Monitoring and Evaluation System of WB Poverty Reduction Project in Southwest China Huang Chengwei May 12, 2007 Nanchang, China East Asia PADI Consultation Meeting & Regional Workshop on Poverty Monitoring and Evaluation

A. Introduction B. Main Contents of the Monitoring System C. Application of Monitoring Approaches D. Enlightenments

The World Bank loan project on poverty reduction in Southwest China is a comprehensive poverty reduction project,which includes various aspects, such as education, health, infrastructure facilities, labor transfer, and the development of agriculture, secondary and tertiary industries, monitoring and institution building, etc. In project villages, sub-projects were conducted in line with their demand. The secondary and tertiary industry projects included processing factories, rural fairs and trade markets, and absorbing certain surplus laborers in rural areas. The education projects were mainly training faculty, constructing teaching buildings, purchasing desks and chairs, and offering subsidies to particularly poor students. The healthcare projects were constructing village level health centers, purchasing related equipment, and constructing a cooperative medical treatment system. Improvements to infrastructure facilities were mainly constructing village roads, providing access to human and animal drinking water, and power supply projects. Labor transfer is mainly focused on establishing labor service agencies and transferring surplus laborers to developed areas through loans and organized training. Agricultural projects were mainly developing planting and breeding industries, etc. The project started from the first half of the year 1995 and was completed in 2002 with prominent effect and influence.

Fundamental Impact by the Project The successful implementation of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project (SWPRP) has explored new options for the world to fight against poverty. The successful implementation of the project has promoted the opening up to the outside world of poor areas in Guangxi, and the development of international cooperation. The SWPRP has increased the total funds input in poverty reduction and accelerated the poverty reduction drive in Guangxi. The preparation and implementation of the project has established a good management team for the project area, and improved the overall quality of the cadres and the masses in the project area. A series of proven-to-be effective and worthy-of-learning poverty reduction development modes have been formulated during throughout continuous practice.

Study Series on the World Bank China Southwest Poverty Reduction Project Mode: Project Check & Acceptance Evaluation Report The Records on the Ten-Year Process of the Project Analysis on the Project Effects and Influential Cases Project Design and Management Innovations Study on the Project Participatory Evaluation Approach and its Application Comprehensive Study on the Project Mode

Main Contents of the Monitoring System of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project A. Design, implementation, and monitoring of sub-projects Poverty monitoring: stat. departments with the National Stat. Bureau in charge of the implementation Project monitoring: project offices at the national, provincial, county, township and village levels in charge of implementation (Project contents ： 1. Office; 2. Office Facilities: Computers, Printers, Telephones, Telefaxes, Office Furniture, Duplicating Machine; 3. Vehicles: Jeep; 4. Project Administration: Training Staff (home and abroad), Various Research and Investigation, Various Seminars and Books)

Monitoring the Completion Status of Sub-Projects Project objective after adjustment Project completion Proportion to the objective % Total of project monitoring & poverty monitoring Project monitoring Office building Office facilities Vehicles Project management Poverty monitoring

B. Main Contents of the Monitoring System of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project B-1. Comprehensive project monitoring organization system (project monitoring network) Planning & monitoring department of the autonomous region project office Monitoring section of county project office Monitoring group of the project’s township work station Monitoring points of the project villages

Table for Monitoring Staff Arrangement and Work Completion Status Monitoring staff (persons)Statement of the completed monitoring report (copies) TotalCountyTowns hip VillageProvi nce CountyTownshipVillage Total Inspection to the project area (Estimated) PersonsDays TotalProvinceCountyTownshipTotalProvinceCountyTownship Total

Hardware Equipment: Office building of 3,000 square meters; Computer, Printers, Telephones, Telefaxes, Office Furniture, Duplicating Machine: One Set for Each County ； Jeeps: Two for Each County Staff Training: Monitoring Training Classes at National, Provincial, Township Levels: 812 Times; 135 Times for Each Year; 32,918 Trainees.

B-2 Complete Project Monitoring Content System ① Personnel and organization management monitoring ② Project implementation progress monitoring ③ Project financial affairs management and fund monitoring ④ Materials and equipment management monitoring ⑤ Project results and benefits monitoring ⑥ Special subject monitoring

B-3 Complete Project Monitoring Standard System Project implementation and management method Various sub-projects implementation and management method Project monitoring management method Project purchasing management system and method Project fund management method Fund retrieval management method Project check & acceptance management Various sub-projects implementation plans Scheduled monitoring table

B-4 Operable Sub-Project Monitoring Indicator System ⑴ Education sub-projects ： Newly building (reconstructing or expanding) village teaching points and complete primary schools, areas, book quantity, enrollment rate, schooling completion rate, reduction and exemption of charges for books and other expenses, nutrition allowance, the number of teachers, the number of teachers taking part in training, the number of qualified teachers, etc. ⑵ Health sub-projects ⑶ Infrastructure sub-projects ⑷ Agricultural sub-projects ⑸ Secondary and tertiary industry sub-projects ⑹ Labor service transfer sub-projects

