Sub-National Multi-Sectoral Partnership Management and

Functionality Assessment Guide

Prepared by

Thuraisingham Associates

In partnership with

Nitsuh Ethiopia

November 2018

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. General Overview of Seqota Declarations ....................................................................................... 3
1.2. Purpose and Scope of the this Guide ............................................................................................... 4
1.3. Objective of the Assessment Guideline: .......................................................................................... 4
1.4. Management of the Assessment ....................................................................................................... 5
1.5. Assessment and Capacity Development Process: ............................................................................ 5
2. The Assessment Methodology and Approach................................................................................... 6
2.1. Review of Key Documents: ............................................................................................................. 7
2.2. Key Informant Interview/ In-depth Interview .................................................................................. 7
2.3. Focus Group Discussion .................................................................................................................. 8
3. Sample selection .................................................................................................................................. 8
4. Key Areas of the Assessment.............................................................................................................. 8
5. Data Collection Tools .......................................................................................................................... 9
5.1. Interview Questionnaire ................................................................................................................... 9
5.2. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Guide .......................................................................................... 10
5.3. Checklists ....................................................................................................................................... 10
6. Implementation process: .................................................................................................................. 10
7. Data analysis and interpretation of results:.................................................................................... 11
8. Formulating Capacity Development Response .............................................................................. 11
9. Capacity Development Planning...................................................................................................... 12
10. Training Curricula and Training Manual Development .............................................................. 13
11. Monitoring and Evaluation .............................................................................................................. 13
12. Sustainability Measures.................................................................................................................... 14

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1. Introduction
1.1. General Overview of Seqota Declarations

The Seqota Declaration is a high-level commitment unveiled by the Government of Ethiopia in

July 2015 to end stunting among children less than two years by 2030. Seqota Declaration builds
on and supports the implementation of the National Nutrition Program (NNP II). The 15-year
Seqota Declaration roadmap focuses on delivering high-impact nutrition specific, nutrition
sensitive and infrastructure interventions across multiple sectors namely health, agriculture and
natural resources, livestock and fishery, water, irrigation and electricity, education, labour and
social affairs, women and children affairs.

Implementations of the Seqota Declaration structured in three phases over a 15-year period. The
first phase is an innovation phase scheduled from 2016 – 2020 which focuses on the
implementation of priority intervention packages that will be monitored and evaluated to
generate learning and evidences. The expansion phase, from 2021 – 2025, expected to reach
more vulnerable individuals in selected Woredas with purpose of more evidence generation over
high impact interventions before national scale up. Scale-up phase, from 2026 – 2030 involving
full-blown implementation of evidence-based multi-sectoral interventions all over the Nation in
Ethiopia. The Seqota Declaration innovation phase investment plan has 10 strategic objectives
and 50 strategic initiatives which will be implemented in 33 selected Woredas in Amhara and
Tigray National Regional States.

The success of Seqota Declarations relied on effective and efficient involvement of multiple
government sectors, donors and implementing partners. Proper management of stakeholders,
evidence generation and evidence based decision making and advocacy at all level is crucial for
successful implementation of SD implementation.

Multi-sectoral partnership management functionality assessment is a tool to understand the

existing situation of partnership management functionality at regional and Woreda level to
identify gaps and generate evidences that will be translated in to capacity building plan.

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1.2. Purpose and Scope of the this Guide

The Multi-Sectoral Partnership Management Functionality Assessment is derived from the

capacity gap assessment plan to make the capacity gap more comprehensive and to focus on
partnership management accountability and functionality than focusing only on the capacity gap
assessment recommended during the proposal development stage.

The Technical Assistance will deliver nutrition resource tracking and financial analysis tool,
multi-stakeholder partnership management guidance and advocacy toolkit. Capacity of staffs at
the Woreda will need to be enhanced so that these tools and guidelines are institutionalized in
each Woreda for more effective implementation of SD implementation Plan. Based on this
assessment, a capacity development plan and training curricula will be developed. Key areas of
assessment will include: (i) Understanding of SD strategy, (ii) Nutrition resource tracking and
analysis, (iii) Partnership management and coordination, (iv) Stakeholder Mapping, and (v)
Advocacy skills.

The purpose of Multi-Sectoral partnership management functionality assessment is to identify critical

systemic and skill gaps among various staff of Woredas which can be addressed through a
capacity development intervention. Through the assessment, the existing capacity and potentials
as well as the capacity gaps in relation to the effective implementation of the nutrition resource
tracking system and partnership management to advance SD strategy in two regions and 14
Woredas will be identified. The findings of this assessment will inform the capacity development
plan and interventions.

