SIKA-EAST Weekly Program Update: February 15–21, 2013

In Ghazni, the Acting PRRD Director met with the SIKA-East manager to discuss program achievements and current activities, with a focus on coordinating the program rollout in Andar District. A launch meeting was held in the provincial hall, attended by approximately 90 individuals, including men and women, to introduce the SIKA-East program and its goal of improving the lives of rural people in the district through better service delivery by district authorities. In Andar District, a workshop on Stakeholder Orientation / Governance Foundation was conducted for 19 women, who appreciated the stability and expressed their commitment to ensuring that Andar women have a voice in the initiative. The attendees also requested that the issue of women's participation be raised with Andar men. In Dih Yak, training in Grant Process and Application Development was conducted for approximately 50 men from the DDA+ and CDCs, as well as other influential men from the district. In Logar, the PRRD Director met with the SIKA-East manager to discuss the planned date and arrangements for the upcoming Service Providers Fair. The event aims to bring all service providers together to present their types of services. The updating of the Logar Service Providers Catalogue was completed, including the addition of 35 new service providers. In Baraki Barak, a Stability Planning Process review session was conducted for DDA+ men, followed by a similar session for women from the district. The Mohammad Agha district stakeholders registration sheet was prepared and submitted to Kabul. Engineering surveys for the karez and protection wall of Panama and Dehnaw Villages were completed. In Paktiya, the PRRD Director met with SIKA-East's provincial manager and his communications and outreach officer to discuss the radio play scripts that SIKA-East is producing. The PRRD Director expressed his intention to bring the scripts up at the next meeting with the District Governor and the Directorate of Information and Culture. In Zadran, SIKA-East Stakeholder Orientation and Governance Foundation sessions were held for 60 DDA+ members and other stakeholders. The participants discussed the idea of improving stability and the initiative's participatory approach, which was unfamiliar to them. They also expressed concerns that SIKA-East would only collect information, but after more information on stakeholder engagement and the implementation cycle, they were reassured. In Chak-i-Wardak, forty men from the DDA and CDCs, as well as community elders, began training in Stakeholder Orientation / Governance Foundation. The participants appreciated the focus on local participation and consultation and agreed to evaluate and improve each stage of implementation, considering their fellow district residents' advice. Thirty women from various organizations participated in Stability Planning Process training from February 17 to 21. In Nirkh, the Deputy District Governor met with SIKA-East's district manager to discuss SIKA-East progress, especially on surveys that program engineers are conducting for implementation projects. The Deputy District Governor pledged his support for the program. The Nerkh grant team collected bank statements from some CDCs, plus ID cards from female CDC and DDA members, in order to process grant applications. The SIKA-East district engineer completed the bill of quantities, work plan, and drawings for the Dadal road project. In Saydabad, the District Support Unit team shared the District Project Portfolio with government line departments to avoid duplication of proposed projects. The Departments of Education, Rehabilitation and Rural Development, Health, and Agriculture approved the proposed projects in accordance with GIRoA norms and standards. The Department of Social Affair and Public Works addressed some of the proposed projects, including vocational training courses and centers for men and women, using their existing resources. The Saydabad grant team worked to collect the missing documents that need to accompany grant applications processed by the Grant Review Committee. They also filled out English versions of the grant applications. The district engineering team conducted two surveys in Onkhai for two Cycle 1 projects and also prepared drawings for projects in Zara Qala and Yawiz. In Kabul, SIKA-East hosted an all-day management Lessons Learned session to recount challenges, review successes, and draw lessons from program implementation in the five provinces where SIKA-East is currently being implemented or, in the case of Khost, about to be launched. The meeting aimed to strengthen the partnership with MRRD and IDLG in the program's current provinces and districts and in future ones. Participants included MRRD's Chief Coordinator for SIKA, MRRD Senior Program Officer, PRRD Directors from Logar, Maydan Wardak, Ghazni, Paktya, and Khost, the USAID COR and Alternative COR, and senior management of SIKA-East. During the session, the PRRD Directors and SIKA-East Provincial Management Unit managers from Khost, Ghazni, Paktya, Logar, and Wardak described their programs' activities and engaged in a general discussion on how to