Amendment_1_Section_J.9_USAID's_BUSINESS_LITERACY_PROGRAM_IN_NEPAL_2016.docx

Annual Performance Report-2015 AID-367-C-14-00002

Draft

Annual Performance Report -Year Three

USAID's Business Literacy Program in Nepal

USAID's Business Literacy Program in Nepal Contract No. AID–367-C-14-00002 United States Agency for International Development Kathmandu, Nepal Date: October 30, 2016

The author’s views expressed in this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

Table of Contents A. Introduction 4

B. Program Performance and Deliverables 4

G. Challenges faced 24

H. Lessons learned 24

A. Introduction United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the contract to implement USAID's Business Literacy Program in Nepal to Development Project Service Centre (DEPROSC Nepal) effective from March 1, 2014. The program aims to increase the resilience of the 48,000 vulnerable households and communities through enhanced literacy, numeracy and business/entrepreneurial skills in the Western, Mid-Western & Far-Western regions of Nepal. The program is being implemented by a team of DEPROSC Nepal (prime contractor) in association of Samjhauta Nepal (Subcontractor).

The Contract consists of the following three key program activities:

Activity 1: Development of business literacy training materials Activity 2: Delivery of Training of Trainers Activity 3: Delivery of business literacy training to beneficiaries

This is the third annual report describing the activities and accomplishments achieved during the implementation of the program for the period of one federal fiscal year that covering October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.

Year three began when the program was already extended in the Phase II ten districts and the 792 classes were about to start. First four months of year three had an overlap of program between Phase I and II districts.

B. Program Performance and Deliverables Business Literacy Program experienced a smooth implementation of planned activities and succeeded to comply with all 43 deliverables. The program deliverables related to Program Plans, Periodic Reports, General and Administrative Requirements, and Activity based tasks delivered to USAID during the year are presented here below.

Table 1: List of Deliverable submitted during the year III

Program Plans

Periodic Reports

Activity Based Tasks and Deliverables

Activity 2: Training of Trainers

Activity 3: Delivery of Business Literacy Training to Beneficiaries

General and Administrative Requirements

C. Coordination C.1 Coordination with USAID During the last one year, the program was implemented smoothly in coordination with USAID receiving proper guidance. In addition to informal sharing and discussions, a total of 12 formal meetings were held with USAID.

Table 2: Overview of meeting with USAID

C.2 Coordination with FTF Partners and Government Stakeholders Feed the Future (FtF) is a multifaceted project with involvement of various implementing partners. Business Literacy program has established smooth relation with concerned stakeholders: FtF partners and government stakeholders that include KISAN; RIDA; Non-Formal Education Centre; Suaahara; Social Welfare Council; and District Education Offices. BLP has been maintaining good coordination with KISAN. This has happened mainly because of two reasons: at first, program is covering all KISAN beneficiary households; second, the district offices are co-located with KISAN. Brief summary of coordination and cooperation among stakeholders are outlined in the table below.

Table 3: Overview of coordination meeting

7.

April 21, 2016 Business Literacy Program Regional Office hold a USAID's Implementing Partners (IPs) coordination meeting. Total 12 IPs and programs like KISAN, Suaahara, Business Literacy, H4L, HC3, PAHAL, Asia Vegetable/IPM, IL, Sajhedari Bikash, CSISA, RIDA, Early Grade Reading, Hariyo Ban were participated. It traced out the overlapped working VDCs and agreed to work in collaboration among the IPs to maximize the output.

D. Program Component wise progress D.1 Progress on Activity 2: Delivery of Training of Trainers Business Literacy Program will graduate 48000 beneficiaries organizing number of literacy training for which preparation of Master Trainers (MTs) and Community Trainers (CTs) are important part of the program. The program will train MTs who then train CTs. Therefore, BLP has designed two types of trainings viz-a-viz Master Training of Trainers (MTOT) and Community Training of Trainers (CTOT). Both trainings are planned for phase I and phase II districts. A total of six slots of such training: comprehensive; first refresher; and second refresher of each MTOT and CTOT are designed for both phases.

During the Year III, two slots of MTOT were organized-two refreshers of phase II. Each training was organized at three venues simultaneously to cover 69 participants. Detail of MTOT organized during this year is presented in the table below.

