Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 09:28:25 -0800 From: Rajesh Veeraraghavan Subject: [AID Coords] HBP - Q & A Hey folks, Several chapters had sent questions regarding the HBP proposal we have received. Here is an attempt to compilation of these questions and some answers. Some of the questions could be well explained by referring to the BGVS booklets. If you chapter does not have a copy of these booklets, please contact Srividhya at svidhu@h.... For the unanswered questions, please send to your respective block co-ordinators. I will be sending another email with the preliminary block assignments. Cheers! (Rajesh, vijay, nigamanth, Srividhya, Rash) 1) who will train the health activist, the coordinator & others ? What will be their qualifications ? The health activist would be trained by the block level trainer. Block level trainer would be trained by state level trainers. 2) at some point, this project implementation may also have to address economic conditions of the participant (like adoloscent girls in villages, who would be otherwise forced to go for daily wages to support their families). Will the later phases of this project address these issues ? Source: The Health Campaign Guide book, page 60 Improving the economic status of the individual volunteer by arranging for access to relevant development schemes would be useful and may be considered. The only limitation for this is that it is in practical terms difficult to arrange support uniformly in all villages. Refer to chapter 8 "Strategies for Sustainbility" of this book. 3)- 13 blocks in Bihar, 3 in Maharashtra & 20 in Tamilnadu add up to - 36 blocks in total. But the proposal reads, "These together come - to 24 blocks". [p.17] Can you explain this ? "these together come to 24 blocks" describes the total for Tamilnadu alone. But out of these only 18 blocks will do the programme in it's entirety (though the remaining 6 will receive state-level training). (bottom of page 19). Apart from these, there are 10 blocks from Kanyakumari. But since the expenses are much lower there, they can be treated as two blocks. So the total comes to 18+2=20 4) Do we know the names of the blocks in Bihar? Not yet. 5) Is it preferable that we spend a substantial aamount of money in relatively developed parts/states? A) When co-ordinators choose areas to implement programs, they tend to select areas where some pgms already exist. Thats how some of these areas are selected. Comment: The flip side of this argument is that it will not be easy to replicate in other areas. From AID point of view, it will not be easy to get people from other states to get involved if we confine our funding extensively to a small number of states. 6) What are the other blocks they are working besides these 33 blocks? Apart from this proposal, AID has already recieved proposal from Kerala and we will be soon receiving from Assam, Karnataka, MP and Rajasthan. The ground work in these blocks have been started. 7) Who else is funding them besides AID? If they have other funding funding, what is the extent of that funding? Comment: This is important as it reflects on the long term sustainability of the entire project. 8) It has been mentioned that the project scope has changed a lot from the initial projections a couple of years ago. Is it possible for AID to get the exact scope of the project? The project took off a year later then it was previously hoped. But the scope and the goal of the project are still the same. 9) How were the blocks assigned to AID-US? At present, AID (and possibly other like minded organizations in the U.S) is the only funding source for the blocks mentioned in this proposal. Since AID has good interactions with other organizations (like Asha and CRY), we can approach them for funding. Chapters that have these relations are encouraged to explore the possibility of their funding parts of the proposal. 10) How are the blocks selected? Do they have any criteria that at least a portion of the selected blocks are very backward? The blocks are been selected based on the enthusiasm and the commitment of the local people and the strength of the BGVS volunteers in the area. 11) Can we get a choice on which blocks we like to work? Yes. 12)How many chapters will be involved with each state (The proposal mentioned 3-4. Is this a set number)? Do each chapter have to contribute equal amount of funds? The blocks are been assigned to chapters based on the chapter's responses which is whether the chapters have enough volunteers to spend time with the block. Chapters can commit funds to the level they are comfortable with. 13)Why is there no mention about the funding needed for setting up an infrastructure, if need be?? (The budget provided is only for training.) The block program tries to use the existing infrastructure like the PHC and tries to improve the utilization of it. 14) How will information exchange between blocks come about? We understand the State -> Block -> Village flow but there is nothing on the horizontal information flow (i.e. Block to Block). Or is it that all such flows would be through the state level. The state-level training programmes can act as an avenue for interaction between blocks and exchange of information. As is mentioned in the proposal (time-line of activities), trianing takes place throughout the programme and is not just before the commencement of the programme. 15)What about FCRA status ? Does BGVS, Bihar have FCRA ? What about other groups ? BGVS as an organization has FCRA. In case of Bihar, the money will be routed through BGVS Delhi. For maharashtra it will be sent through Tatapi. And for TamilNa du as it stands the training expenses will be sent directly to the trainers. 16)Can someone from other chapter visit the block that we choose to fund (just like a project visit)? YES YES YES! 17)If we take up a block then is it possible that we fund it for one year and then just review it the next year or is it a full time funding commitment? It is preferable that a chapter which commits will continue for the next year if satisfied. 