Project Team

• From 8 to 20 December 2017 a Supervision and Implementation Support Mission ("Mission") will visit the Ghana Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (GASIP). The Government of Ghana (GoG) will designate a team including representatives of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and other relevant stakeholders to participate in the Mission.
• The Mission will commence and end with joint meetings between the mission Team and the senior government officials of the MOFA, the agency charged with overall responsibility for programme implementation, at which the Mission objectives and findings (respectively) will be discussed. The Mission will meet directly with the Borrower’s Ministry of Finance and review with its senior staff all aspects of the programme’s financial administration.

• In addition to field visits, the Mission will spend days in the Accra-based PCU office in order to collect documents, review progress reports and studies and hold extensive, individual or collective discussions with the GASIP staff and management. Based on this review and discussions, the Mission team will decide on the sites for these field visits.

• At the end of the field work, the Mission will hold a technical wrap up meeting with the PCU. The purpose will be for the Mission Team to present its preliminary conclusions on programme performance and results, and obtain initial feedback before the final high level wrap-up meeting with the implementing agency. This technical meeting should provide the opportunity to reflect and solicit views of the PCU staff and management on key success factors and/or reasons for under-performance, key lessons learned and on key risks and key actions required in order to improve implementation performance and increase the likelihood of achieving programme's development objectives.
• Under the guidance of the IFAD country Director and lead Consultant, the final Aide-Memoire summarising the findings of the Mission will be prepared, and be made the agenda of the final (wrap-up) meeting. It should itemise those issues on which agreement was reached and those that remain to be resolved. Mission recommendations will be included in the Aide-Memoire but preferably segregated and clearly headed as “Recommendations”. Any agreed changes should be made following the wrap-up meeting and the final version submitted to the lead ministry and others concerned. On their immediate return to IFAD country office, the Mission Team will submit the Aide-Memoire as part of their Back-to-Office report. Thereafter, the Lead Consultant and the CPM will prepare a Management Letter addressed to the representative of the Borrower by IFAD Management. The letter will request resolution or intervention with regard to issues that have to be addressed by implementing agencies at higher levels. It should also highlight positive and negative trends in implementation and concerns relevant to IFAD’s strategic thrusts.

Objectives of the Mission
The objective of this Mission is twofold: (i) ensure compliance with loan covenants, procurement, disbursement and the end-use of funds; (ii) ensure development impact based on assessment of progress against agreed indicators embedded in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system, joint identification of problems and solutions with GoG and implementers, and agreement on suitable actions to achieve the programme’s development objectives. Specific tasks to be undertaken by the Mission will include:

• review the programme’s implementation progress against appraisal targets and the 2017 AWPB, using the key indicators as defined in the logframe;

• help identify and discuss actual and potential/emerging problems and constraints, and agree on solutions, changes or improvements and the responsibility for their implementation;

• Discuss project implementation performance of the 2017 annual work plan and budget (AWPB) and draw lessons to guide preparation of the 2018 AWPB and its related procurement plan (PP);

• review programme performance in terms of gender-equity/gender mainstreaming;

• assess progress with the development of ICT-based M&E system for the programme and identify needs for further technical assistance support;

• review the progress of procurement and disbursement; based on comparisons of the records of IFAD and the programme, verify the terms of the contracts awarded and the commitments and disbursements made; and obtain copies of approved contracts not yet submitted to IFAD;
• review the financial and accounting systems of the programme and implementing agencies/partners, and ensure that these systems are adequate for IFAD’s reporting requirements;

• check the Statements of Expenditure from last supervision mission to verify their accuracy against IFAD records

• review compliance by the Borrower with loan covenants. Where there is non-compliance or delay in compliance, discuss these issues with the Borrower, explain the consequences of non-compliance, and propose remedial action;
• explore such other matters related to the programme that may delay or adversely affect programme implementation and that would impact the achievement of the development objectives;

• assist in the identification of needs for technical assistance (TA) and in drawing up TOR for TA inputs; and
  undertake field visits to the programme area to spot check and verify reported physical progress.