United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Joint Action Development Forum (JADF) is a consultative organ and a mechanism for coordination and harmonization of efforts as well as a participatory dialogue tool for stakeholders in districts. It was developed to address various issues that were as result of lack of coordination and harmonisation as indicated below;

In Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide, came in NGOs donors and development partners. This was welcome because they came at time when the Rwandan society needed support most both technical and financial. However, this did not yield tangible results, because they all funded and implemented programs of their own choices in regions of their own choices due to their own reasons and mostly resettlement and rehabilitation without control, coordination and accountability.

Both at the central and local governments there lacked a mechanism to coordinate and harmonise the activities of the different donors and development actors in the country, hence a problem of duplication of efforts.

There was lack of ownership and follow up of activities because of lack of shared vision and therefore lack of shared responsibilities. The donors or other development actors would not share their action plan and budgets thereof with the local governments who were supposed to be the beneficiaries, nor did they share this with other stakeholders including communities hence a problem of sustainability of their different initiatives.

In line with this, the concept of participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation of development programs was not known in this situation. A program would be undertaken but the impact and outcomes thereof were not tracked and therefore no lessons learned as well as corrective measures.

Some development actors would leave projects underway and shift to another project even another place and at times they ended the project prematurely and left the country without notice.

This affected the community who were the end beneficiaries but local government officials suffered most as they are the ones that lost trust, confidence and credibility from their citizens. To the citizens, their leaders must be in control, vigilant and visionary.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The institutionalisation of JADF has brought many achievements in the local governments so far as shown below; Coordination of aid and of different development actors working in local government was made possible through JADF. This greatly improved the allocation of scarce resources and development programs became faster, efficient, effective and more sustainable. Joint Action Development Forum has enabled all stakeholders in the district to harmonise their activities and as a result there is division of labour and clear distinction of activities and area of operation and solving the problem of duplication of efforts. Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation formed the core principle of JADF. All stakeholder are involved in all the processes of project life in the district which bring about synergy in implementing different programs because stakeholders bring with them different expertise. In line with this, JADF created an atmosphere of harmony in relations (collaboration, constructive dialogue, co-operation team spirit, partnership and sharing of information) and mutual transparence and accountability between stakeholders. This is because dialogue forms the backbone of this forum. The existence of JADF also improved the equitable distribution of development interventions in the sectors of districts. Due to the coordination and harmonization of development actors, the districts no longer have situations where the actors concentrate in one place and thus it brought about equitable development in the districts. Important to note is that JADF has become another consultative organ in the district, before a plan or program is approved by the district council which is the supreme organ it is first reviewed in the forum, hence bring in all stakeholders inputs, building consensus, ownership and distributing roles and responsibilities. The impact is measured by the participation of stakeholders in the quarterly meetings where there is at least 85% attendance in these meetings. It can also be measured by quality and pace of development programs as well as the existing working relation of the different stakeholders in the district. The district official and the district as a whole are the beneficiaries of this forum because they no longer deal with incomplete projects and no longer have to account for what they themselves have no information about.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Ministry of Local government, Good governance, Community development and Social Affairs proposed the solution and requested SNV (a Dutch NGO) to design a concept paper to institutionalise JADF in the local governance system and to propose a methodology to structuring JADF at the district and Sector levels. The districts in the whole country are the implementation agents of this initiative and they work with different stakeholders including; • National and International NGO’s operating in the district and sector; • Registered Associations in the sector • Representative of Faith based organization recognized by the Government and working at the district and sector; • Community based organisation (CBO’s); • Private Sector members

