SUSTAINABILITY OF ACTIVITIES

Exploring ways to sustain the impact of project activities remains an ongoing activity.  A multi-faceted approach is being adopted whereby a number of strategies are being employed to identify the best way forward in sustaining capacity building activities.

The National Department of Education’s School Learning Improvement Programs (SLIP) and Teacher In-Service Programs have been identified as key sector activities that could promote BEDP outcomes in an ongoing manner. 

The PNG Education Institute has begun to trial modules of school community capacity building activities developed by BEDP project staff as part of their in-service diploma program.  If successful, other teacher education institutions will be encouraged to use the modules for their project-based assessment of teachers with the result that the numbers of education personnel familiar with school community capacity building approaches will increase exponentially.

The School Infrastructure Management Office (SIMO) is a key element of BEDP that will be working to assess the departmental needs that can be met by SIMO, and the level of engagement necessary to sustain its functions into the future.  SIMO currently performs a valuable data collection role and this can be further developed into a technical advisory role for national and provincial schools.

Provincial Project Planning and Implementation Teams (PPITs) operate at a range of levels.  Where meetings are held regularly and there is strong provincial leadership, PPITs can have a strong influence on the infrastructure outcomes.  Provinces experiencing success and more advanced in their roll-out generally have PPITs that function well.  The group decision-making necessary to approve various outlays is in itself a positive development in promoting transparency and shared accountability.

Provincial Financial Management capacity is supported by routine site visits to a number of provinces by three BEDP financial advisers.  This workplace support has been well-received and will continue to be provided over the year with a view to transferring more responsibility for financial management to provinces with demonstrated capacity in the latter half of the year.  This is an important sustainability strategy in light of a more sub-national focus in the coming years.  

The infrastructure development methods promoted by the Project increase community ownership and, through the process, support the development of functional levels of organisation within the community.  Costs are generally lower but there are quality issues when using local materials and the length of time is generally longer for the construction to be completed.  The project has observed during the quarter that once materials are on site, building happens quite rapidly.  The major issues with construction in rural and remote areas are generally involved with the sourcing of materials and transporting them to site. 

The network of project mangers now in place around PNG (together with effective PPITs as sub-committees to the PEB) have the potential to sustain planned development of future school infrastructure whether through permanent kit-set methods and contractors or via community managed processes.

District Women’s Facilitators continue to be a strength of the project with many DWF’s skills recognised by their peers and involved in a growing number of community orientated activities.  Although not initially designed as a component of the project to be sustained, project staff are exploring ways of transitioning the DWF concept into a formal network of women with the capacity to offer community facilitation services in districts around the country.  The strong demand for the services of DWFs, as demonstrated through their engagement with the DCD Gender Policy Consultations, is perhaps the greatest indication of sustainability of DWFs.