The Southern Africa Human Capacity Development (SAHCD) Coalition is a four -year Associate Award issued by USAID that began on October 1, 2006. SAHCD is led by IntraHealth International, in partnership with Management Sciences for Health (MSH), the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD), the Council of Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), and the Eastern, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA). This project serves as a mechanism for implementing a regional human capacity building program to improve the quality of HIV/AIDS service delivery and client care.

SAHCD is designed to respond to the current human resource (HR) crisis in the region by implementing unified, locally-driven and well-coordinated human capacity development strategies addressing long-term workforce planning and policy issues as well as the immediate need for improving the skills and knowledge of the prevailing work force. SAHCD works by strengthening the capacity of health and social welfare workers, policy makers and planners, program managers, educational institutions and faculty members, that deliver the HIV/AIDS services.

In Malawi, SAHCD's goal is to strengthen the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development's (MOGCCD) capacity to coordinate the national OVC response, and ensure the provision of quality OVC programs. The objectives to reach this goal include: Build the capacity of senior and middle level managers in the Ministry to effectively lead and manage programs.

• Provide the Ministry with the tools and skills to be able to plan, manage and retain their current and future human resources. • Strengthen the quality of pre-service training for social workers and align the content of the curricula with social welfare/OVC programs. • Ensure in-service training opportunities for existing social workers. • Establish a regulatory council for social workers.

These objectives support Goals 3 and 4 of the Malawi Partnership Framework: To mitigate the economic and psychosocial effects of HIV and AIDS and improve the quality of life for PLHIV, OVC and other affected individuals and households; and To provide targeted, discrete systems strengthening support in human resources, respectively..

Activities completed to date by SAHCD in partnership with USG, UNICEF and Training Resources Group (TRG) that have contributed to the above objectives include; a Human Resource Gap Analyses for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development; two team building retreats for senior and middle level ministry staff that focused on communication, team work and organizational strengthening; leadership training for MGCCD senior management staff; and supervisory skills and a performance management skills building workshop for the Ministry's senior leadership group and middle level managers.

These activities have produced positive results such as improved joint program planning and communication between and within departments in the ministry; improved staff morale and motivation; and promoted ministry staff to be more proactive. Over the next two years, SAHCD, in partnership with

USG, UNICEF, Training Resources Group (TRG) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), will support the ministry to implement the recommendations from the above activities.

UNICEF recently completed a pre-service training assessment of Magomero College, the school that trains social workers in Malawi, especially MGCCD frontline staff in the districts at certificate level. Currently, Magomero only runs social work and community development programs at certificate level. As a result of the decentralization process in Malawi, there is now a civil service requirement that district heads should have, at a minimum, a first degree.

For frontline/community level staff in other government departments and ministries, a diploma is now the norm. MGCCD's certificate qualifications are, therefore, lagging behind and limiting staff's ability to articulate issues at the district level. The bulk of work proposed by SAHCD on preservice training (PST) at Magomero to upgrade it to a diploma/degree awarding college will be based mostly on recommendations from this assessment and will address issues of curriculum development, staffing/faculty; infrastructure and governance Activity implementation will focus on the MGCCD head quarters, Magomero College and selected district offices and will target headquarters staff, frontline staff at district level, faculty and students at Magomero training college.

SAHCD plans to hire a dedicated project point person with a strong background in preservice training (PST) and social work to coordinate activities in-country and they will receive ongoing technical and management support from the regional SAHCD office based in Pretoria, South Africa. Periodically, SAHCD will hire consultants to conduct specialized activities that will support MOGCCD's efforts on human capacity development.

Sustainability: It is expected that the bulk of Magomero student intake will be fee-paying, so the college can generate resources for its running costs. There is currently a high unmet need for tertiary education in Malawi that current universities cannot met. Skills transfer for staff through planned activities will build sustained capacity for continuity of programs at Magomero running

SAHCD will work with MOGCCD to establish a plan for the ministry to absorb initial overhead costs as part of ministry's future recurrent costs. Also, MGCCD management capacity will be greatly enhanced through the provision of TA throughout the planned activities. Finally, the enhancements to be made in the capacity for both PST and IST will serve to significantly increase the Social Welfare staff.