Table 4: Number of MTOT organized in the reporting year

Fig. 1: Presentation of participants in MTOT

Fig. 2: Group work in the training

Likewise, two CTOT refreshers are organized during this year in the respective district headquarters. MTs who obtained the master training performed as resource persons in these training. Upon completion of these training, all activities designed under Activity 2 are completed.

Table 5: Number of CTOT organized in during year III

Fig. 3: Group work in the CTOT

Fig. 4: CTs sample work plan prepared during CTOT

D.2 Progress on Activity 3: Delivery of Business Literacy Training to Beneficiaries The BLP conducts 48 weeks long training at the community level, for which five different modules are developed. This program has been implemented in two phases; the first phase is in 10 districts of mid-western region and the second phase is in another 10 districts of western and far western region. In the reporting year, Business Literacy Program (BLP) started beneficiary level training delivery through 792 literacy classes in the Phase II program districts from September and October 2015. Currently, Module Four Entrepreneurial Skills training is on-going. Likewise, in phase I districts, all Modules are completed in 1,267 literacy classes and the program is phased over in those 10 districts.

D.2.1 Beneficiaries Coverage in Phase I BLP Phase I districts have covered 32,641 beneficiaries in Overall Pre-test which has reduced to 31,796 by the time of Overall Post-test having 845 beneficiaries as dropout. See the following tables to observe Phase I Overall Post-test report status.

Table 6: Beneficiaries status at overall post-test by sex

Likewise, out of 31,796 beneficiaries who underwent through post-test in Phase I, 31,197 beneficiaries secured 40 or above marks. Adult literacy rate of target population in FtF ZOI among Phase I beneficiaries is 98.12% in overall program post-test which was 9.26% in overall program pre-test.

Among the Phase I beneficiaries, 68.22% are from Disadvantaged Group. DAG/Non-DAG and Ethnicity disaggregated data is presented in the table below.

Table 7: Beneficiaries status by DAG/Non-DAG

Table 8: Beneficiaries status by Ethnicity

D.2.2 Beneficiaries Coverage in Phase II From September 24, 2015, Business Literacy classes are commenced in phase II districts. Due to political unrest in few districts at that time, all classes could not start at once, however all 792 classes are started by October 10, 2015.

Table 9: Number of class by district

Likewise, administration & grading of M1, M2 and M3 has been successfully completed in phase II districts. Module 4, Entrepreneurial Skills, post-test is currently being held in the field.

Table 10: Beneficiaries status by sex as of Module 3

In the phase II, disadvantaged group (DAG) beneficiaries compose 64.26% of total beneficiaries whereas non DAG beneficiaries compose 35.74%.

Table 11: Beneficiaries status by sex and DAG/ Non-DAG as of Module 3

Table 12: Status of Beneficiaries by district as of M3

The dropout number recorded until the end of M3, is only 942 (4.40%) which is quite good.

D.2.3 Literacy Training Implementation The business literacy classes began with overall pre-test, composed of content from all five modules. Immediately afterwards, M1 pre-test was conducted to assess beneficiaries’ literacy and numeracy skills. After completion of these two pre-tests, program organized M1 training for 16 weeks. With successful completion of M1 training, 4 weeks long M2 training was organized. The M2 is about nutrition education that also covers the nutrition requirement of pregnant, lactating mothers and new born children. Similarly, M3 training were organized for 8 weeks which is about life skills education that covers decision making, communication, coping and management skills, HIV/AIDS, disaster risk reduction in the events of floods, earthquakes or fires, and human trafficking. Module 4 is designed with content to motivate the beneficiaries towards entrepreneurship development along with strengthening literacy & numeracy abilities. 16 weeks long module provide lessons in basic economic and business skills and ways to initiate or expand a business. Finally, M5, Access to Finance, has content to enhance beneficiaries’ knowledge of credit and financial services from a variety of financial institutions present in their localities. M5 training is implemented for 4 consecutive weeks. With the completion of each module, program prepares a “Module Testing & Training Delivery Report” which summarizes the findings of pre and post-test of modules organized at the start and end of modules training. In addition, the report also describes how the training was managed.

Implementation of literacy training encompassed a rigorous social mobilization process that included basically the following steps.

Multiple methods were applied while conducting training which include: group discussion; reading; writing; practice; role play; games; lectures; and demonstrations.