B-5 Alternative Monitoring Approach System Report forms Inspection Check & acceptance Monitoring households Special theme conference Participatory Computer system Auditing

B-6 Exploring How to Implement Project Management Monitoring in a Large Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Project (a)Make positive attempts to conduct household tracing and monitoring and establish a project household monitoring system: (1) Draw samples randomly in the proportion of 4:3:3 from project rural households in line with project features; (2) Select 10 households in every project village to be the project monitoring households ; (3) The proportion of planting monitoring households, breeding monitoring households and labor service monitoring households is 4:3:3 (4 planting households, 3 breeding and labor service transfer households); (4) The project office prints and places monitoring plates at the door of every monitored household; (5) Monitoring tables are issued to every monitored households.

(b) Innovatively Apply Computer Management Software in Project Monitoring Management Develop “Computerized household poverty monitoring information (PMI) management system for the comprehensive poverty reduction project” to conduct management of the project. PMI is an integrated system with a combination of management information, data, tables, and monitoring.

Southwest Poverty Reduction Project Monitoring System Construction: Monitoring Methods and their Application 1. Report forms （ quarterly financial plan and progress reports of various sub-projects ） 2. Inspection: ⑴ Sampling inspections; ⑵ Interleaving inspection （ uniform indicators, standards and methods); ⑶ Key （ special ） inspections (supervision); ⑷ Overall inspections; ⑸ Inspection by the World Bank 3. Check & acceptance: six sub-projects, five important project works (purchase, payment, accounting check, basis work and project village) 182 check & acceptance standards, 400 specific standards for sub-projects

4. The Network of Project Monitoring households Total of monito red househ olds Plantin g monito red househ olds (numb er) Breedi ng monito red househ olds (numb er) Labor service transfe r househ olds (numb er) Training at the regional, county and township levels Trainin g times Trainee s Total

Every monitoring household has one monitoring registration book, and it is divided into two parts: Monitoring table for the basic status of project households （ 1 ） Basic status of family （ 2 ） Resources status （ 3 ） Income status Planting （ breeding or labor service transfer ） monitoring card （ 1 ） The implementation status of technology standard ； （ 2 ） Benefits obtained; （ 3 ） Trainings received.

5. Special subject meeting: intercommunication, analysis, discussion →get to know the project progress and problems, unify solutions 6. Participatory approach: group discussion, rural household interview 7. Development and application of the computer management system: GIS system/ monitoring system (PMI) on project rural households. The drive and process of the development: ----To enhance the work efficiency of the project ----To improve project management ： Quality and standardization ----To be the pilot and trial of poverty reduction work: efficiency, quality and criteria 8. Auditing: regular/irregular

Rural Household Information Management System for Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Project System CompositionSystem Function 1. Cards of village, township and county 1. Data input 2. Basic status of rural households2. Data inquiry 3. Debt status of project rural households 3. Data drawing 4. Status of project monitoring households 4. Data summary 5. Data creation and printing 6. Separate data saving 7. Data transferring 8. System maintenance 9. Help functions

Main Interface of the System

Interface of Rural Household Participatory Stat. Table

Interface of Data Extraction Functions

Application and effect of PMI ——Working efficiency （ regional, local, county, township, village and WB ） ——Management level （ standardization, quality, reach rural households ） ——Concept upgrading ——Team building —— Demonstration The 14th inspection team of the World Bank ： “The inspection group takes notice that Guangxi not only sets an example in aspects of project implementation, but also has created the computerized loan management system as a pioneer and realized a high loan retrieval rate. The township working station of Guangxi has already established a set of computerized data information management system for the rural households to take part in the project activities and record loan gaining status.

Enlightenment: Practice and Reflection on the Monitoring of the Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Project Main problems Existing in the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project Monitoring ⒈ Conception ⒉ Standardization ⒊ Operation （ Cost and personnel ） ⒋ Sustainability ⒌ Replicability

Enlightenments gained from the Monitoring Practice of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project ⒈ Project monitoring system construction is a component of the project construction contents, an important measure for project management, and the fundamental guarantee for the realization of project objectives. ⒉ Project monitoring is an effective way to reduce project operation and management costs. ⒊ The basic requirements for project monitoring are as follows: standard approaches, modern tools, highly efficient measures and simple operations. ⒋ Factors affecting the sustainability of project monitoring system are: concepts, costs, practicability, and a stable team.

Advice on Constructing the Complete Poverty Reduction Monitoring System Contents: Organization system Working system Qualitative system (Participatory monitoring and evaluation) Features: Operable Low cost Sustainable Open

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