65 mid-term review, which
includes the threats assessments that will be
completed in each field site
Biodiversity threats assessments completed for each field site
February 2007
On target Tanzania assessment
drafted, Ecuador and Nicaragua assessments
planned for January and February 2007
Ecuador and Nicaragua governance baselines revised
September 2007
Ongoing The Nicaragua revision
underway; Ecuador revision to begin in 2007
Tanzania microenterprise case study completed
December 2006
Completed Draft case study completed
by December 31, 2006 Microenterprise surveys conducted in
Tanzania and Thailand April
2007 On target
Preparations for these surveys currently being
undertaken Report on microenterprise impact
assessment completed August
2007 On target
Priorities for Next Quarter January 1 – March 31, 2006
i Revise PMP indicators and targets
i Review web-based PMP data entry and reporting system
i Prepare for microenterprise surveys in Tanzania and Thailand
i Complete Nicaragua and Ecuador threats assessments
i Revise Ecuador governance baseline
66
II. Management Issues
With the Program into its third year, most management issues have been addressed. A few persist, however, and a few new challenges have been added as well.
i One of the new issues is that there has been a critical personnel change in the
EcoCostasSUCCESS Ecuador office during this reporting period. Lugarda Redfisch and Derek Simmons, who were largely responsible for project management, left EcoCostas in
October. Jhoyzett Mendoza will assume many of their roles and responsibilities for administration and management as well as continue in supporting the Program’s geographic
information systems GIS needs. Rafael Elao, a biologist with extensive coastal management and aquaculture experience, now serves as the overall SUCCESS Ecuador Program
coordinator. Emilio Ochoa, the current EcoCostas Director, leaves EcoCostas and the SUCCESS Ecuador Program in January 2007 to work with one of the Program’s partners, the
AVINA Foundation. Although a search is underway for his replacement, Ochoa will continue to serve on the EcoCostas Board of Directors and provide limited oversight of the
organization. Meanwhile, Stephen Olsen CRCURI and Maria Haws UHH have been assisting with the orientation of the new personnel and with the overall transition to assure
that SUCCESS Ecuador tasks are accomplished.
●
The timing and format of the annual meeting of the full SUCCESS team continues to require refining. Timing wise, it needs to occur far enough into the current work year to provide a
good overview of accomplishments. At the same time, it needs to occur early enough before the start of the new work year to allow sufficient time to conduct good, thorough planning.
This leads to the second issue, that of format. Consideration is being given to having fewer team members attend for the full meeting. Rather, attendees would be scheduled only for
those days where their inputcomment was essential. This should free up timeagenda to allow more focused small-team, in-depth, hands-on workplanning with the field partners. In
past years, this element of the agenda has received short-shrift.
●
Program reporting continues to be less than efficient for not only the reasons of translation as outlined above, but due to the factor that the Program Management Team has continued to
refine the format of the annual workplans. Each of these changes has necessitated changes to the format of the progress reports—so that both mirror each other. Perhaps even more
challenging is the frequency of the reporting schedule. Under the current schedule, the Program is requiring every quarter, either a progress report or a workplan from the field. In
addition, the semi-annual report for the July – December period overlap the last three quarters of the previous year and first three quarters of the subsequent year, this also complicates
report preparation for this particular reporting period.
●
The Program continues to be challenged by a lack of strong and plentiful Spanish speakers on the CRC SUCCESS team and a lack of strong English skills on the part of Program partners.
While cooperation amongst all parties is high, so too are the costs that come with continued need for translation on both ends. There is not an immediate solution to this problem other
than the short-term “fixes” that are already in place e.g., the use of volunteers and other non- SUCCESS staff, as they are available
●
SUCCESS funding for knowledge management was leveraged with funding from the AVINA Foundation. It appears unlikely the second phase of funding that was expected will
67 materialize. This requires a rethinking of how to reshape this element of the SUCCESS
workplan in order to accommodate this loss of complementary funding.
●
The shifting programmatic focuses within USAID trickle down to the SUCCESS Program and present a small challenge to crafting Program messages and materials in such a way as to
clearly articulate how the SUCCESS Program links to and contributes to those program interests. Such areas of interest currently include peace and security and global warming.
