Individualized (project specified TOR) for Third Party Monitoring

Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP), Ministry of Education

Infrastructure Services Department (ISD)
Contract Phase III (September 01, 2-014-August 31, 2015

Project Background:

The Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) was established in 2002 in cooperation between the
World Bank, the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and donors. The ARTF was designed as a mechanism
for providing coordinated funding for reconstruction activities in line with agreed priorities of the GoA
while promoting transparency and accountability.

The ARTF has since 2002 raised US$7 billion from 32 donors. Currently 20 grants are active worth US$1.8
billion. All ARTF grants provide financing on budget for national priority programs implemented through
Government ministries. As Administrator of the ARTF, the World Bank is responsible for ensuring that a
satisfactory level of fiduciary control is in place to manage the funds disbursed from ARTF to the GoA.

To address these challenges and strengthen program monitoring the World Bank in August 2011 hired a
Supervisory Agent for the investment portfolio under the ARTF to assist the World Bank, as the ARTF
Administrator, in accurately capturing, verifying, and cataloguing data on a select sub-set of projects. In a
first 12-months pilot phase of the program the Supervisory Agent performed a total of 1,500 site visits.
The approach was thereby tested and it was decided to continue and scale up the program in Years II and
III from September 2012 to August 2014. The third phase will be Check the datesI think that the third
pahse is to being from September 2014 August 2015!!!!!

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

The goal of this assignment is to strengthen the Banks technical supervision of the ARTF investment
portfolio by ensuring year-round access to project sites across the country. The Supervisory Agent will be
an Agent of the Bank, reporting directly to the Bank, but will work closely with the ministry of education
(ISD) departments responsible for project implementation. During phase III the Supervisory Agent will
perform site visits and monitor ARTF projects in all 34 provinces in Afghanistan on an ongoing basis.
Winter weather and changing security conditions may necessitate temporarily shifting staff to areas
where site access is possible, but coverage of all areas will resume as soon as possible when conditions
improve.

Education Quality Improvement Program

EQUIP is a national education program implemented by the MoE. Its main component is the construction
of schools. In its first and second phases 1,662 new schools were planned of which 849 are completed,
717 are under construction,96 are incomplete due to security reasons. ( I think that these numbers are
to be checked.number of completed buildings should be more . If not, you may want to include
incomplete school category also. Under EQUIP school management committees are established from
community members who direct the use of quality grants to upgrade facilities.

The program will include a total of 1500 site visits broken down along the following lines (the final
number of site visits can fluctuate +/-20 % subject to discussions on the individualized project TORs:

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Draft TOR for Third Party Monitoring (EQUIP) project: Third party monitoring is defined as
supervisory/monitoring job accomplished by the third party in order to assure the World Bank for proper
utilization of the ARTF allocated budget for quality work of the a specified projects (EQUIP).

Third Party Monitoring for EQUIP site visits:

The issue was discussed thoroughly and it was concluded that 477 ???? visits to be made by the third
party during the third phase. For these visits, the projects are divided into the following categories:

1. Completed under Equip but not visited in earlier phases: the intention here is to have as many as
possible completed buildings under the project and create a reliable data base.
2. Completed after IRDs visits in previous phases: Since these under construction buildings were
visited during the previous phases, it would be useful to see the quality of completed buildings.
3. AF - New buildings: sites would be visited where some large buildings like Administration
building, hostel with 300 beds, and different sized schools are being constructed.
4. AF Missing items: construction sites where missing items are being provided would be visited.

The number for Third Party Visits to EQUIP project are weighted based on the categories of projects and
specified as per the below table:

S/N Type of projects # of projects % of # of # of Total Remarks

proj projects visits visits
ects for visit per
for project
visit
1 Completed from 527 201 10553 1 10553
EQUIP I-II but not 0
visited
2 Completed after 59 This number looks 20 12 1 12???
IRD visit/s wrong. IRD visited
about 300 under
construction schools
in Phase I and more
in Phase II. Only 59
of those have been
completed looks
suspicious.
3 Under progress 358 152 5472 1.5 81
from EQUIP I-II 0 (avera
ge)2 75144
4 Under progress 134 35% 47 1.5 71
under additional or
Financing mor ??
buildings- include e
sites where
hostels, admin,
and schools are
being constructed
5 Under progress 120 105 12??67 13 12268?

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 under New 0 ?
Additional
Financing
include sites
where missing
items are being
provided
5 Total 281477
total
may be
about
4-500

Local Monitoring for EQUIP site visits: Twenty projects from categories 3-4 as per the table, total visits
55 are identified in insecure areas by the ISD relevant teams. These projects will be assigned under the
CM program as per the concept note for the purpose.