18)Issues: (i) non payment or lack of incentives to the village level volunteer who has to spend 3 hours per day for 3 days per week. There is no honorarium paid by the project but we do not rule out other forms of support like 1. panchayat pay a small encouragement fee 2. arranging for access to relevant development schemes 3. Government fund a small honorarium to the the health activist through the panchayat in concurrance of the NGO resource group. This would be a form of institutionalizing the relationship between the government , panchayat and the NGO at terms where the spirit of such partnership has maximal chance for constant renewal. The caution is that such an arrangment must be entered into only after the 2 year campaign has achieved its objectives, atleast to a significant degree. IF this caution is ignored in the hope of covering a much wider area in a much shorter time one is likely to end up as a failure , similar to community health worker programmes the govt sector has done in the past. (ii) time line being too optimistic. how much local control will be on the time line? The speed of the program depends fully on the local people. the proposal also says that if the program proceeds slowly the expenditure will be correspondingly less. (iii) Bihar blocks not identified (?) (iv)sustainibility issue. Please refer to Chapter 8 "STrategies for sustainbility" of the Health Campaign Book of BGVS. 19) Credit cooperatives mentioned at the beginning but not budgeted. What exactly is the role of the credit cooperatives in the health program? The proposal seems to be based on the TNSF model. We were wondering if this model can be readily applied to other states or if there are any changes that are made to adapt to the differences (cultural or otherwise) in other states. The implementation of the program wherever committed to is by local people in the respective states. And one would expect it is "localized as appropriate". 20)Why is BGVS Delhi administering the program in Bihar? Is there a BGVS unit in Bihar? BGVS Delhi is not administering the program. It is only handling the funds. There is a separate BGVS unit in Bihar, but it may not have FCRA clearnce, or BGVS may be handling its finances centrally, like AID does. 21)Will the indicators for measurement of progress be the same as the ones used in the Arogya Iyakkam programme? Yes. But this also depends on the involvement of AID volunteers in the blocks they support. Documentation and collection of data is very crucial to evaluating measurement of progress, and we can help in a big way with this. 22)We would like to choose the block that we are supporting to provide non-monetary support. This is the main reason we chose Maharashtra (we have 4-5 volunteers that are from Maharashtra). - Are any other organizations supporting the HBP effort? UNICEF? - This is a hypothetical question but an important one. Due to any unforeseen reasons, if we discontinue support (say next year), will this program still have done some progress? Or will it all go down the drain? Block level interventions are happening right now. The program will continue but it could be slower depending upon how much money they could mobilize within the block. UNICEF India has supported the "Arogya Iyakkam" programme in 7 blocks of Tamilnadu. Unanswered questions: ------------------------ 23) How does the program address the caste issue in the blocks? 24) On the sequencing: why is that preparing the register & weighing the children need two separate months ? Can the activist herself weigh the children, when preparing the register ? [ we need to find out from the block ] 25) On the programs & discussions with adoloscent girls: how do the organizers plan to convince the school management and elders in the families about this idea 26) the project aims to address the chronic diseases first; why were the chronic diseases chosen first ? Is this based on some supporting preliminary analysis of diseases in rural children ? - if a child under a family's care is seriously ill, what will the activist do/recommend ? Will a doctor visit the family ? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:31:31 -0500 From: Ravishankar Arunachalam To: aid_coords Subject: [AID Coords] HBP proposal - quick answers to a few questions Category: information..please forward to chapter members. Hi all, Several chapters have gotten back to us with questions regarding the proposal. We are including some of the common ones (below) with answers. If you have not sent your chapter's decision/responses earlier, please do so asap! Thanks. -HBP team (i) When is the funding required ? The general answer is "as early as possible". The state-level tranining can happen only when the funds are provided. Depending on the progress of the blocks, funding for a specific block will be required in installments as specified in the proposal. (ii) Do we have to provide all the money now ? No. As mentioned above, only the component for the training is required immediately. (iii) When can we start interacting with the individual blocks ? Initially, the answers to most of the questions can be provided by the AIPSN HBP team (Balaji/Dr.Sundararaman/Franco/Ghalib/Krishnakumar), and possibly the state-level co-ordinators (Balaji for Tamilnadu, Ghalib for Bihar, Datta Desai for Maharashtra). Later, depending on the involvement of the chapter and the progress of the blocks, interaction with the blocks can be built up. iv) Can we review the project even if we cannot provide immediate funding support? Yes!. Since this proposal affects all of AID, every chapter should review the proposal, irrespective of your funds situation. Please send us your chapter's responses to the 2 questions we sent earlier, as soon as possible.