E. Progress on Cross Cutting E.1 Monitoring and Evaluation The BLP covers a sizable mass in 20 districts across the three western regions and literacy class activities are going on a daily basis. Monitoring is more crucial for these types of activities for regularity, effectiveness and quality control. BLP has a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan, which was approved on June 23, 2014 and has been revised three times until last fiscal year. No revision occurred during the reporting year. The M&E Plan considerably guides the project implementation. M&E requirement in BLP can be divided into two broad categories: Indicator based monitoring and Process monitoring.

Indicator based monitoring: There are 15 indicators (five are FtFMS and ten are custom). Out of which, six are of output level and nine are of outcome level. Performance Indicator Reference Sheet (PIRS) of M&E Plan explains the disaggregation, data sources, methods of data collection, target and other aspects of information. The project compares endline values with baseline values in order to trace the achievement. One other way of tracing the achievement is comparing pre-test and post-test figures. During the reporting year, endline of phase I (10 districts) was completed, final figures were drawn and reported. Similarly, baseline values of phase II (another 10 districts) were also generated. BLP conducted household survey for 12 indicators and sample survey for rest of the 3 indicators.

E.1.1 Endline Household Survey BLP generates the information/reports either from module reports or from surveys. The literacy classes in Phase I districts were completed by December 2015. In order to document the outcomes of Phase I, the project conducted endline survey in January 2016. There were two types of surveys: households and sample.

The program reached to the houses of all beneficiaries (31796) of Phase I to survey. The survey questionnaires were given the final shape in consultation of USAID. Master Trainers (MTs) briefed Community Trainers (CTs) how to conduct the surveys. CTs conducted the surveys under the supervision of MTs. ADHAs tabulated the information, which was checked by DPO. The Regional Office checked the consistency and reliability and send it to BLP Central Office. The result of endline survey was compared with the baseline survey.

E.1.2 Endline Sample Surveys Sample surveys generated information for three indicators, which are: food sample survey; self-efficacy sample survey; and concept of equal opportunities sample survey. M&E Plan includes all questions required for this survey. They were translated into Nepali to conduct the surveys. The household survey and sample surveys were conducted at the same time.

Food diversity The sample survey for food diversity was conducted in all 1266 classes of Phase I districts. Two participants from each literacy class were selected on a random basis so there were altogether (1266*2) 2532 samples. The randomly selected participants were asked if they attended any feast the day before. If so, that participant was dropped and another participant was selected again. Similarly, if the participant was on a fasting (without food) the day before that participant was also dropped and another participant was selected randomly again. In this way, it was ensured that the participants had a normal food on the day before the surveyed day. The survey question had a list of 12 food items. The respondents answered which food they had in the 24 hours of the day before. The result of endline sample survey was compared with the result of baseline survey.

Self-efficacy The questions included in M&E Plan for survey on ‘Self-efficacy’ and ‘agreement with the concept that males and females should have equal access to social, economic and political opportunities’ were also translated in Nepali and used. The two surveys aimed to document the achievement on female empowerment, for which endline figures was compared with baseline results again.

Process monitoring: BLP also managed to monitor the process. Tools used for process monitoring are Class Monitoring Checklist, travel order and travel reports, timesheet, staff meeting minutes, district office reports, visitors log books, stock reports and meeting with stakeholders.

E.1.3 Local level A Class Management Committees (CMC) is formed at the local level for all classes. The CMC is responsible to extend support in class operation. They are making day to day monitoring in their own ways which is more concerned about the presence of beneficiaries and effectiveness of training.

MTs do the class monitoring. Each MT makes at least two monitoring visits per month per class. MTs have widely used ‘Class Monitoring Checklist’ while monitoring.

E.1.4 District level Account and Data Handling Assistant (ADHA) and District Program Officer (DPO) make the district team, which has multiple responsibilities. Amongst all, monitoring of classes and mobilization of MTs for it is one of their priorities. Based on the discussion at district level, monthly meetings and feedback received from Class Monitoring Checklists filled by MTs, the district team monitors the classes.

