SIKA-West Weekly Bullet Points No. 168: July 7-13, 2015

The program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is being carried out by AECOM. Grants and subcontracts programming are a key component of SIKA-West, with 43 projects valued at AFN 46,102,500/USD$922,050 currently underway. These projects aim to improve service delivery to 62,451 residents across the target districts. As of July 13, 2015, 21 out of 43 projects have been completed, and milestone payments are being processed for the remaining 22 projects. In Badghis Province, programming activities have been completed in several districts, including Chaghcharan, Du Layna, and Shahrak. The District Support Team (DST) and Provincial Support Team (PST) Offices have been closed in these districts. However, programming activities are still ongoing in Muqur District, with 12 projects currently in progress, and Qala-i-Naw, where 10 projects remain ongoing. SIKA-West Engineers and M&E Personnel conducted 11 joint project site visits in Qadis, Muqur, and Qala-i-Naw, which yielded 3 minor deficiencies that required correction. These visits were conducted to assess project quality, collect data, and provide guidance to grantees. The Abdul Khaleq and Sadudin CDCs completed 70% of the work on their project, a 49-ML Flood Protection Wall in Abdul Khaleq village, Muqur District. This project was designed to safeguard the Qala-i-Naw main road and two schools that serve 750 students from being damaged by seasonal flooding. The Yarkasi Kondalan CDC completed 90% of the work on their project, a 72.5-ML Flood Protection Wall in Yarkasi Kondalan village, Qala-i-Naw. This project was designed to safeguard 50 Jeribs of farmland and 176 homes from seasonal flooding. The USAID ACOR, Mr. Sediq Ibrahimi, met with the Herat DRRD Director, Mr. Aqa Mohammad Sediqi, on July 12 to obtain DRRD's views about the SIKA-West program. The DRRD Director highlighted that SIKA-West is a good initiative that has helped the MRRD to respond to communities' needs and improved government service delivery. SIKA-West completed the program document archiving for the Communications & Public Outreach and Stabilization Departments. The first shipment of documents to Home Office is scheduled for August 2, 2015. The remaining program documents will be archived by the first week of August. Monitoring and evaluation are ongoing, with SIKA-West receiving 3 verification reports noting projects "executed as reported." Since the beginning of the MISTI verifications, SIKA-West has received a total of 132 verification reports noting that these projects have been properly executed. SIKA-West has begun collecting data for the USAID Afghan Info Database for the FY2015, QIII, which includes financial data, PMP indicators, and status of grant projects. A cash shortage at the Da Afghanistan Bank, Badghis branch has prevented CDCs from withdrawing their milestone payments. SIKA-West is still waiting for MISTI re-verification reports for 5 projects. SIKA-West Engineers and M&E Personnel plan to undertake 15 project site visits in Muqur and Qala-i-Naw to assess project quality, collect data, and provide guidance to grantees.