For logistics and time management reason this assessment is planned to be conned along with the
baseline survey.

1.3.Objective of the Assessment Guideline:

The objective of the Sub-National Multi Sectoral Partnership Management Functionality Assessment
guideline is to provide clarity to the Seqota Declaration (SD) Technical Assistance team about
the different types of tools, methods developing the tools, purpose and scope of the tools and use
of the tools and the process that need to be followed for the effective conduct of the assessment

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and how capacity could be enhanced using the assessment results. By using different assessment
tools and approaches, the technical team will assess the systemic and capacity of key staffs at the
Woreda level that will be responsible for implementing Sub-National nutrition resource
allocation and tracking system and partnership management under SD strategy in Amhara and
Tigray regional states.

1.4. Management of the Assessment

The Technical Assistance team will engage all key stakeholders on the projected expectations to
ensure realistic timelines, the involvement of the key people and deliverables. The entire process
will be communicated and coordinated with FPDU and RPDU. It will also be covered during the
Regional kick-off meetings in Amhara and Tigray that are planned for December 2018. Tools
and guidelines developed will be used for this activity.

1.5. Assessment and Capacity Development Process:

The following diagram shows key aspects of multi-sectoral partnership management

functionality assessment and capacity development process.

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 1
Identify areas of
assessment and
6 Develop guide
Data analysis,
report preparation; 2
capacity Select Woredas
development plan using agreed
and training criteria
curriculum
development
MPMF assesment and
Capacity
Development process
3
5 Develop tools
Implement questionnaires, FGD
assessment in 2 guide and reach
RPDUs and 14 consensus with
Woredas stakeholders during
the kickoff meeting
4
Field test tools
and refine; orent
assessment team

Fig. 1, Presentation of the assessment and capacity development process

2. The Assessment Methodology and Approach

The Multi-Sectoral partnership management functionality assessment will implement three data capturing
methods:

1. Review of Key Documents

2. Key Informant Interview/KII (In-depth Interview )
3. Focus Group Discussions /FGD
4. Observation
5. Data collection on existing system

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2.1. Review of Key Documents:

The review will inform the development of required tools for the assessment, interpretation and
justification of the findings of the assessment before translation in to capacity development plan.
The review of existing documents on SD strategy & implementation, NNP-II, multi-stakeholder
partnership, nutrition resource allocation and analysis, existing materials that are relevant for the
above key areas and current capacity development practices is critical.

Therefore, the first step will be to develop a clear understanding of existing structure, policies,
national strategy, roles and responsibilities of RPDU and Woredas, past performance, resource
allocation and use of systems, accountability mechanisms, reporting structures, donors’ engagement
arrangements, SD/NNP-II committee structure, exiting TOR of the committee and approaches will
be reviewed and inform the development of the assessment tools.

2.2. Key Informant Interview/ In-depth Interview

This method will be conducted for the purpose of obtaining first-hand information regarding the
assessment areas from key personnel of the sectors and other woreda people. The target
interviewees will basically include management staff such as the Woreda Administrator and
sector office heads. One-to-one interviews will be needed with individual staffs that are expected
to have the responsibility for the financial tracking tool and partnership management.

The interview process includes but not limited to the following:

 RPDUs and Woredas will be informed of the timeline of the assessment to ensure that
relevant staffs are available and that the assessment team has access to them.
 All the tools and directions for use will be made available to the assessment team and also
shared in advance with RPDU and FPDU.
 During the visit to the Woredas, the assessment team will explain the purpose of the
assessment, document each person’s role and conduct the interview. Any observations
that are relevant to the assessment will be documented.

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2.3. Focus Group Discussion

Focus group discussions will be done with RPDU staff to gather their understanding of practices,
systemic challenges, opportunities, capacity gaps of regional bureaus, SD Woredas and IPs.

The focus groups sessions will ensure ownership of the proposed recommendations by having
participants provided with the necessary input as per the situational analysis and stated gaps. The
objective is to identify recommendations from key officials that can be tested and implemented.

3. Sample selection

Convenient sampling method will be implemented for this assessment to purposefully represent
all type of SD Woredas in Amhara and Tigray regional states. All the five Zones of Amhara
region and western, central and southern Tigray Woredas will be represented in both relatively
better and remote Woredas based on the set criteria. A total of 11 Woredas from Amhara and 3
Woredas from Tigray will be included for this assessment. This sample size of 14 Woredas is
expected to provide sufficient information on Multi-sectoral Partnership Management
functionality and capacity issues. The Woredas will be selected based on agreed criteria1 so that
they reflect the infrastructure, geographical, socio-economic, Socio-cultural and other relevant
diversities.