E.1.5 Joint Monitoring Visits of District Stakeholders BLP has organized 6 ‘Joint Monitoring Visits’ of district stakeholders during this year. This was happened in Baitadi, Kanchanpur, Palpa, Bardia, Aacham and Kapilvastu. This has been very much useful to update stakeholders about the program and its achievements. The beneficiaries shared their learning, experiences and the impact of program during the visits. The line agency representatives during the visits appreciated BLP implementation and expressed their satisfaction for its achievements. Chief District Officer (CDO) of Aacham asked one beneficiary of his choice to write something in his diary. He was so impressed while talking and watching beneficiary writing on his diary. He congratulated BLP for its effective implementation. Likewise, DEO of Baitadi asked BLP to cooperate District Education Office to announce Baitadi, a 'Fully Literate District'.

Fig. 7: Stakeholders during the joint monitoring visit

Stakeholders’ representatives participating in such visits include from Local Development Office (LDO), District Education Office (DEO), District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), District Women and Children Office (DWCDO), NGO Federation, VDC, Suaahara, KISAN, journalists and also Chief District Officer (CDO) in case of Aacham.

E.1.6 Regional Level Regional team has effectively monitored the program and extend support to district teams during the year. The team has covered areas such as: quality of data; attendance of beneficiaries; relation with stakeholders and local elites; perception of BLP beneficiaries; non-beneficiaries perception towards program; monthly meeting minutes; and administrative; financial and logistics issues.

E.1.7 Central level BLP central team made several monitoring visits during the reporting year. The central team has focused both indicator based and process based monitoring. The central team observed all module trainings. Quality aspect such as how far the participants have learned, whether the beneficiaries are empowered as anticipated and whether the program is moving as per the plan were the priorities of central level monitoring. In addition to observation of classes, interactions with the beneficiaries, supervision of data management, interaction with MTs and courtesy visits to District Education Offices and KISAN are the prioritized activities of central team during the field visit.

Fig. 8 and 9: Central level monitoring

E.1.8 Observation/Monitoring from USAID A number of visits were made from American Embassy in Nepal including that of US Ambassador to Nepal, Her Excellency, Alaina B. Teplitz during the reporting year. Such visits have boosted the confidence level of beneficiaries as well as BLP team. The program has also received good feedback from these visits. Main visits made from USAID personnel during the year are presented in the table below.

Fig. 10: H.E. Aliena B. Taplitz with BLP Beneficiaries

Table 13: USAID’s monitoring / observation visits

Kanchanpur

E.1.9 Program Evaluation from Social Welfare Council (SWC) Social Welfare Council (SWC) deputed a monitoring and evaluation team to assess the performance of the program under the leadership of Mr. Purna Bahadur Lamichhane, an independent consultant, and other members of the team are Mr. Hari Babu Tiwari, representative from SWC itself and Mr. Om Bhattarai, a representative from Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. The team visited Pyuthan (from Phase I), Kanchanpur, Kailali & Kapilvastu (from Phase II) districts from 20 – 23, May 2016. The evaluation team observed several literacy classes, had meetings with local government entities and beneficiaries. Evaluation has rightly acknowledged the learning and empowerment achieved by the beneficiaries along with initiation taken by the rural communities towards enterprise development. It has suggested to link with ‘Village Education Committee’ and ‘District Education Office’ and replicate good practices and lessons learned in other projects.

E.2 Outreach and Communication Activities and Branding & Marking Activities Outreach and Communication Plan has been implemented using different communication tools for accomplishment of various communication activities under close guidance of USAID communication team. Likewise, Branding and Marking has been followed as per the purpose of plan that is to describe, promote and publicize USAID funded program “USAID’s Business Literacy Program in Nepal”.

Business Literacy Program (BLP) beneficiaries observed the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) on October 13, 2015 conducting simulation for raising awareness of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities. On the occasion, the resource person from District Disaster Response Committee (DDRC) and Nepal Red Cross Society shared different ideas on being prepared to cope with disaster situations and suggested to be familiarized with the policy framework of DRR in Nepal from local context (Village Disaster Response Committee, Local Adaptation Plan for Action, National Adaptation plan for Action, mainstreaming DRR) etc.

E.2.1.2 International Women’s Day BLP beneficiaries marked 106th International Women’s Day on March 8, 2016 through different activities that raised voice against gender-based discrimination prevailed in the society. The celebration included activities such as rally, Deuda competition, dance competition, repetition of slogans and experience sharing. The slogan for this year was “Planet 50-50 by 2030: it up for gender equality”. In some districts, it is observed in collaboration with district stakeholders and in some districts, it is observed separately.