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
JDAF is a consultative level of information dissemination, promoting cooperation among people or actors in development and social welfare of the population. The Forum aims at coordinating activities of all development actors so as to promote coordination of efforts, efficiency and effectiveness to create synergy and avoid duplication of efforts. Main Objectives • To coordinate and monitor development activities in a district in order to ensure alignment with both the Rwanda Aid Policy and the Fiscal and Financial Decentralization Policy • To solicit inputs from service providers and other stakeholders in the district and sector for joint planning, monitoring and evaluation of Performance-Based Contracts and service delivery • To foster greater aid effectiveness through the effective allocation and use of external finance aimed at achieving objectives identified through District Development Plan and Performance-Based Contracts. STRATEGIES • Institutionalisation and structuring of Joint Action Development Forum in the local governance system and Putting in place a Ministerial order that governs the functioning of JADF which was established by MINALOC • The district council decided to make JADF as one of the consultative organ in the district. This increased the participation of stakeholders in the activities of the district and it improved the quality of working relationship. • The JADF elected a coordination committee in which local governments and other stakeholders are represented. With this strategy, ownership of district programs by all stakeholders improved as well as a spirit of team work. • The involvement of all stakeholders in the planning, monitoring and evaluation helped to align resources and to address the community’s needs according to their priority.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The key developments of the JADF initiative and implementation steps are as follows; In the then province of Gitarama, the provincial leadership together with SNV leadership, and NGOs proposed and operated a coordination mechanism they named Provincial Joint Action Forum MINALOC in collaboration with SNV designed and institutionalised JDAF and proposed a methodology structuring JADF at the district and sector levels; This was followed by the operationalisation and functioning of JADF at the district. The district officials invited all development actors working in the district to attended a meeting and in this meeting the district officials sold the idea to the partners and hence the birth of JADF. The Ministry of Local governance, Good Governance, Community Development and Social Affairs provided the legal framework (Ministerial decree) determining the responsibility, organization and functioning of Joint Action Development (JADF) at District and Sector levels. The district council instituted JADF as a permanent consultative structure of the district. Districts officials integrated JDAF in the District Development plans processes, (Medium Term Expenditure Framework, annual Operational plan, Performance contract).

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
In the introduction of this forum many challenges arose but the main ones are indicated below; The biggest challenge was that of hesitation and pointing accusation finger; on the side of partners, they complained of forced membership and financial contribution and on the side of the district they complained about scattering and use of resources in non priority activities by development actors. The development actors working in local governments still held strong the tradition of not sharing their action plan with the district official and the budgets thereof. The participation of the private sector in JADF was not forthcoming as the private sector they still regarded the district as an administrative entity that they only needed for official documents (working licence and others) and not partners in development. The district had no clear plan nor did they have tool for monitoring and evaluation. These obstacles were overcome by; As already mentioned above, JADF is a consultative forum which embarks on dialogue as a principal mechanism for their function. The development partners and the district officials highlighted their concerns and together they sought for workable solutions. In addition the institutionalisation of a Ministerial decree governing the functioning of JADF helped to streamline certain issues that were not clear and posed fears to the forum Another important tool was the involvement of stakeholders in the planning monitoring and evaluation of district programs as well as having them in the coordination committee. This increased trust, confidence and commitment of many stakeholders.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The cost of resources used for this initiative

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative is sustainable because there is a clear legal framework governing it and it has been embraced by all stakeholders. More to that, the initiative has fostered development and service delivery and hence the results act as a motivating factor. Some of the sectors have started institutionalising JADF at the sector level with the help of the community, local entrepreneurs/ civil society organisation and Faith Based Organisations alone without development partners.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
There are various lesson learned from this initiative as indicated below; JADF is an important tool to coordinate, align and harmonise development efforts in which all stakeholders get a win - win situation. Synergy and team spirit are a crucial driving force for fast, equitable and sustainable development. Lack of coordination of development efforts leads to misappropriation of scarce resources and the end beneficiary (Community) is the looser. Dialogue through JADF is a mechanism that leads to common understanding and easy way of solving problems that face a given group. It also brings about harmony, strengthens working relationship, build trust, confidence and commitment.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Local Government, Good Governance, Community Development and Social Affairs
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Protais MUSONI
Title:		MINISTER
Telephone/ Fax:		+250-583595
Institution's / Project's Website:		+250-582227
E-mail:		pmusoni@minaloc.gov.rw
Address:
Postal Code:		B.P 3445 KIGALI
City:		KIGALI
State/Province:		KIGALI CITY
Country:		Rwanda

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information