Introduction

The general purpose of the voucher services is to mobalise existing resources for development by strenthening local initiatives, by mobalising existing human resources, by fostering the collaboration between them towards delivery and by making effcient use of available funds.

The fundamental principles of the voucher services are:

 

• Building trust for collaboration though a fully transparent process

• Demand driven by the envolvement of the target group and payment upon delivery

• Clear definition of obligations and rights of involved service providers

• Asure scalability by ovoiding hidden costs

 

Objective of the services

The services presented on this website are related to activities of the eRAILS2 project.  The specific objectives of the services are:

 

GIVE FARMERS A VOICE - establish a constructive dialogue in a bottom up-approch between the farming community, agricultural research system and the other stakeholders of the agricultural sector

 

enhance the knowledge management capacity of the RAILS-LT and in especialy their capacity to mediate between the farming communities and agricultural research and to share information regionally.

 

make relevant and high quality information from research accessible to the farming community

 

make up-todate data and information from the rural ares

 

 

 

1. How do Voucher Services work?

Voucher services is a way to organise several subsequent task towards a specific output that require the envolvement of various actorrs from different organisations. Each taks includes one or serveral activities that are carried out by a single service provider without having to interact with another involved service provider. The result of a task is a deliverables that has clear criteria. Each tasks has a specific cost. The cost of the Service is the sum of the cost of tasks. The calculation of the cost of a task is based on the quatification of recources and time that are riquired to accomplish it and the prices of the real economy.

Voucher services are stricly directed towards the delevery of a clearly defined product or service to a defined beneficiary.

Involved service providers are paid upon delivery of the ouput to the beneficiry. This assures orientation towards demand, performance and team spirit.

Transparency Scalable since one has a good basis for up and outscaling.

Short reference to CLI-agri concept.

 

2. General structure of Voucher Services

All services are defined by a general description of the service and the description of tasks

2.1 General description of services

Each service is described following the same structure and points

Name of the service

Short name and acconym

Purpose of the service

Description of the problems the service addresses

Short description of the purpose of the service in relation to the problem. Contribution to the solution of the problem.

Summary of the activities (workflow)

Requesting body

who are the primary beneficiaries of the service

who are secondairy beneficiaries of the service

Output of the service

Outputs are tangible measurable primary effects (products & services).

Performance indicators

Listing of indicators that allow to asses the output in quantitative and qualitative terms

Relation of outputs to other services

Description of how the outputs relate to other services. List of outputs from other services that are needed as an input for this service. List of outputs from this services that are needed as an input for other service.

Relevence of outputs for other CLI-agri components

Description of the position in CLI-agri framework and how this service is linked to other components of the CLI-agri framework.

Expected outcomes

contrary to/as opposed to/unlike outputs outcomes are secondary effects, e.g. improved networking of experts, improved training of field agents, confidence in competence of extension services

Expected contribution to PSTAD

Promotion of Science and Technology for Agricultural Development in Africa (PSTAD) is a project initiated by The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). The project is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB). AfDB provides financial support to two of FARA’s regional initiatives based on the demands of its stakeholders. These are:
* Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems (RAILS)
* Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies in Africa (DONATA)

PSTAD’s executing agency is FARA, its management is handled by the SROs, and the NARS act as the implementing agencies. At the NARS level, focal institutions are selected using the existing networks of FARA and the SROs.

The presented voucher service approach is a contribution to these goals.

 

2.2 Type of Tasks

A task is a series of activities that is carried out by a number of service providers (e.g….). Usually a task has a concrete timeframe which means that it has to be accomplished within a defined period of time. For any task, the cost and the required qualifications of the service providers to respond to the task must be defined.

There are 3 different types of tasks:

Initial task

Preparatory tasks

Prerequisites

Define journals, actors, projects, tasks

Inform actors

Review coutry specific guidelines

Service task

These are the tasks that asure delivery of products and services to the defined target group.

Implementation/realization 

Concluding task

Postprocessing/review

Controlling & Supervision

Backstopping and system maintenance 

Data analysis

• Descriptive analysis of gathered data

• Publish results on eRAILS

reporting back to financing agency (farmer organisation)

 

2.3 Description of tasks

All three types are defined according to the following points:

Activities

Each task consits of one or serveral activities that are carried out by a single service provider without the interaction of another service provider who contributes to the voucher service.

Deliverables

Is the result of a task that is handed over to the next service provider. If it is the last task of a work flow it is the final product or service that is delivered to the the primary beneficiry. A deliverable is a tangible or intangible object produced as a result of an activity that is intended to be delivered to a customer (either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a document or any other building block of an overall task.

Proof

Objective evidence that a service provider has fulfilled his/her duties

e.g. publication on eRAILS and/or RUN

Triggers

Triggers are signals that induce/initiate the subsequent task to start

Service providers

A number of different actors are involved to ensure that the different services are provided. Each actor has specific tasks. All of them are paid upon delivery according to the rates defined in the guidelines that are difined according to country specific conditions.

* Regional Organising Team (ROT)
* RAILS & DONATA National Focal Person (NFP)
* National Knowledge Management Service (NKMS)
* Community facilitator (CF)
* Farmer organisation (FO)
* Field agent (FA)
* Rural Information Broker (RIB)
* Expert (EX)

You will find a detailed description of each of the different service providers involved in the project here

Input estimates

Each task has a defined cost based on the estimation of inputs that are required  by the service provider. Efforts and Expenditures. Estimation of realistic averages considering efficient organisation of work.

* Working time (duration in minutes)
* In country transport (Distance in km)
* Local transport (Distance in km)
* Sheets of paper (Number of sheets)
* Printing black an white (number of pages)
* Printing colour (number of pages)
* Other materials. please indicate and quantify even if it is a fraction
* Internet connectivity in city (duration in min)
* Internet connectivity in rural town (duration in min)
* Cell phone (air time in minutes)
* Use of office (duration in minutes)
* Use of printer (minutes)
* Use of Computer (minutes)
* Use of Camera (minutes)
* Use of other equipment (minutes)
* Work time of expert (duration in minutes)

Costs can vary enormously from country to country (Link to calculator). In order to carry out realistic cost-estimations a specific cost calculation for every single country is required.

Period

Each task has a concrete/precise timeframe for its realization/implementation, which means that it has to be accomplished within a defined period of time

Service providers have to fulfill their duties within this timeframe/defined period of time in order receive full payment

Timeframes vary from task to task

Risks & Assumptions

Eventualities/contingencies/uncertainties that have to be considered

institutional framework

Forms & Attributes

Standardized forms are essential parts of the different services

Standardized forms are used to ensure a certain level of comparability

Forms needed are available online (eRAILS) and can be downloaded

Service providers print out a hardcopy of the respective web-form & take these hardcopies 'into the field'

Examples of standardized forms used in the context of the voucher services:

• Questionnaires

• Request forms

• Evaluation forms

• Answer guidelines  

Not every task requires standardized forms

Some forms still have to be designed. This will be done in cooperation with the partners within the target countries