Monitoring & Evaluation Plan

Monitoring & Evaluation Plan

Transboundary Agro-Ecosystem Management Project in the Kagera Basin : Rwanda, Burundi,

Uganda and Tanzania

Prepared by Janie Rioux, Natural Resources/M&E Consultant Final Version Technically Cleared by the RPC and the LTU December 2011

Table of Contents

1. M&E PLAN ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 PROJECT OVERVIEW......................................................................................................................................................3 PURPOSE ....................................................................................................................................................................6

2. M&E OF PROJECT PERFORMANCE ............................................................................................................. 8 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH............................................................................................................................8 INDICATORS .................................................................................................................................................................10 REPORTING .................................................................................................................................................................. 11

3. M&E OF PROJECT IMPACT ....................................................................................................................... 13 BASELINE DATA AND METHODS ......................................................................................................................................13 IMPACT ASSESSMENT METHODS................................................................................................................................15 SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS........................................................................................................................................17

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................ 17 ANNEX 1: REVIEW OF TARGET INDICATORS BY PROJECT COMPONENTS .....................................................................................19 ANNEX 2: M&E MATRIX..............................................................................................................................................26 ANNEX 3 : TARGET INDICATORS FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PROJECT PERFORMANCE ...............................................41 ANNEX 4 : IMPACT ASSESSMENTS AND THEMATIC STUDIES ...................................................................................................44 ANNEX 5 : CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CATCHMENT AND SLM ACTION PLAN- REPORT TEMPLATE ..........................................46 ANNEX 6: M&E REPORTING TEMPLATES ...........................................................................................................................49

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1. M&E PLAN

The M&E plan for the Kagera Transboundary Agroecosystem Management Project (KAGERA TAMP) has been developed by the consultant in close collaboration with the Regional Project Coordinator (RPC) and the four National Project Managers (NPMs) during collaborative and participatory work sessions in Kigali (RPC and NPMs of Rwanda and Burundi), and in Bukoba (NPMs of Tanzania and Uganda) during September 2011. Guidance and technical comments were provided by the Lead Technical Officer and budget holder of the Kagera TAMP at NRL, and will be provided if necessary by the GEF unit in TCI.

The M&E plan includes two components addressing the target indicators in the project logframe:

- M&E of Project Performance Monitoring focuses on the management and supervision of project activities, seeking to improve efficiency and overall effectiveness of project implementation. It is a continuous process to collect information on actual implementation of project activities compared to those scheduled in the annual work plans, including the delivery of quality outputs in a timely manner, to identify problems and constraints (technical, human resource, and financial), to make clear recommendations for corrective actions, and identify lessons learned and best practices for scaling up, etc. Performance evaluation will assess the project's success in achieving its objectives. The project will be monitored closely by FAO (LTU and GEF Unit) and by the Project Steering Committees through semi-annual reports, quarterly implementation reviews, technical reports, and regular technical supervision missions fielded as required to enhance success.

- M&E of project impact Evaluation of the project's success in achieving its outcomes will be monitored continuously throughout the project. The key indicators can be found in the logical framework. The indicators have been further reviewed/refined during the development of this M&E Plan, and tools and methods and indicators for measuring impact have been be determined and agreed to ensure that a standardized framework is shared by the four participating countries.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The project's long term environmental and development goal is to support the adoption of integrated land resources management in the Kagera Basin to generate local, national and global environmental and socio-economic benefits including : restoration of degraded lands, carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, improved agricultural production, and thereby, protection of international waters and improved food security and rural livelihoods.

The project aims to reach this goal through four main components: 1. Transboundary coordination and information sharing to promote sustainable, productive agro-ecosystems and restoration of degraded lands.

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2. Enabling policy, planning and legislative conditions to support and facilitate the sustainable management of agro-ecosystems and the restoration of degraded land.

3. Capacity and knowledge development at all levels to promote and support sustainable management of land and agro-ecosystems in the basin.

