforms in the sector to build a more private sector led model in water and sanitation management. USAID believes that by supporting the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (MOWS) directly to implement activities, coupled with technical assistance, the Water and Sanitation departments will increase their capacity to manage water and sanitation services.

The four components of the G2G activity are: increase access to safe drinking water and water for productive use; increase access to affordable and appropriate sanitation services; improve strategic planning and M&E to safeguard water resources; and strengthen the ministry management system.

The Ops mechanism will support the implementation of all four components to strengthen DAGE, CPCSP, DA, DGPRE, OFOR and DH capacities to manage the award correctly.

Specifically it will: facilitate meetings from planning, minutes to follow up actions; provide logistic and administrative support to USAID and GOS entities to do field visits; support review of documents to help move forward on processes; support work plans, reports and M&E tasks to respect USAID requirements; monitor risk response plan implementation on both sides; support gender sensitivity of activities, and environmental sound design of projects in the sector.

Using the PFMRAF and risk response plan done for the MOWS between 2017 and 2018 as an entry point, the G2G Ops will support the implementation of the G2G project.

It will support the MOWS with process management: verifying completion of milestones and cost reimbursement activities; establishing verification with the A&E firm; and supporting the GOS to submit G2G deliverables that comply with USAID expectations. The mechanism will additionally need to support the programming, mobilization, and reporting of the GOS’ host country contribution, particularly tracking the G2G national budget line item to ensure that there are sufficient funds in the budget to match, and be rationally used to supplement USAID funds. G2G Ops will support and monitor implementation of capacity building activities embedded in component 4 of the project. Ops will conduct learning activities to inform USAID for future design of G2G activities by identifying gaps and areas where we need to invest in.