On-going assignments

 

A. Comoros Union : Technical assistance to the EDF NAO support unit

 

1. Date :  March 2020 - June 2021 (250 days)

2. Location : Moroni

3. Beneficiary organisation and parties involved : EDF NAO support unit, NAO support programme, technical ministries and programme management units on relate intervention sectors.

4. Position : Institutional expert, head of the technical assistance mission (1 other long term main expert and several short term ones), in partnership with ProMan Ltd. (L).

5. Responsibilities : Taking over from the previous incumbent (who resigned in 2018), in charge of executing this assignment’s last year of implementation ( 3 years or 36 months initially but extended to some 4 years on top of the short term assignments) more or less « zebra mode » for the team leader i.e. some 14 months’ presence.

6. Major activities and achievements :

Coordination of the technical assistance and advisory support to the NAO office in the challenging context of implementing a project in a state of crisis being very much behind schedule beginning 2020 with respect to the results to achieve in every area (institutional reinforcement, mastering of EDF financial and contracting procedures, strategic information system – monitoring and evaluation on top of the constitution of a critical mass of trained officials. Coaching or on the job support to the personal in charge of the NAO’s basic attributions 7 days a week, which includes the coordination and operational and financial follow-up of all EDF-funded projects. All the above while providing methodological and conceptual support as to:

 - the programming, identification and formulation of all projects ;

 - abiding strictly to EDF financial procedures ;

 - the management of tenders and calls for proposals ;

 - the execution of numerous training programmes, including those specific to EDF management.

At the core of the challenge to take up, the relaunching of the institutional transition that is to say the gradual transfer of the NAO office’s specific tasks (within the ministry) from the support programme that entertains an external unit let alone parallel to the national administration with viability as an obvious goal.

7. Skills and experience acquired :

Yet again another more in-depth involvement of Roland Deschamps on the long run as to reinforcing the EDF NAO staff. Getting back on the spot while picking up an assignment started more than two years before wasn’t going to be a piece of cake not to mention that the local personnel turn over had been quite important in the same unit.

ON the other hand, it was for Roland Deschamps another opportunity to execute a long term support assignment while coordinating the work of other experts (long term et short term).

 

B. Support and advice as to the implementation of an agroforestry project that contributes to the fight against climate change and deforestation through afforestation with the support of the Congo basin forest fund and private technical and financial partners

 

1. Dates: regularly since beginning 2009

2. Location: Kinshasa and Bandundu provinces, the DRC

3. Organisation and parties involved: Novacel (Nouvelle société d’agriculture, de cultures et d’élevage), in charge since 2008 of the implementation of a Clean development mechanism (CDP & Kyoto protocol) project overseen by the Bio Carbon Fund and monitored by the World bank. This programme is registered as such since 2012 (by the UN convention on climate change) and has mainly being executed in the Ibi-village station (cf. www.ibi-village.cd) in the eastern part of the Kinshasa province some 140 km from the city centre; In a first stage, it will consist in developing over 6.400 ha (24.71 sq. miles or 15,814.65 acres) of land on which trees (almost 2 million to-date) and cassava are being grown (90 metric tons / week). A similar program-me, amounting to €3.8 million, supported by the Congo basin forest fund and monitored by the ADB (African development bank), started in April 2012 in the southern part of the Kwamouth territory (province du Bandundu). In both cases, the implementing partners are private investors, such as Suez Environment and Umicore to mention the most significant ones, the Congolese NGO GiAgro, established on the Ibi site and the Brussels based NGO, (Service laïque de coopération au développement - SLCD).

4. Position: as a consultant specialised in international project cycle management as well as in business administration, technical partner at various stages of the project execution and in this respect a member of the project’s advisory board.