Monitoring and Evaluation The SAHCD Coalition has a comprehensive Performance Monitoring Plan (based on PEPFAR indicators but also has custom-designed indicators), which tracks and monitors all activities implemented by

SAHCD. For SAHCD's activities in Malawi, the country office will employ a full-time M&E Specialist (cost share with Intrahealth FP program in Malawi) who will handle all M&E related activities for both Family planning and HRH/OVC activities and will receive support from the Regional M&E Advisor based in Pretoria, South Africa. SAHCD also has a training database, a reporting and documentation mechanism and a dissemination strategy which is part of the broader coalition-wide strategic information system. SAHCD has also developed a Best Practice and Knowledge Management Strategy for sharing internal and external best practices as a means of improvements to approaches used. Success stories and best practices are periodically shared and/or adapted to be presented internally, externally at regional and international conferences and seminars, and on SAHCD's and partners' websites.

The following are proposed measurable outputs and indicators for the proposed for the activities, • Pre-service education of social workers is strengthened and responsive to needs and priorities of the nation for care of OVC. • Number of mentors trained based on student practicum standards. • Number of practicum sites for social workers that are newly developed, strengthened and updated. • Functional Structures, frameworks, committees are developed with defined mandate, policies and guidelines • Number of lecturers and mentors of social workers (lecturers) who successfully complete an in-service training program and who engage in ongoing professional development activities. • % of students that receive supervision and evaluation according to standards.

Budget Summary PFIP Year 1 Funding - $500,000 PFIP Year 2 Funding - $900,000

I. Budget Code: OHSS

With Year 1 PEPFAR funds SAHCD plans to implement the following activities based on the UNICEF commissioned pre-service training (PST) assessment recommendations, the HR gap analysis and consultations with the Ministry's senior leadership:

Activity 1: Strengthen Pre-Service Training UNICEF has just completed and disseminated findings of the PST assessment that contains a number of recommendations towards the upgrading of training of social workers at Magomero. The key recommendations relate to curriculum development; faculty/staffing; infrastructure and governance. SAHCD will provide technical assistance to the ministry to implement selected recommendations that will lay the necessary foundation for pre service training of professional social workers in Malawi. SAHCD and NASW will use their technical experts, local and regional consultants to implement activities aimed at ensuring adequate and appropriate teaching staff at Magomero; development of competency based curricula and training materials; development of teaching support systems and provision of teaching support materials and equipment.

SAHCD will work with the Principal Secretary MGCCD, the task force and its subcommittees (that will include USG and UNICEF) to be set up by MGCCD for upgrading Magomero, and other stakeholders to develop the road map for activities leading to the establishment of a (3 year) social work diploma and (4 year) degree program at Magomero College. During the crucial preparatory phase, the senior leadership group of the ministry will be provided with on site and virtual technical assistance to strategically lead the process, advocate for buy-in from key stakeholders such as DHRMD and for resource mobilization. As recommended in the assessment report, the following key activities will be supported:

Determine governance structure for Magomero: SAHCD, the Principal Secretary of MOGCCD, and the task force will agree the governance structure for Magomero, so it can become either autonomous, or semi autonomous and still be affiliated to the ministry. A certain level of autonomy for Magomero is inevitable, to facilitate prompt decision making, as well as ability to generate and utilize mobilized

resources. This will also serve as an initial step to begin the process of accreditation or affiliation with an external social worker training institution in Malawi or within the region.

Establish affiliation and accreditation with social work institutions in Malawi and the region: IntraHealth will assist in identifying a school of social work in the region with whom Magomero can establish an affiliation relationship, while at the same time working with MGCCD and the Malawi Ministry of Education to complete accreditation requirements for Magomero as part of the University of Malawi. The aim will be to have the first intake of 60 students for the diploma and degree program by September 2010.

Curricula development - SAHCD will work with the Magomero task force subcommittee on curriculum development to flesh out the curriculum outline in the assessment report, based on existing social work diploma and degree curricula in the region and globally. SAHCD and NASW will engage experienced academic and curriculum consultants from Malawi and the region to develop these competency based curriculum and teaching materials.

Strengthening teaching capacity - IntraHealth will apply its experience in other countries in the region to develop job descriptions for teaching staff at Magomero. The job descriptions and profiles will guide the recruitment of teaching staff. To enable a quick start up to recruitment of teaching staff for Magomero, SAHCD will work with the ministry to explore a number of options. These will include review of the current staff establishment to identify already funded vacant positions, budget for these and prepare a rationale for substituting these for teaching positions; assess open competition and development of proposals to mobilize scholarships for external or internal training of current Magomero faculty eligible and interested in teaching. SAHCD will also help the ministry to develop staffing needs for a human resource plan for Magomero and facilitate discussions with the Department of Human Resources Management and Development (DHRMD) to increase the number of senior and support staff positions on the ministry's establishment for Magomero, negotiate salaries and to add new cadre of staff to the ministry's establishment. These activities will be on going until Magomero is fully staffed with both teaching and support staff.