The third part monitoring activities will include the following:

1. ISD will outline the list of projects which will be monitored by the third party as per the following
details:
Number and locations of projects
The purpose of construction projects:
o School buildings
o Other education facilities
Type of contracts:
o Community Contract (CC)
o National Competition Biddings (NCB)
Status of projects:
o Ongoing projects
o New/planned projects after contract award
2. Planning preparation: Based on need analysis of the ISD, in consultation with the World Bank, a
monitoring plan will be prepared and shared with the third party for finalization. This plan will
include:
Time schedule for starting the actual work of projects monitoring
Frequencies/number of visiting each project (during different period)
Ways for sharing the monitoring/visit plan
Scheduling all mutual meetings in advance
Ways for improving joint monitoring, this will help in:
o Fixing the defects if seen immediately, ISD staff will have the authority either to fix the
defect by the implementing partner or stop the work for further advice
o ISD staff will get on job training and this will help ISD to stand by its own feet by the end
of the third party monitoring program
o Reduces the administrative work and increases the efficiency on timely manner
Detail of activities to be undertaken during visits to the projects
o Safety and social environmental safeguard
o Material quality, storage and handling

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 o Existence and the capacity of the implementing partner, ISD engineers and etc
o Availability of required tools and equipment for project implementation
3. Reporting: The primary deliverables for the ARTF monitoring program are reports and ISD will
benefit from it the most. The reports shall provide and specify timely, relevant and verified project
level information to the World Bank and ISD. This shall cover all findings of the visits will include:
Frequency of reports
o Urgent reports for immediate actions
o Monthly/regular visit reports
Contents of the reports
o Material storage and handling
o Safety and environmental issues
o Availability of the required machinery and equipment of project site
o Work quality, all necessary quality control (QC) to ensure data accuracy and
completeness, including ways and means of verifications
o Defects, type of defects, root causes, category and proposed remedial measures
o Technical capacity gaps following field visits and technical discussions at the Provincial
and district levels
o Each report should have annex D that helps to visualize the defects and IRD shall also
provide advice for corrective actions
o The information shall be provided in Accumulative annex D and that shall reflect the
action/s taken by ISD
o IRD shall present their findings to ISD management team in on monthly basis

4. Recommendations: The third party for monitoring shall summarize the visits findings of each project
and provide the information in a tabular form for easy references and required actions. This may
include:
Expected measures for correction by ISD
Expectation from ISD for confirmation of the correction for the defects

5. Community/Local Monitoring: At the current situation of the country, it is difficult to find qualified
individuals even in some big governmental institutions and that is why the third party for monitoring
is employed in order to make assurance for proper utilization of fund and achievements of quality
products. Therefore; in selection of CMs the attention shall be diverted towards the training of
individuals for monitoring subjects before giving them the assignments. In addition, the reports by
CMs shall not be limited to sending only pictures, the reports must also provide some narratives
about the type of defects, location of projects and etc. The already prepared criteria for the purpose
shall be followed during assigning CMs along with:

Local monitors should not be used on operations where there was provision under other
ARTF/IDA financed projects for volunteer monitors. Paid monitors may undermine the principle
of voluntary monitoring.
In consultation with the World Bank and ISD/MoE, the SA will identify project sites for this type
of monitoring;
Local monitors should in addition to infrastructure quality requirements be able to report along
the following dimensions: environment and social safeguards, gender mainstreaming and
functioning grievance mechanisms;
For each project to be monitored by the local monitor, identify a monitor based on required
qualifications (i.e. reading. writing and cognitive skills);

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 Provide each local monitor with basic construction inspection, quality control and data capture
training as well as the necessary tools to successfully monitor an IRDP project;
Regularly mentor all local monitors by phone and through monthly inspections and liaison
meetings;
IRD Supervisors will review and edit all observations submitted by local monitors;
At the end of Year III a sustainability plan will be drafted and presented to the World Bank and
ISD/MoE handing over this activity to ISD/MoE

The project sites will be selected based on status of implementation so the SA engineer can follow
construction from start to finish. Some details:
The SA engineer will visit on a continuous basis the selected project sites and send to HQ reports
as usual and in accordance with agreed reporting templates for each of the projects;
The SA engineer will link up with local project representatives to ensure their participation in
project site visits;
The SA engineer will be sufficiently trained on social and environmental safeguards, gender
mainstreaming and functioning grievance mechanisms to be able to adequately investigate and
report on these issues.

The details of the TOR will be agreed in close cooperation between ISD, the World Bank and the third
Party.