5. Responsibilities:

As an integrated project, the programme being implemented at Ibi-village aims to build on all components of human development in the frame of poverty reduction. Andraman’s role consists therefore in making sure that the project follows the OECD/DAC recommendations as to capacity reinforcing with respect to the human ones (health, education…), the economic ones (employment creation, commercial opportunities, local markets etc.), the societal ones (culture, community development…), the environmental ones (fight against land degradation, deforestation, clean charcoal production, the institutional ones (learn to manage the common good and thus building the State reconstruction…), security (trough providing opportunities to communities and social groups living in precarious situations) and gender equality (through the alphabetisation of women and education of girls).

In close collaboration with the project promoters, Olivier Mushiete (managing director of Novacel and on location), his family ( and employees, their technical and financial partners, Andraman’s responsibilities range from the formulation of projects bound to be supported by the odd donor (multilateral or bilateral), the following up of the tender, the monitoring of the eventual implementation once the contract awarded, which includes providing advice as to management control or future developments.

 

6. Major activities and achievements:

The nature of this kind of commitment involves a very regular involvement from Andraman on the long run since 2009. However the following contributions can be highlighted:

 

6.1. Project formulation and drafting of tender dossiers in the frame of call for proposals, which includes an administrative follow up

Since September 2009, I have drafted (or contributed to) of several tenders, mostly for the EC (ENRPT and Energy facilities, Food security) as well as for the above mentioned Congo basin forest fund (supported by the UK and Norway) or the King Baldwin foundation often in partnership with the Belgian NGO ‘SLCD’ and the Congolese one, GIAgro. As the submission was successful, the support from the CBFF was secured in 2010 and implementation of the project (Ibi-village and southern Kwamouth) begun in April 2012. I was also instrumental in assisting Novacel in being awarded the price for the Congolese entrepreneur with the best governance practices by the King Baldwin foundation in March 2012.

 

6.2. Support and advice in business administration and logical framework approach

Several logical framework workshops were conducted to those mainly involved in managing the programme at Ibi-village as to restructuring it and reinforcing its management information and monitoring & evaluation system. All parties involved were gathered at a major workshop organised late October / early November 2011 in Brussels. Support also includes being involved in various encounters or negotiations with public institutions (e.g. the French National forest office), private investors or technical partners (including an architect for the eco-touristic potential).

Furthermore, support to and involvement in the programme’s restructuring initiated end 2013 and including a redistribution of responsibilities of parties concerned as well as, above all, taking over strategic management of several components of the project through a new entity established late 2015. The first beneficial effects of this reorganisation with visible results on the ground (along new axis’s, notably in terms of commercial development) as soon as 2017.

7. Skills and experience acquired:

This experience allowed Andraman to reconnect with the programmes born in the wake of the adoption of the Montreal (1985) and Kyoto (1997) protocols, which translated into actions on the ground in Zimbabwe, notably when Roland Deschamps was there between 1995 and 1998 on behalf of UNIDO – United nations industrial development organisation (cfr. this experience below in B as well as under the « Austral Africa »). At the time some projects involved setting up a « Cleaner production » or a « Clean PPP – Private-public-partnership », both in close collaboration with both the private sector and the academic world (and related research institutions).

Andraman finds it a real pity that, the private sector is often left aside when public aid funded programmes are being engineered or implemented in the name of petty or narrow-minded reflexes in spite of what is stated in major reference texts such as the Cotonou Partnership, which clearly dwells on the necessity of making it an driving engine of sustainable development.

On the contrary, the Clean development mechanism and the Bio-Carbon fund put entrepreneurship and private initiative at the rightful place and support numerous projects worldwide accordingly. However, the project being implemented in Ibi-village had to rely mostly on private support since 2008 (and even before) although it is the very first of its kind and of such a scale in Sub-Saharan Africa. As indicated earlier, it is only in 2012 that the project was officially registered as a CDM one by the UN framework convention on climate change. The achievement of the restructuring of the project implementation between 2013 and 2015 have already enabled a new dynamic at this out of the world initiative. In the meantime, notable results are visible on the ground and being very knowledgeable of the realities of the private sector in Africa, Andraman could only be very fortunate to be a partner of such an extraordinary initiative.