The HAPA Support Program - usaid

Monitoring and supervision
A central role of the information systems for the projects was to facilitate monitoring and
supervision. The record-keeping systems that were developed were useful in keeping track
of project outputs - such as the number of educational talks given or condoms distributed ­
but appeared to be less effective in monitoring the quality of project interventions.
Competent management of staff and activities requires adequate supervision; as one project
reported, "Inadequate supervision [of staff members] resulted in breakdowns in
communication regarding financial matters and a lack of recognition of the importance of
evaluation at all levels of project operation. "
Monitoring quality requires that project staff visit project-trained educators and trainers at
work, to judge, for example, how well they handle difficult questions about HN
transmission, or whether they appear credible to the groups with whom they interact.
Supervising large numbers of people tr3ined by a project can take up significant amounts of
project staff time and resources. Several projects trained large numbers of people without
providing adequate monitoring or supervision for those trainees. Underscoring the
importance of monitoring, the management from a peer education project offered the
following lesson, "We would train [people] for 5 days and then ask them to train peer
educators. Now, when we evaluated the program we found out that either the expected
trainers were not doing the work they were supposed to do or we couldn't follow them up
effectively from our center. We had to modify the progra..n." A system and schedule for
monitoring the quality and effectiveness of educational activities should be developed
early in the project. Everyone who receives training through the project should receive
regular supervision.
Repons and evaluations
Project staff were asked to submit a detailed implementation plan (DIP) four months after
project start-up, quarterly reports, a mid-term progress report and a final evaluation, which
were reviewed by the HAPA technical advisory group (TAG). The TAG review process is
discussed in more detail in Section IV and Appendix B.
In the DIPs, projects were encouraged to draw on their initial experiences in the field and
modify their original project proposals as needed. The TAG's review of the DIP was sent to
the corresponding headquarters and field staff, and each project was invited to respond to· the
TAG's comments. A number of projects did respond in writing, and several made
substantial changes in project activities in response to the TAG's suggestions. However,
neither the TAG members nor the HSP staff had visited most of the field projects before the
DIP review process, and this may have limited t'le usefulness of some of the comments.
Consultation between PVO field staff and support program staff at an early stage of the
projects would increase the usefulness of the preparation and review of DIPs and other
project reports.
19