4. Implementation of improved land and agro-ecosystem management practices benefiting land users.

The transboundary issues on which the project focus are : 1. Control of soil erosion and sedimentation 2. Water management through rainwater harvesting and soil moisture management 3. Reduced pressures on wetlands and fragile lands 4. Control of bush fires and reduction of biomass burning and as a result reduced

Phosphorus deposition in Lake Victoria 5. Conservation of agro-biodiversity 6. Management of cross-border livestock movements and plant and animal diseases 7. Land use change and impacts on resources (including policy)

Transboundary (TB) issues are being addressed with stakeholders in the four countries and through collaboration with large regional programs (NBI, LVEMP, VI-agroforestry,etc.). The Kagera TAMP will not specifically address the following TB issues that were identified during project development, notably: control of water hyacinth will be addressed by LVEMP-II ; wildlife management and control through protected areas intervention ; and effects of water quality on health by health and water sectors. Links with the wider TerrAfrica/SIP programme will allow to share lessons learned.

The project participants and partners are located at different levels : local, national, regional and global.

Table 1 : Project participants and partners at all levels

Levels Local

National

Participants/Partners

- Farmers mainly subsistence farmers, but also intensive perennial bananacoffee based farmers

- Pastoralists/Herders - Households practicing a combination of farming or herding with fishing or

forestry activities - Women and vulnerable groups - Farmers groups and associations - Local level leaders and decision makers - District authorities and government bodies - National and international NGOs - Researchers from national institutions - The private sector - The donor community and related projects - FAO country offices

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Regional - Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) o Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme (NELSAP) o Kagera Transboundary Integrated water resources management project (TIWRMP)

- Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP-II) - Other regional programmes such as VI-Agroforestry (called VI-Life in

Rwanda), Africa 2000, IFDC, UNECA, ICRAF, CIAT etc.

Global

- FAO (Land and Water Division-NRL, FAO-GEF Unit, Technical Cooperation Department -TCI)*

- GEF (Global Environmental Facility)

FAO Country offices are directly involved in and provide support for project implementation (workshops, LOAs, travel, budget allocations, etc.) Information is shared with FAO Subregional Offices in Addis Ababa (responsible for Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda) and Harare (responsible for Tanzania) through FPMIS (reports, delivery, etc), website and communications with the regional land and water officers.

Kagera TAMP is funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) under its Land Degradation focal area and Strategic Program (SP) for GEF-4. In line with SP1- Supporting Sustainable Agriculture and Rangeland Management, and SP3- Investing in New and Innovative Approaches for Sustainable Land Management the project focus is on restoration of the health and functioning of the different agro-ecosystems in the Kagera basin through promoting SLM at a catchment/community territory and wider transboundary levels. Land degradation and SLM will be assessed and mapped across the Kagera basin to identify and target measures to address soil erosion, loss of fertility, reduce runoff and sedimentation, increase productivity of crop and grazing lands and improve forest/energy management, as well as to improve well-being and livelihoods of land users.

Consistent with Strategic Objective-1 (SO-1) to develop an enabling environment for SLM the project is working with communities and districts to demonstrate successful SLM practices for crop, grazing and forest lands that can be integrated into relevant policies and strategies. The planning and tenure situation as well as opportunities to incentivate SLM through PES are being reviewed for carbon sequestration and water supply and plans will be developed. Capacity development on SLM is being provided i) to farmers through setting up FFS in the selected catchments and developing and implementing SLM action plans for community territories; and ii) to district and national institutions to develop cross-sectoral interventions and apply an integrated ecosystem approach and mainstream SLM in district plans and budgets and national programmes. Agrobiodiversity management and climate change adaptation and mitigation are being integrated into the work at farm and catchment levels.

Consistent with SO-2 on demonstrating and up-scaling successful, innovative and costeffective SLM practices and investments the project is assessing and documenting SLM best practices in the basin using rigorous technical methods to generate knowledge on costbenefits and impacts. Diverse types of incentive systems are being identified and it is

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expected to promote SLM adoption through piloting PES for water, biodiversity and carbon sequestration in suitable (demand-driven) identified scenarios. Links between security of tenure and SLM are being identified and will be considered in a watershed/landscape approach. The impacts of SLM interventions will be monitored to assess costs and benefits in terms of reducing degradation and deforestation, enhancing productivity, increasing resilience to and mitigating climate change and generation of livelihood benefits for land users. Moreover, SLM techniques will be evaluated for their carbon sequestration capacity in soils and biomass and scaled up through collaboration with Vi-agroforestry and others. Reduction in erosion and sedimentation will be monitored in selected catchments. Capacity building is being promoted through the farmer field school approach for adaptive management of SLM practices and through community land use planning.