Fig. 11 and 12: BLP Beneficiaries in the rally in Kapilvastu and Achham

E.2.1.3 International Literacy Day BLP celebrated 50th International Literacy Day on September 8, organizing different programs under the overall theme of ‘Reading the past, writing the future’ in the program districts as well as in Kathmandu.

Fig. 13. BLP stall at Rastriya Sabha Griha

Fig. 14. Joint program with DEO, Argakhachi

Beneficiaries of BLP and other stakeholders participated enthusiastically in all the activities organized highlighting the importance of literacy.

BLP central office participated in the education fair organized by Ministry of Education. It was held at Rastriya Sabha Griha on September 8, 2016. In the fair, BLP displayed its educational materials such as modules, newsletters, factsheets, note books, visual documentary and calendars. Minister for Education, various government officials, journalists, students and the people from educational sector visited the BLP stall.

Likewise, International Literacy Day was celebrated in eight program districts. On the occasion, beneficiaries and CTs organized rallies with slogans and play cards. Educational and awareness building messages were printed on the play cards. Beneficiaries were, further, engaged in reciting poems, singing songs and performing ‘Deuda’ linking it to the knowledge gained during BLP training. These programs were organized in coordination with District Education Offices (DEOs), Village Development Committees (VDCs), local level stakeholder representatives, intellectuals, Class Management Committee (CMC) members and local people.

Fig. 15: Beneficiaries being awarded

Fig. 16: Mass rally delivering literacy message

Kanchanpur felicitated CMC member and beneficiaries with letter of appreciation for their sincere contribution in making the training effective. They received the award from DEO of Kanchanpur, Mr. Shyam Singh Dhami. Mr. Dhami appreciated BLP saying "BLP has contributed on literacy campaign started by nation and has brought significant differences in the lives of beneficiaries”.

E.2.2 Audio Drama Broadcasting Audio drama has been broadcasted in the first phase 10 districts through the local FM stations to motivate beneficiaries to get them involved in entrepreneurial activities. Drama was aired twice for making sure that all beneficiaries would be able to listen it. Promo for drama was broadcasted prior 3 days of drama broadcasting. The drama has been shared also in every BLP classes with the help of MTs and CTs using their mobile phones.

E.2.3 Audio-Visual Documentary Broadcasting Business Literacy Program (BLP) has developed a video documentary incorporating program features and its impacts on the beneficiaries. This was broadcasted from The Kantipur Television on the July 29, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Information of documentary broadcast was widely circulated within USAID, DEPROSC Nepal and at the beneficiaries' level. Community Trainers, Masters Trainers and local media (FM) were mobilized to disseminate the message of documentary broadcast. This has been viewed in all 20 districts. Beneficiaries have appreciated it. Load shading in some areas and non-availability of The Kantipur Television in the bordering areas of Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur have missed to watch it. Therefore, it was re-broadcasted through Nepal Television on Sep 10, 2016 at 10:30 AM so as to cover the beneficiaries who were unable to watch the documentary due to load shedding and other reasons during previous broadcast.

Furthermore, MTs and CTs having smartphones are provided with the documentary so that they can show it in their class and community as well. The documentary is also uploaded in YouTube.

E.2.4 Program Calendar Publication & Distribution Business Literacy Program published calendar for the year 2073 B.S. which imparts important awareness raising messages of 5 modules. Calendars were distributed to all literacy classes (one for each) and the relevant stakeholders in the center and the districts.

E.2.5 Certificate Design The program has distributed certificate to all the beneficiaries and Community Trainers (CTs) of Phase I districts who have successfully completed 48 weeks literacy training. All 32,503 beneficiaries and 1267 Community Trainers received the certificate.

E.2.6 Newsletter and Success Stories Award The program has published three newsletters during this year i.e. in October, 2015, February, 2016 and June, 2016. Each time, 35000 thousand copies of newsletter were distributed among the beneficiaries and the stakeholders. Its main aim was to inspire beneficiaries to expand and initiate small scale enterprises using locally available resources thus consists of beneficiaries’ own successes. Success stories to publish in the newsletters are collected from the program districts through a cash award scheme administered on a quarterly basis.

E.2.7 Program Closure in Phase I Districts

Fig. 17: COR, Jayanti Subba thanking district stakeholders in program closure meeting, Bardia

Upon the completion of program in Phase I districts, District Stakeholders Sharing Meeting (DSSM) was successfully organized in all ten districts as a formal closure of the program. The government line agency chiefs, representatives, media personnel, civil society representatives, NGO federation and USAID IPs were presented in such closure meetings.

