Progress at the Provincial and District Levels

25  Strengthen systematic quality assurance processes to ensure activities contribute directly to program objectives.

5.2 Progress at the Provincial and District Levels

The sub national offices have been established however some key appointments remain vacant namely, Coordinators four and Procurement and Finance Officers five see Annex 2 for Staff Organogram. In November, the ISP underwent a third recruitment phase for the 11 remaining provincial and district vacant positions. DFAT advised the ISP that only the Coordinator positions can be filled. In addition, the ISP and CPMU have been informed that no further staff are to be recruited without a strong case and the current team configurations will need to adapt to manage the program implementation. This leaves key vacancies in Procurement and Finance Officers. ISP and CPMU have been advised to review the team structure and train up staff to perform at officer level. As noted above, the ISP and Coffey had already advised DFAT of the poor design of the district and provincial staff structures. Consequently the structure will be reviewed early 2014. Required changes will need to be socialised sensitively with the PMU teams and government partners at the sub national levels. The ISP and CPMU conducted a seven day orientation and training in October for all PMU staff to ensure they understood the program objectives, management, operational systems, and roles and responsibilities. The training also involved government partners from each location and led to strengthening the relationships between the PMU teams and their government counterpart making sure that a participative approach to program planning and implementation was undertaken. The program has progressed faster in JATIM where the PMU teams are more complete. In East Nusa Tenggara NTT Ngada has made the most progress and is in line with JATIM but the other districts in NTT have been slower due to the lack of district coordinators. There are only two staff members in Sumba Barat Daya and recent civil unrest has slowed down partner interaction and decision making. At provincial level in NTT has also experienced a very slow however the situation is slowly improving. The key achievements at the sub national levels are:  A decree based on the Subsidiary Agreement from each of the governors offices which provides a legal foundation for the AIPHSS in each locality;  Endorsement of Partnership work plans with the local government partners;  Development of local TWGs which are responsible for ensuring that AIPHSS work plan activities are aligned with local government and sectoral priorities;  ToR preparation for initial activities;  Implementation of initial activities in most districts in JATIM and Ngada in NTT. Activities being implemented are: – DHA has been planned and implemented in all districts of JATIM; – Proposal development for the referral system in preparation for JKN in Sampang and Bondowoso; – Socialisation of the transformation of current financing systems to JKN in Situbondo; Actions for the next reporting period:  Strengthening the management and operational systems of AIPHSS at the subnational level;  Establishing the technical and policy linkages with the national and sub-national levels. 26

5.3 Technical Management