4. Key Areas of the Assessment

The assessment will cover the following key areas but not limited to:

 Understanding of SD strategies and interventions

 Existing practice of partnership management and SD partners
 SD/NNP-II Committee, structure, members and meetings
 Nutrition resource tracking and analysis
 IT skills
 Partnership management and coordination
 Stakeholder mapping

1 Woreda Selection criteria

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  SD network management
 Performance management
 Advocacy planning and implementation
 Understanding role of community lab

5. Data Collection Tools

Multiple tools are needed to conduct this assessment. The assessment team will be provided
training on the key tools and guidelines. The staff conducting the assessment will be supported
and supervised closely to ensure the quality and consistency of the information collected. Data
quality checks and validation will be an integral part of the process. Key definitions will be
provided to ensure common understanding and application of various terms.

The training will be provided to the assessment team by training specialists and NET advisors.
An implementation plan will be developed and the data collection process will be defined.

The tools to be used for the assessment include but not limited to the following:

1. Interview questionnaire
2. FGD Guide
3. Checklists for observation and existing data collection

5.1. Interview Questionnaire

A pre-tested standardized questionnaire based on known risk factors will be developed. The
questionnaire will be designed to capture the key areas of capacity gaps that exist and to identify
the additional capacities that are needed to fill the gap. For ease of data capture, the questionnaire
will be in an excel sheet with closed questions and few open questions for qualitative assessment.
Qualitative information, such as examples and anecdotes can provide context for the quantitative
data collected and can help contextualize capacity gaps. These questionnaires will be developed
in English and translated into local languages; Amharic and Tigrinya. The staffs, therefore, will
be interviewed in their mother tongues of Amharic or Tigrinya. These standardized and coded
questionnaires with few open-ended questions will be used to gather relevant general information

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on selected variables of the assessment. The questionnaires will be administered and
observations will be recorded by the assessment team.

5.2. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Guide

Conducting focus groups discussions with RPDU staff and senior officials at the Woreda level will
provide in-depth information about partnership management and staff capacity. FGD guideline will
be developed. Selection of the candidates for FDG will be decided in consultation with FPDU and
RPDUs.

5.3. Checklists

Excel based Checklist will be developed to captured required information of the focus areas of
the Multi-sectoral partnership management functionality assessment in two RPDUs and selected
Woredas. The checklist will have also a section to inform the status of all data capturing tools to
ensure completeness and quality before living the site.

6. Implementation process:

The implementation process is outlined below in the following graph.

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 • Finalization of tools
• Implementation plan finalized (with timeline) and is communicated to key people
• Interviews, FGD, KII
• Use of guidelines for interviews, FGD, and KII
Data collection
• Use of data collection worksheets

• Data quality assurance and validation

• Data cleaning
Data analysis and • Data analysis - quantitative and qualitative analysis
interpretation of • Intrepret results and write report
results

• Capacity development plan and timeline

• Training curricula, manual, and training material development and implementation
• Develop indicators to measure progress
Capacity • Monitor training effectiveness
development
response • Ensure Sustainability

Fig.2, Implementation process of multi-sectoral partnership management functionality assessment

7. Data analysis and interpretation of results:

Data collected from Woredas through the interview process will be analyzed and synthesized to
determine core capacity gaps and recommendations to meet those gaps. After the quantitative
and qualitative analysis has been completed, a preliminary report will be developed and
discussed with relevant officials from the FPDU, RPDUs, and Nutrition International.

8. Formulating Capacity Development Response

Based on the analysis of data, an assessment report will be prepared. This report will help
guiding the team to develop a capacity development response.

The capacity development response includes the following:

(i) Capacity development plan;

(ii) Training curricula and training manual;
(iii) Deliver the training

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 (iv) Monitoring and Evaluation approach; and
(v) Sustainability measures;

Training specialists at the TA will be responsible for creating the capacity development response
and its various components. This will be a consultative process involving other team members
of the technical team and if necessary, members of the FPDU who have expertise in training and
capacity building.

9. Capacity Development Planning

The Plan is a response to address the key capacity deficits identified in the assessment report and
consists of:

i. A range of concrete capacity development activities to improve staff capacity; and

ii. Competency framework to develop staff competencies that are customized for their Woreda.

At the same time, to make its approach more comprehensive, other components that build upon
the core and contribute to its sustainability will also be included. In developing the capacity
building plan, our team will identify and prioritize activities for capacity development, set target
indicators for improvement, determine a timeline, assign responsibility and plan how technical
support could be obtained or provided. What capacity building support can provide? What
capacity building guidelines and tools are available within sectors? What are the various sectors
doing for capacity development? Which members of the training department need to be
provided trainer of trainers (TOT) for sustainability of the training and capacity development
plan?