DPOs presented targets, achievements, challenges and lessons learnt of the program in the closure meeting. Beneficiaries, Community Trainers, Master Trainers, and Class Management Committee representatives also shared their experiences.

District Educations Officers and BLP program representatives delivered speech in their respective districts. Program Manager of BLP delivered closure speech in five districts and M&E Expert delivered the similar speech in four districts. Closure speech was delivered by the COR Ms. Jayanti Subba in Bardia on January 13, 2016 where she expressed her gratitude to all the stakeholders for their sincere support particularly, the District Education Office.

Fig. 18: PM, Kailash Rijal, addressing closure meeting in Jajarkot.

The Program Manager and Finance Manager jointly visited Pyuthan, Rolpa, Surkhet, Bardiya, Banke & Jajarkot districts during the closure while the M&E Expert visited Dang, Salyan, Rukum and Bardiya for the closure. The closure meeting of Banke held on January 20, 2016 was observed by the Executive Director of DEPROSC Nepal, Mr. Pitambar Prasad Acharya.

The closure meeting began from Pyuthan on January 06 and ended at Banke on January 20, 2016.

E.2.8 Letter of Appreciation through District Education Offices Business Literacy Program has been honored with letter of appreciation from Palpa District Education Office for the meaningful participation as BLP has contributed to society making literate and active on establishing and expanding enterprises in the local areas using local resources. It was received on the occasion of 37th Education Day and 50th International Literacy Day.

Likewise, DEPROSC received letter of appreciation from District Education Offices (Jajarkot and Pyuthan). District Development Committee Rukum has also appreciated USAID's Business Literacy Program through a formal letter. Through the appreciation letter, they showed their gratitude to USAID for designing such a good program and has requested for the replication in other needy areas.

E.3 Gender Equity & Social Inclusion The program has given due preference to women, dalit and people with disability as beneficiaries as well as trainers. This approach has rightly been reflected in case of MTs and CTs. The program has so far 150 MTs appointed where female representation is 50.3%. District wise number of MTs are provided in the table below.

Table 14: Master Trainers by Sex

Likewise, ethnically, there is good diversity among the MTs. CTs’ gender inclusiveness has been tabled below.

Table15: Community Trainers by Sex

F. Miscellaneous F.1 Capacity Building & Exposure from USAID The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) project of USAID organized a ‘performance management workshop’ of implementing partners on 21 January 2016 at MEL Project Office, Baluwatar, Kathmandu. On behalf of BLP, M&E Expert Mr. Krishna Prasad Neupane and M&E Manager of DEPROSC Central Office, Ms. Rita Paudel participated in the workshop. The MEL project also shared their findings, conclusions and recommendations from a recent assessment of implementing partners’ M&E processes and capacity. In addition, the MEL project also shared M&E training plan that they are offering to Mission and IP participants.

In February 2016, Program Manager Mr. Kailash Rijal & Finance Manager Mr. Bibek Kandel, participated in the Award Treasure Hunt workshop organized by USAID/Nepal Office of Acquisition & Assistance (OAA). The objective of the workshop was to make the local implementing partners aware of different forms of awards and its instructions; identification of resource materials; clarification about clauses in the agreements and its modifications, etc.

In March 2016, Finance Manager Mr. Bibek Kandel & Finance Officer Mr. Gaurav Devkota, participated in “All About Budget” workshop organized by USAID/Nepal Office. The objective of the workshop was to clarify the issues of budget management, cost sharing and program income. The workshop also briefed the participants on Federal Acquisition Regulation Clause and Cost Reimbursement process.

USAID's Development Outreach and Communication (DOC) Office organized a workshop on "Crisis Communication" to its Implementing Partners (IPs) on July 14-15, 2016. This was focused on development of crisis communication plan and its implementation during the crisis. Outreach and Communication Officer, Ms. Deepa Adhikari attended one and half day workshop on behalf of BLP. Mr. Joseph Trurong, Public Affairs Specialist and Outreach Team Leader, Asia Bureau, Mr. Ram Krishna Regmi, Professor, Kantipur City College and Mr. Santosh Gyawali, Senior Disaster Specialist of USAID Nepal facilitated the sessions.

