A four-day training designed and organised by the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) with joint financial support from United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) & Integrated Economic Development and Community Resilience (IEDCR) to develop the technical capacity of participants in various aspects of service delivery areas ended successfully as planned on 23rd February 2024.
Fifty-five Officers from PGs & MPGIS went through a four-day intensive refresher training on Provincial Planning Process of Local Climate Change Living Facility (LoCAL) and its tracking system known as the Assessing Climate Change Adaptation Framework (ACCAF), Performance-Based Grant Systems (PBS), Environment and Social Management Framework (ESMF), Environment and Social Commitment Plans (ESCP), Stakeholder Engagement Plans (SEP), Labour Management Procedures (LMP), Gender Mainstreaming Concepts, and Provincial Government Procurement Procedures to ensure PG teams are equipped to use the LoCAL tools, which now form part of the Provincial Capacity Development Fund (PCDF) Operational Procedures Manuals.
Speaking during the official opening of the training on 20th February, Deputy Secretary Operations (DSO), John Misiteé, underscored the importance of the training and urged participants to participate fully by sharing and learning as much as they could from the event. “I appeal to all of you to make use of the hands on workshop to seek clarity on issues and challenges affecting your respective Provinces as the issues to be covered are relevant to all aspects of your work plan”, DSO Misiteé firmly urged the participants.
There were two internationally based UNCDF Officials whom MPGIS’s DSO deeply expressed appreciation for their attendance as facilitators; LoCAL Program Manager based in Fiji, Melissa Tipping and the Chief Technical Advisor for LoCAL based in Denmark, Jesper Steffensen, kick started day one of the training. The focus for the first day was on descriptions of the ACCAF and how, PG Officers can use project tracking and monitoring systems framework developed by the World Resource Institute to ensure achievement of the adaptation aims and objectives of the LoCAL.
The later days of the training involved refresher on Environment and Social Safeguards of PCDF in line with the World Bank Environment and Social Management Framework, Environment and Social Commitment Plan, Labour Management Plan and Stakeholder Engagement Plan. This included the gender mainstreaming through inclusion and participation of women and youths who play a meaningful role in community and social development planning and decision-making processes.
The Ministry incorporated Provincial Procurement Procedures in the final day of the training to enable the PG & MPGIS Officers to discuss and find long-term solution to the key procurement issues affecting project delivery since all Provinces have procurement issues. He however cited that detailed procurement training shall be covered during the induction training of new Members of Provincial Assemblies in Seven Provinces that will hold elections in April this year. Two Provinces that are not going to hold their elections this year namely Western and Choiseul require submitting and passing of their budgets by end of March 31 whilst the other Seven Provinces must try to pass their respective budgets by July 15 this year, as per the recently communicated timelines by the Minister’s Order, DSO Misiteé stated.
DS Misiteé stated that Solomon Islands is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change and through IEDCR the country is benefiting from UNCDF’s LoCAL facility, a global mechanism that is channelling grants for locally led Climate Change Adaptation Actions in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Solomon Islands. The LoCAL helps Local Government Authorities in LDCs and other developing countries to access the climate finance, capacity-building and technical support that they need to respond and adapt to climate change.
Solomon Islands accesses the LoCAL funding of UNCDF via a recently signed agreement between the Government of New Zealand, the European Union and the LoCAL for the transfer of funds through IEDCR using the PCDF modality of the Provincial Governance Strengthening Programme (PGSP) that espouses the IEDCR of the World Bank to support the Provincial Governments deliver climate resilient projects.
Misiteé stated, much to the appreciation of the 7 PGs and MPGIS Officers that the UNCDF’s LoCAL would incorporate additional grants into the PCDF to support action by Provincial Governments on adaptation to climate change, alongside training, additional staffing and other elements of work to ensure the successful implementation of the performance-based climate resilience grants. The support would be over the next 4 years, starting from 2024/2025 to eligible Provincial Governments that meet the Minimum Conditions (MCs) and Triggers of PCDF.
