From:  "Anirban B. Hazra" <[20]hazra@p...>
   Date:  Tue Nov 6, 2001  5:53 am
   Subject:  Minutes of Asha meeting on Nov 3rd

   Dear Friends,
   One of the things that we agreed on while deciding project evaluation
   guidelines was that we see special importance in projects which build
   educational  infrastructure.  I  had missed this point when I had sent
   out
   minutes yesterday.
   The rest of the mail below is ditto as the one I had sent before with
   minutes of the meeting.
   The Asha meeting on Saturday, 3rd
   November was
   attended by Sumathi,
   Sadhana,  Amit,  Kumar,  Amrish, Sudhakar, Shanmuga, Asha, Anirban and
   Vikas.
   Agenda:
   I. Project Evaluation guidelines.
   II. Support for the Aajgaon pottery project.
   I. There was considerable discussion on project evaluation guidelines.
   Earlier, Sumathi and Rajesh had proposed some guidelines, which are
   reproduced below.
   1. Trust level of the NGO/organization who are
   proposing the project for funding.
   2. Nature of the project.. what it wants to achieve..
   is it feasible ?
   3. Commitment to the education part.(If the org is
   involved in activities in other areas)
   4. Can we build a long term relationship with the NGO
   ?(we give high priority to this in our chapter).
   5. Does the project aim to build educational
   infrastructure, or does it rely on existing ones(govt.
   schools etc)..(the former gets higher priority)
   6. Will the project become self sustaining sooner or
   later.. ?
   7. Are other organizations funding it ?.. are we the
   only ones funding ? How much are they dependent on us
   ?
   8. 5. Would the project bring about socio-economic
   change in the locality/community ?
   9. Openness of accounts.
   10. Education imparted should be secular, even if the
   organization itself has religious affiliations.
   1. Who is responsible for imparting education?
   2. Is there a commitment on the part of teachers to do this long term?
   3. What is the churn among the teachers and students?
   4.  Is  the  education  component streamlined with the main stream. Is
   there
   a
   formal curriculum followed?
   5.  Are  the  teachers getting adequately compensated for the job they
   do?
   6. Is the local community involved enough?
   7.  Are parents involved in the children's education? Is it being used
   to
   get  rid  of  the  children  for a while/ and or for food instead of a
   stronger
   underlying commitment?
   8. What is Ashs chapter's commitment to the project?
   9.  Is  Asha  willing  to  stick  to  its  guidelines  for  critically
   evaluating
   the
   project? Does the project present metrics that can be tracked?
   10. Is funding available for uninterrupted period of three years?
   All of the above points could not be discussed in great detail for the
   want of time. However there was agreement in the following:
   1. Our level of faith in the NGO is the key thing for us continuing
   working  with  them. It is necessary to examine and see whether an NGO
   is
   doing  the  work because the funding agency is giving money or because
   it is
   really comitted. We should work with people who are really committed.
   2. The goals proposed by the NGO should be realistic.
   3.  The  importance  of *our* funding may be a deciding factor so that
   small
   NGO's which do not have lot of other support do not suffer.
   4. The project should bring about socio economic change.
   5. The NGO should be open with it's accounts. All the people who are
   working in the project should have knowledge of the finances and this
   should be shown to us too.
   6. We would like to support projects that present metrics that can be
   tracked.
   7. We would like to work with the project for at least three years.
   8.  There  was  a good amount of discussion on self sustainability but
   this
   was  quite  inconclusive  because  of  the  complexities  of  specific
   situations.
   II.  It  was  agreed  to support the Aajgaon project fully i.e. to the
   tune of
   $8,000.  The  project was presented by Vikas at an earlier meeting and
   was
   evaluated at that time.
   Please send comments to [21]hazra@p...
   Sincerely,
   Anirban