F.2 BLP Staff training cum refreshment A residential capacity building training & refreshment of BLP staff was organized on April 5-8, 2016 at Hotel Retreat, Pokhara. The central BLP team from DEPROSC, Regional Office Staff, all DPOs and ADHAs were present in the training. Prof. Dr. Resham Bahadur Thapa, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Rampur Chitwan served as resource person.

Fig. 19: Resource Person with BLP staff

Fig. 20: Sharing ideas in the meeting

Two program days were divided into two parts. The first part was the training sessions facilitated by External Resource person who dealt on topics like proposal writing, report writing and case studies writing. Participants were divided into groups to prepare reports and case studies who later presented in the plenary. The second part was the program review when the topics like household survey, sample survey, module-wise reporting, monitoring, data entry, logistic, finance etc. were discussed in the sessions facilitated by Program Manager, M&E Expert and Finance Manager.

F.3 Strategic meetings BLP team is regularly reviewing the program and making strategic plans. In doing so, the central & regional level team had three days residential strategic meeting on October 9-11, 2015 in Kathmandu. There was an intensive discussion regarding Management Information System (MIS) handling, deliverable finalization, monitoring & supervision, and planning for second phase, etc. Beside, best practices of the first phase were reviewed and devised a strategy to strengthen the intervention where necessary.

Fig. 21: Resource Person with BLP staff

Fig. 22: Resource Person with BLP staff

Likewise, the BLP team organized a regional level residential meeting during October 16-17, 2015 in Hotel Amrit, Nepalgunj. Program Manager Mr. Kailash Rijal & Finance Manager Mr. Bibek Kandel along with regional team and DPOs of all districts participated in the program. The team identified major bottleneck activities in the Phase I which need to overcome in the Phase II program implementation. Meeting finalized a detailed plan of action for critical tasks like data handling and computation amongst other tasks based on urgency and deliverable deadline.

Similarly, BLP organized a ‘review and planning meeting’ with DPOs, Regional and Central team in August 16-17, 2016 in Hotel Siddhartha, Nepalgunj. This meeting prepared a timeline plan for each of the remaining activities such as joint monitoring visits, overall post-test, endline survey, district closure meeting etc. till the project closure in February 2017.

G. Challenges faced

· Beneficiaries not belonging to KISAN HH had keen interest to join the Business Literacy Classes. It was a challenge to select limited number of beneficiary convincing others.

· The program faced different huddles mainly on delivery of materials, organizing MTOTs and CTOTs and transportation in general because of political unrest in some of the terai districts during the beginning of Year III.

· There were few males, who wanted to attend classes but due to their mobility in income generation activities, they were more irregular. Even CMC could not solve it properly.

· Nepali language is not the first language of beneficiaries in inner terai districts like Kapilvastu so it was challenging to make them understand the meaning of several words. CTs had to explain the vocabulary in their native languages. Fortunately, almost all of CTs were from same linguistic background of that of communities.

H. Lessons learned

· In the initial days of training, beneficiaries’ opinion was that business literacy would be like that of other adult literacy packages so they were less interested and it was difficult to retain them. Later, they found that it is a different package related with their everyday needs with interesting classroom environment with regularity. Once they reached to module 2, it was very charming for all of them.

· Integrated training approach like reading, writing, discussion, practice, solving numerical and role-play has been very much liked by the beneficiaries which is found to be essential for effective learning. This approach has helped in initiating enterprises as well.

· Ownership of local communities created through CMC mobilization contributed a lot for acceptance and effectiveness of the program.

· Close and regular monitoring of the program has been instrumental for effective running of the program.

· The program should be designed separately for the (i) complete illiterate and (ii) Neo-literate or school drop outs beneficiaries so that learning speed of the later beneficiaries is not affected by the former one.

· Beneficiaries should be allowed to get into the training even from Module 3 or 4 as per their capacity. This would bring more impact on developing larger number of entrepreneur.

Arrangement of stationaries & other class conduction materials

Identification of training venues & time

Formation of class management committee

Finalization of Beneficiaries

Pre-test and class conduction

Regular class monitoring

Module completion and post test

Training schedule, time and duration finalization

Fig. 5: Beneficiaries completing exam Female

Fig. 5: Beneficiaries completing exam Female

Fig.6: Adult literacy rate in ZOI Female

Fig.6: Adult literacy rate in ZOI Female

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