6. CMORE System: The ministry of Education in using the Education Management Information System
(EMIS) in general for information gathering and registration. This department has newly introduced
the smart phone system and has uploaded the program into the mobiles. Until now, they have
prepared 170 mobiles to TED and 70 for EQUIP model schools and have already purchased 80 for
ISD. They requested to have a meeting with ISD management team next week and to finalize the
process of uploading the program and training to ISD. This was checked with the head of EMIS
system, Mr. Ismail Khatab.

According to him, this is cheap, reliable and easily adoptable and easily applicable tool for the
monitoring purpose. The requirement of EMIS policy is that none of the MoE department shall
use any other form of MIS which cannot be integrated with the EMIS of MoE. Therefore;
application and training in the field of CMORE is not supported by the EMIS.
7. QA and QC Training to build supervision capacity at provincial level: Instead of training CMORE
system, it will be better IRD to provide training sessions to site supervisors and ISD relevant teams in
these two subjects. These subjects shall encounter:

Training contents in QC:

1. Developing standard forms and check list for applying the QC procedure. (I think that IRD should
use / expand/ improve the formats already designed by Daartt under their assignment so that
we do not re-invent the wheel.)
2. Soil tests (FDT Field Density Test, CBR test, PI, etc.)
3. Quality of workmanship and storage of material
4. Cement test
5. SPT (Standard penetration Test)
6. Concrete tests (Field and laboratory)
7. Brick test and quality of brick masonry

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 8. Quality of stone masonry
9. Sieve analysis
10. Concrete mix design and knowledge that how to maintain the quality of mix in the field of
construction.
11. Aggregate test
12. Mortar test
13. Steel bar tests in field.
14. Special training about quality of wooden truss and GI-Sheets

Training contents in QA:

15. Developing QA plan for ISD projects (I think that IRD should use / expand/ improve the formats
already designed by Daartt under their assignment so that we do not re-invent the wheel.)
1.
2. Knowledge that how to assure the quality of construction in every specific stage Vs specification.
3. Construction scheduling using Critical Path Method (CPM)
4. Safety and Environment

8. ISD/MOE (EQUIP) preparation: It is noticed in the past two phases that ISD has been less active in
addressing the defects reported by the third party (IRD). This is seriously noted by the World Bank. In
order this not to happen during the third phase, it is the ISD obligation to:
Assign a team led by a qualified individual to follow and address the defects on timely manner
reported by the third party
Produce a format which shall encounter:
o Proper supervision/monitoring plan for each project
o Project location
o Type of project
o Type of reported defects and date of project visits
o Photos of the defects with narratives
o Action taken by ISD, time and photos must be outlined
o Submit the confirmation report to the World Bank and the third party about the date
and photo of corrections for the defects (Apply Annex D).

9. DELIVERABLES: The deliverables for the EQUIP program monitoring is outlined in reporting contents,
while in addition to the project specific individualized TORs, some deliverables are required at the
program level. This will include:
ARTF Database
Present ARTF project information in a web-based interface
Make available project level documentation in a web-based interface
Submit to the Bank on a monthly basis a brief report outlining progress under the framework
TOR
Every quarter the SA will submit to the Bank a more detailed report. The report should include
also analysis of issues and achievements and re-commendations resulting from the coordination
meetings between the GoA line ministries, Bank program teams and the SA
At the end of Phase III (August 31, 2014) the SA shall submit to the World Bank a completion
report outlining key results and lessons learned. The final format shall be agreed between the SA
and the World Bank.
Deliverables for the QC/QA Training

10. Exit Strategy: We had discussed that there cannot be an exit strategy / sustenance plan for a third
party monitor since this is an independent monitoring system, however, there may be an exit
strategy / sustenance plan for the QC training. Please change the wording accordingly. The SA, shall
submit the its exit strategy outlining the following with proper indicators:
What will be achieved and how during third phase
How the skills, knowledge and system will be handed over with the required capacity to the
client
How can they make sure the system will running and the achievements will be sustainable after
the end of the mission
Qc Training

11. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

For each ARTF program the Supervisory Agent and the Bank will agree on performance indicators to be
included in the monitoring plans. Adjustments may occur and are due to evolving program designs and
implementation strategies. Any adjustments will be agreed upon by the Bank and the Supervisory Agent.

The Supervisory Agent will based on the individualized TORs develop a results framework with the
relevant performance indicators for each project and/or aggregated. The Supervisory Agent will at the
end of Phase III report on the results of the program along the lines of the results framework.

6. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The payment schedule will be prepared between the World Bank and IRD as the World Bank payment
procedure.