Establishing a database of teaching resource persons- During curricula review teaching resource persons will be identified from local and regional universities for short term or "sessional" teaching of selected modules to bridge the gap while recruitment and capacity building is ongoing. NASW will explore placement of volunteer teaching staff for periods of at least one year or more.

Developing training support systems- SAHCD will procure teaching and library equipment such as computers, projectors and reference materials and teaching aids in order to improve and update training standards for students and teaching staff. This will ensure that both students and teachers are updated

on current social work practices and standards. Other infrastructure support will include procurement of one school bus, provision of internet connectivity and land telephones, and a standby generator for Magomero.

Activity 2: Develop a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Develop an iHRIS Manage database to track staff movement and training - SAHCD will support MOGCCD to develop an HRIS database module tailored to the needs of MGCCD that will be linked to the national HR database at the national Department for Human resources management and development (DHRMD). The database will enable the ministry to track staff recruitment, deployment, retention and training. Related activities will include equipping the MOGCCD HR department with computers and software to run the database; training the HR department staff to maintain the database and generate reports needed by management for decision making. The HRIS will be used to review current recruitment and deployment procedures to improve timely staff recruitment and deployment based on workload volumes. This will ensure the equitable distribution of social welfare officers based on the number of children and OVC in a district, and other workload. Senior MOGCCD managers will also be trained on how to use reports generated by HRIS in planning and decision making.

Products/Deliverables (if applicable)

With Year 2 PEPFAR funds SAHCD will build on the initiatives started in 2008 and 2009 through the following activities:

Activity 1: Strengthen Pre-service training Strengthening teaching capacity - SAHCD will build on activities of the previous year and conduct a capacity building assessment of the teaching that will include application of competency based teaching methods, IT skills and develop a continuing plan to provide this training. The plan will also guide the mentorship and identification of virtual training opportunities and other continuing education programs for the teaching staff.

Team building for the staff at Magomero- SAHCD will conduct a team building workshop for all staff at Magomero to build good working relationships, create a conducive teaching and learning environment. The workshop will include establishment of working norms, development of vision and mission, internal procedures that will include communication, reporting, supervision, conflict management and student relations.

Implementation of curriculum- Building on the achievements from the previous year, SAHCD will provide technical assistance to Magomero College to implement the curriculum and to provide continuous

professional development of lecturers. At the beginning SAHCD will also conduct a curriculum and transfer of learning orientation for teaching staff in preparation for curriculum implementation. We plan to utilize the short term/ "sessional" lecturers and NASW staff to provide mentorship and explore virtual learning opportunities during curriculum implementation.

Practicum training - SAHCD will assist Magomero College to develop standards and guidelines for students' practicum, identifying suitable sites to place students and training site mentors to supervise and evaluate students' performances.

Establishing regulatory framework- SAHCD will work with Magomero, the ministry and other stakeholders to establish a regulatory council for social workers in Malawi. A social work council will provide scopes of practice, professional identity, recognition and support, registration and re-registration etc. and ultimately professionalize the social worker cadre in Malawi. SAHCD will apply its experience of working with regulatory councils and share best practices in the region to establish a professional council for social workers and facilitate study tours and short term technical assistance from councils of social work.

Infrastructure support: SAHCD will continue to provide support for infrastructure to the extent feasible, and as needed.

Activity 2: Strengthen in-service training IntraHealth is aware that there are some Ministry staff, Social Welfare Officers and Community Development Officers who might on the basis of experience and education level to be upgraded to diploma level in a shorter training period. IH and NASW will work with the ministry to identify these and develop a bridging curriculum for this update this refresher training. This will help the ministry to have a higher level of qualified social workers in a shorter period than the entry diploma course would take. SAHCD will review the refresher training schedule and content for existing Social Welfare Officers and Assistants. We anticipate that the review will reveal the need for more regular trainings and updated and improved training materials. SAHCD, in collaboration with UNICEF, will assist in implementing these activities and SAHCD will fund the first round of refresher trainings. SAHCD also proposes a six month review of the diploma program, to be performed by the identified college that Magomero has the affiliate relationship with, IntraHealth and NASW.

Activity 3: HRIS SAHCD will continue to provide technical assistance to MGCCD Senior Leadership Group to ensure that HRIS is maintained and used correctly and that the reports generated are being accurately used to inform HR decisions. Refresher trainings will be conducted as and when necessary. SAHCD will also provide technical assistance to Magomero to develop training management information

system that is linked to the ministry's HRIS.