Participant and directorate selection capacity building boundaries – Experience indicates that any form of capacity building provided by SoL is in considerable demand from within and outside MAF. For example, English and mathematics/ statistics training courses are always in demand from staff from all of MAF’s directorates, and from staff from NGOs and cooperating DPs. Such demand means that during Phase III it will be necessary to restrict the capacity building audience to a size which can be accommodated within SoL III’s budget. It is not intended that SoL III should morph into a capacity building exercise for all of MAF’s directorates or for the numerous partners who are also assisting with the development of Timor-Leste’s agricultural sector. This is a far larger task than that which can be undertaken by SoL III and it really needs to be a separate and stand-alone national program, as suggested in the World Bank’s paper on an Agricultural Productivity Improvement Program. Accordingly SoL III’s capacity building scope and scale will be restricted to that required for MAF to be able to progressively implement SoL III’s four deliverable components without technical assistance and with sufficient GoTL budget to be fully operational this can be considered as the capacity – building boundary. 3 shows that SoL III’s partner directorates (NDA&H, NDR&SS and NDACD) have a total of about 700 staff (2009 figures); 155 in Dili and 544 in the districts. In addition MAF has about 80 staff working in the 13 district and sub-district offices. This means that the potential capacity building target for SoL III could be large as about 800 people when the additional 24 SEOs to be appointed in 2010 are included. Such a target size is quite unrealistic and therefore it will be necessary for SoL III’s implementation team and the Program Management Unit to rationalize the capacity building target down to a manageable size, using the criteria of have a certain set ‘must of skills and must have an operable system’ if SoL is to be successful and sustainable’. As mentioned in Section 12.5.2, it will be impossible for SoL III to build capacity throughout its three key partner directorates, let alone all of MAF, and so careful participant selection will be important.
Participant and directorate selection – capacity building boundaries Experience indicates that any form of capacity building provided by SoL is in considerable demand from within and outside MAF. For example, English and mathematics/ statistics training courses are always in demand from staff from all of MAF’s directorates, and from staff from NGOs and cooperating DPs. Such demand means that during Phase III it will be necessary to restrict the capacity building audience to a size which can be accommodated within SoL III’s budget. It is not intended that SoL III should morph into a capacity building exercise for all of MAF’s directorates or for the numerous partners who are also assisting with the development of Timor-Leste’s agricultural sector. This is a far larger task than that which can be undertaken by SoL III and it really needs to be a separate and stand-alone national program, as suggested in the World Bank’s paper on an Agricultural Productivity Improvement Program. Accordingly SoL III’s capacity building scope and scale will be restricted to that required for MAF to be able to progressively implement SoL III’s four deliverable components without technical assistance and with sufficient GoTL budget to be fully operational – this can be considered as the capacity building boundary. 3 shows that SoL III’s partner directorates (NDA&H, NDR&SS and NDACD) have a total of about 700 staff (2009 figures); 155 in Dili and 544 in the districts. In addition MAF has about 80 staff working in the 13 district and sub-district offices. This means that the potential capacity building target for SoL III could be large as about 800 people when the additional 24 SEOs to be appointed in 2010 are included. Such a target size is quite unrealistic and therefore it will be necessary for SoL III’s implementation team and the Program Management Unit to rationalize the capacity building target down to a manageable size, using the criteria of ‘must have a certain set of skills and must have an operable system’ if SoL is to be successful and sustainable’. As mentioned in Section 12.5.2, it will be impossible for SoL III to build capacity throughout its three key partner directorates, let alone all of MAF, and so careful participant selection will be important.
seeds-of-life-3-project-design-document-volume2.docx