The GEF has prepared a land degradation tracking tool for the GEF-5 projects, which can be used as guidance ().

PURPOSE

The monitoring and evaluation plan for the Kagera TAMP will serve two functions: first, periodic assessment of project implementation and performance of activities (M&E of Project Performance), and second, evaluation of their results in terms of relevance, effectiveness and impact in promoting the adoption of sustainable land and agro-ecosystem management (SLaM) (M&E of Project Impact). The M&E system of the project will provide answers on the progress and impact made by the RPC, the NPMs and their partners in achieving the project's outputs and outcomes.

Project Performance : Performance evaluation will assess the project's success in achieving the outputs with the inputs provided and activities conducted. The project will be monitored closely by FAO (LTU and FAO-GEF Unit), and by the Project Steering Committee through semi-annual reports, annual reports, and technical reports. Moreover, regular technical supervision missions and Back to Office Reports will be provided as required to enhance success, and well as guidance notes and feedbacks on reports.

Project Impact : Evaluation of the project's success in achieving its outcomes will be monitored continuously throughout the project. The key indicators found in the logical framework, and in the revised M&E matrix will guide the evaluation of the project results and impacts. To do so, reliable baseline data will be collected at start of the project activities, and impact data will be collected when appropriate during the project implementation.

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Monitoring Project Performance

(Assess how are inputs are used to produce outputs)

Impact Outcomes

Outputs

Outputs

Activities Inputs

Monitoring Project Impact

(Assess whether outputs produce the expected results)

Diagram 1 : M&E of project performance and project impact

Both project performance and impact M&E will contribute to improve decision making and management, by keeping the project on track towards achieving the outcomes and environmental and development objectives and by integrating lessons learnt into planning.

Project achievements will be evaluated after two years of project execution during the midterm evaluation (planned in November 2012), and at the end of the project through an independent final evaluation.

Monitor

Monitor

Evaluate

Act

Evaluate

Act

Plan

Plan

Diagram 2 : M&E as part of project management and planning

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The Mid-Term Evaluation will determine progress being made towards achievement of outcomes and will provide constructive recommendations to address key problems identified. It will:

review the effectiveness, efficiency and timeliness of project implementation; analyze effectiveness of implementation and partnership arrangements; identify issues requiring decisions and remedial actions; identify lessons learned about project design, implementation and management; highlight technical achievements and lessons learned; analyze whether the project is on track with respect to achieving the expected

results; and propose any mid-course corrections and/or adjustments to the Work Plan as

necessary.

Final Evaluation will take place three months prior to completion of the project and will focus on the same issues as the Mid-Term Evaluation. In addition, the final evaluation will review project impact, analyze sustainability of results and whether the project has achieved the outcomes and the development and environmental objectives.

2. M&E OF PROJECT PERFORMANCE

The M&E of project performance focuses on the record of information related to the project implementation process (inputs), activities and outputs. A minimum data collection is required to enable the project management and stakeholders:

i) to track at regular time intervals the activities achieved (compare planned/versus achieved) and assess effects of both external factors and internal project operations; ii) to assess results (outputs), lessons learnt, and solutions to keep project on track.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

Kagera TAMP will follow two main phases of implementation. Initial activity (years 1-2) will be to establish the transboundary mechanisms of coordination, map the land use systems for each country, assess land degradation and sustainable land management for all land use systems in the selected districts, assess SLM technologies and approaches at local level (country wide), establish the FFS groups and develop training curriculum and train facilitators, establish the baseline in the target catchments and communities using the LADA methodology which uses biophysical measures and participatory diagnostic appraisal tools, and set up SLM community action plans and start to implement them with identified partners in these selected catchments and communities through FFS study plots and community level demonstration sites and priority actions. As from year 3 of the project, the SLM activities in the selected catchments will be expanded/scaled up from the

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