completed· Education· Health

Strengthening Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

NACCFL has its roots in the Small Farmers Development Program which was implemented by the Agricultural Development Bank in 1975 for the development of the small and marginal destitute in rural areas. The sub project office became a Small Agriculture Cooperative Ltd (SFCL) in 1993, the moment in which the ownership of the project was handed over to the farmers. In 2008 the farmers felt that they were facing different problems which could be better addressed by a federation and formed the NACCFL in January 2008. NACCFL is an umbrella organization of various Small Farmer Agro Cooperative Limited (SFACL). At the moment 615 SFACL are member of NACCFL in 64 different districts across the country covering 530,000 individual farmer members. NACCF provide services to SFACL and the SFACL is responsible to provide the services to the groups and cooperatives. The mission of NACCFL is to provide appropriate non-financial services to the member organizations for their institutional development and for the socio-economic development of the small farmers and deprived people. The three objectives aim to (1) to improve the efficiency and autonomy of the members cooperatives through capacity building; (2) to advocate for the inclusion of deprived sector in the national budget and (3) to increase its membership through the establishment of new cooperatives. In addition to the projects focussing on farmer-led economic development, Agriterra and NACCFL took the initiative mid-2014 to collaborate in a separate project to strengthen and improve the NACCFL-PMEL system and tools. This trajectory starts with and is supported by the expertise of an external local PMEL-expert. Based on the M&E health check, a M&E SWOT analysis and the M&E workshop held in Manila in March 2014, the following can be concluded about the M&E capacity of NACCFL: - There is a will to do M&E but a lack of human resources to conduct systematic M&E at all levels of NACCFL. - There is a membership database software system designed but not yet operational. NACCFL is keen to make this membership data base operation as registration of members and their characteristics is crucial to further improve service provision to members. - In general, NACCFL prepares plans and budget but M&E is not systematically addressed, good indicators are missing and there is a lack of information of te members at the individual level or group level. From the above analyses and taking into account the context described and the development stage and mission of NACCFL, both NACCFL and Agriterra agreed upon the following priorities related to strengthening the M&E capacities and system of NACCFL for the period August 2014 to December 31, 2014 --> A. Database: development of a membership registration database maintained by, owned and supported at both the local, district and national level. B. M&E on Agricultural activities: the developed membership registration database should include agricultural details/characteristics of the members. These data should be directly linked with the member registration for as such it allows for a comprehensive M&E system focusing on agriculture. NACCFL has requested the support of Agriterra to make their current ACCESS-system operational. This requires two approaches: 1. Datacollection at grass root level be done (what data must be collected, how, how often and by whom). 2. What data are need at the national level, for what purpose and how to make the database operational (design, responsibility and consolidation of data). Concerning the process To ensure data collection and absorption, it is important to have the commitment of members/groups at all levels. Commitment is linked to social, economic and intrinsic factors. The intrinsic factor can be stimulated by asking only the relevant data, and make it clear and understandable why the data are needed and what they mean (the feedback). The social factor is about trust and loyalty among the members. A transparent way of working, involving the local people can ensure openness and commitment to provide the data and to collect the data. With economic factors we refer to economic incentives that motivate people to collect the data. Not necessarily salaries, but a small remuneration for the SFACFL staff that compile the data. Agriterra is willing to support NACCFL to make the membership database system operation and ensure feeding the system with relevant agricultural information important for the members and the organisations itself. In the detailed action plan and budget, the most important steps (actions) are described. A local advisor with expertise and experience in the field of M&E and membership registration will support NACCFL for the period of August to December. NACCFL has the capacity and committment available to adhere to this M&E trajectory. From the above analyses and taking into account the context described in paragraph 1 and the development stage and mission of NACCFL we (NACCFL and Agriterra) agree upon the following priorities related to strengthening the M&E capacities and system of NACCFL: I. Membership registration: further development of a membership registration database maintained by, owned and supported at both the local, district and national level. II. M&E on Agricultural activities: the developed membership registration database should include agricultural details/characteristics of the members. These data should be directly linked with the member registration for as such it allows for a comprehensive M&E system focusing on agriculture. The trajectory entails the remaining of 2014, August 2014 to December 31, 2014. The details of the priority areas are worked out into the action plan, see paragraph 6. NACCFL has requested the support of Agriterra to make their current ACCESS-system operational. This requires two approaches: 1. Data collection at grass root level be done (what data must be collected, how, how often and by whom). 2. What data are need at the national level, for what purpose and how to make the database operational (design, responsibility and consolidation of data).