He stated that one of the required triggers in PCDF allocation is that planning and budgeting timelines are met. Therefore, preparedness for LoCAL is critical – especially for the coming budget planning process. He added that indicative planning figures are now available, but as usual, the actual amounts will depend on compliance with PCDF MCs and with the PCDF Assessment Results, which will come when the Provincial Annual Performance Assessment is completed sometimes this year.
In his closing remarks during the closing of the four-day training, Misiteé assured the Provincial participants that the Ministry is always ready to provide technical support to any Province that comes up to speed with the new developmental ideas shared in the training for implementation. He challenged the Provincial attendees that the best indicator that would prove their understanding and appreciation of the concepts is the improvement in the performances of their respective Provinces.
“The onus is now on you the participants to translate your newly acquired knowledge and skills to support your Provinces”, Misiteé reiterated.
As the Provinces are preparing to implement the LoCAL program, DSO John stated that he is confident that the participants have been equipped with relevant knowledge of the module learnt about the program, which he emphasised, is very relevant to the Nine Provinces as they prepare to finalize their budgets and contingency warrants for approval.
He reiterated that the IEDCR Project is committed to continue supporting the PGs to ensure officers’ & PGs performances on the PGSP implementation program is of high standard as the country is grappling with the adverse impacts of climate change. He added that the IEDCR project that is complementing the PGSP, is working hard to increase resilient economic and social infrastructure in rural wards and to enhance Provincial Governments’ accountability to citizens.
Misiteé thanked the IEDCR PMU team for their financial and logistic support and IEDCR, PGSP and the MPGIS Officers for their contributions to making the workshop a great success. For the Provincial Officers, he thanked them for responding to the Ministry’s call to participate in the workshop despite their very busy engagement with the preparations of contingency warrants for April to July and the preparations for their main budget in addition to their responsibilities in the forthcoming election administration.
Delivering her closing remarks on behalf of the UNCF international facilitators during the small closing ceremony, Melissa Tipping commended the participants describing them as impressive and knowledgeable team that are taking their job seriously and understanding the significance of delivering services in a structured manner. She stated that Jesper who travels around the world visiting LoCAL projects conveyed his regards and was impressed, proud and encouraged by the provincial teams’ work on the ACCAF. She stated that it is important for the LoCAL to support communities through PCDF and letting them take the lead in identifying and financing projects of their need for implementation. She wished every one well as they prepare for the rolling out of the LoCAL.
Speaking on behalf of the Provincial attendees, Choiseul Provincial Programme Coordinator for IEDCR, Jackson Kiloe, thanked the Ministry, particularly IEDCR officers in the Ministry for the timely training stating that it has equipped them with the relevant knowledge that would help them in their work. He however, lamented that normally whilst plans are devised from inside the comfort of the offices, there are enormous different challenges faced by Provincial Officers. He cited the recruitment of the Ward Support Officers, as the ones who are going to face the brunt of the enormous and difficult challenges, as they are the ones that are going to be based in the rural Wards than in the Provincial centres. He is hopeful that they are going to be also trained in the not too distant future and will be well-resourced to deliver to expectation.
The IEDCR project is part of the PGSP and has three main components with the performance-based grant as the first component. Under the component, the Provincial Governments could access the grant for the economic and social infrastructures at the Provinces and Wards through the PCDF system. The PCDF has the MCs, which a Province must meet before it qualifies to access the grant. The second component on the other hand is the support to sub national entities. The component 2 is further divided into two sub components with the MGPIS leading the implementation of the component 2a while the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM) leads component 2b implementation. The final component is the project management, which covers the overall management, monitoring and reporting of the project.
Since the inception of PGSP at MPGIS in 2008/9, the Provincial Governments through the PCDF have been hugely invigorated to deliver services effectively and efficiently. To some extent, the PCDF a conditional, performance based fund of the PGSP that incentivizes Provinces to deliver services, has somewhat improved the Provinces ‘adherence to principles of sound public financial management, participatory planning, accountable budgeting and transparent oversight hence the inception of the World Bank funded IEDCR, with financial support from the EU, UNCDF, UNDP & UNICEF. END###