The team will prioritize the principal capacity areas and propose time bound activities. It will
outline when and where training will take place, for whom, how performance will be measured,
and what follow-up steps are expected to ensure sustainability of the information and knowledge
gained.

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10.Training Curricula and Training Manual Development

After the assessment report is finalized, training curricula will be developed based on identified
gaps, challenges and best practices. Training curricula is a total package of learning activities
designed to achieve the objectives of the training program. In a competency-based system, the
objective or desired end result is that trainees will acquire the specific knowledge and skills
(competencies) they need to do their jobs.

Training Content includes the specific information, facts, attitudes, and skills to be transmitted
by the training program. In a competency-based system, these are formalized in the competency
statements.

Technical experts on resource tracking and partnership management should be consulted during
development of content for training curricula. In each training a pre-test and post-test evaluation
will be applied to evaluate training effectiveness and knowledge increases. These tests will also
assess staff satisfaction and participant reaction. These tests will be developed and will become
an integral part of the training manual. The training specialist will prepare report after each
training.

A training manual should accompany the training curricula. It is a booklet of instructions

designed to ensure quality implementation of training curricula. It can include facilitation
techniques for mentoring and coaching learners, presentations and small group activities.

11. Monitoring and Evaluation

Capacity development initiatives must be evaluated to assess their usefulness and effectiveness.
Monitoring and follow up of implementation of the capacity building action plan is crucial in
achieving long-term and sustainable capacity building. The training specialist will develop key
metrics to measure effectiveness of training and to ensure a simple process to measure
performance after training. A simple checklist can be used for this. The purpose of M&E is to
ensure continuous improvement through self-learning, on the job coaching and organizing
refresher training where necessary. Part of M&E will be an assessment which we call behavioral
application and can be done after one or two months of training and also at the end of June 2019.

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This survey-based evaluation will answer the questions – are they applying what they learned?
Have they retained the knowledge from the first training? What behaviors have changed and how
are they applying their knowledge and skills on the job following training?

Ongoing M&E should be done by the RPDUs, Regional and Zonal Advisors of the Technical
Assistance team and supervisors of the staff responsible for implementing the resource tracking
tool and partnership management. The process should be light touch but follow some guidelines
and principles.

12. Sustainability Measures

Sustainability is a key consideration and hence TOT for master trainers and training materials
will be provided. Certain Audio visual products will be developed and provided to facilitate self-
learning and for use by the new staff.

Close monitoring, supportive supervision and on job training will be continued after the training
to maintain the skill gained and ensure utilization of the platform before handover.

Annex G

Woreda Selection Criteria for the detail Multi-sectoral Partnership

Management Functionality Assessment (MPMFA)

Out of the 33 Woredas, 14 will be selected using the following criteria

1. Woredas who are implementing nutrition sensitive and Nutrition specific intervention run by
the government sectors and or key partners.
2. Established Woredas to represent Woredas having relatively better physical infrastructure and
human resource.

Established Woredas are Woredas which has been serving as Woreda at lese for the last 5 years
and Woreda capitals are not changed/ moved in the last 5 years.

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 - Presence of all-weather road/ Daily public transportation services
- Electricity service connected to the national grid and 24 hours service
- Presence of Telephone services, Mobil network and internet connectivity
- Woredas not beneficiary of the national hardship allowance scheme
- Woredas where the staffing are more or less stable
- Woredas which held SD/NNP-II committee meeting in the last 3 months
- Those Woredas that have stakeholder map
- Woredas selected for Community Lab pilot interventions by FPDU/RPDU.

A total of 7 (50% of the target) Woredas will be selected considering the above three criteria (5
Woredas in Amhara regional state in all the 5 Zones involved in SD and 2 Woredas in Tigray
Regional state).

3. Newly established Woredas, to represent Woredas with low level of infrastructure

development and human resource. Designated as Woreda in the past 5 years / Separated from
other Woreda
- Woredas included in the national hardship allowance scheme
- Woredas with extreme weather condition (Hot or cold climate)
- No daily public transport service to reach to the Woreda capital from the
Zonal capital/ nearest town
- A total of 5 Woredas will be selected using criteria # 4 (Four in Amhara and
one in Tigray regional states).
4. Other parameters that will be considered during selection of Woredas
- Zonal representation for Amhara Regional State and sub-regional
representation in Tigray Regional state.
- Population Size
- Nutrition program intensity/Coverage
- Accessibility and Security
- Absence of (potential/active) public strife and instability at the planning stage
of the assessment.
- Recommendation of RPDU.

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