Partner Profile: Housed in UNFPA Country Office under the supervision of senior management, the UPSU objective in Pakistan was to support and oversee 3 implementing partners (MSS, PAVHNA and SACHET) and their projects to improve ASRH situation in 5 rural districts.

In order to contribute to the achievements of individual projects, UPSU facilitated the capacity building of partner NGOs' staff and community members at local level and provided technical assistance and guidance when needed, to ensure operational quality and coherance of the projects. In addition, UPSU was responsible for supervising and coordinating M&E to ensure regular measurement of progress against each activity.

As a coordinating body, UPSU took the lead role in facilitating inter-linkages, synergy, coordination and collaboration among RHIYA partners and with line ministries and other stakeholders in order to create a conducive and supportive environment at the national, provincial, district and communities level. Efforts in enhancing linkages aimed at implementing effectively the project, but also at initiating a dialogue with policy makers in order to integrate ARH agenda in national policies.

Strategy: Mainly, UPSU assisted individual projects, through focusing on its own outputs. It ensured: a common approach between partner NGOs and RHIYA logical framework based on BCC, a culturally appropriate strategy to address gender issues, a joint approach to address ARH issues, a standard counselling package, joint needs assessment and a benchmark survey.

However, UPSU in Pakistan also made great efforts in advocating for ARH at the political level so that achievements of partner NGOs would sustain below the RHIYA. First, UPSU ensured that interventions were consistent with national policies and complemented existing programs, in order to convince stakeholders that RHIYA was implemented for the good of young people and not imposed as a way to convert Pakistan to western values. UPSU convened individual meetings with relevant ministries and facilitated a full range of advocacy events such as National Youth summits to incorporate ARH in the national agenda.

In addition, UPSU established a National Advisory Group (NAG) comprising key officials and representative from the EC in-country Delegation, relevant GoP Ministries, NGOs and ARH professionals. The NAG aimed at providing assistance and guidance in ARH issues and strategic direction in policy matters for the 3 RHIYA partner NGOs while implementing the programme. UPSU thus helped partners NGOs to ensure a better knowledge sharing, to legislate common sets of standards and vigorously instil a common vision among stakeholders that encouraged community participation and youth empowerment in planning and decisions on social development.

Outputs: 1) Coordination of partner NGOs interventions & synergies between them increased and liaison / inkages between RHIYA activities, GoP & other stakeholders improved: UPSU facilitated coordination meetings through a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) comprising NGO partners, key GoP officials and ARH technical experts, who deliberated upon strategies and developed, adapted and reviewed IEC resources materials, manuals and packages (training-learning, advocacy & counselling). These were occasions to share expe-riences and strengthen linkages among participants, and further resulted in informal meetings and online guidance when needed. GoP and NAG members also paid visits to target areas to monitor and advise the 3 NGOs on the implementation process. In addition, UPSU facilitated more than 3000 advocacy events at national, provincial, district and union council levels, sensitizing key stakeholders ranging from GoP line departments to community members, on ARH issues. This indirectly led the Ministry of Health to integrate ARH into the curriculum of community based lady health workers training program owing to UNFPA CP 7 support.

2) Management & planning capacity of UPSU and partner NGOs strengthened: UPSU coordinated and supervised the preparation and revision of projects' annual work plans and budgets. Annual reviews were organized to discuss the progresses made and plan interventions accordingly. This led UPSU Technical Advisor (TA) presenting a strategy entitled “Overcoming Cultural barriers – Reaching out young people in Muslim context”. In addition, UPSU organized trainings, workshops and capacity building activities to enhance the ability of partner NGOs' and its own staff on RH & related issues. It was also assisted by CU Brussels, especially in the training of staff on M&E, KMS, reporting and financial matters, including on the use of PTRS. Partner NGOs could thus disseminate and share learning across the region.

3) M&E systems for RHIYA country and NGOs levels established and lessons learning / sharing of results established among all stakeholders: Due to a number of reasons, Pakistan could not conduct a proper baseline survey. With CU Brussels' approval, it was changed into a benchmark survey (BMS), which provided key RH information on the target groups and allowed quantitative assessments of the progresses made. UPSU also assisted in the establishment of the web-based PTRS and the KMS, including the X-changes system to monitor and report activities and provide feedback for further improvements. Periodic reports were available for all projects, for reference and review of progress against planned outputs, activities, budget utilization and output indicators. Moreover, UPSU conducted both planned and unplanned field visits were conducted by UPSU to monitor activities in field areas.

4) Technical Assistance on ASRH to NGOs provided: UPSU assisted partner NGOs in the implementation of planned activities and in achieving high quality outcomes of collaborative actions led by partner NGOs individually or jointly. This resulted in assisting partner NGOs to prepare guidelines and IEC material for youth-friendly & gender sensitive service delivery, in technical support for the development of 3 packages (advocacy, training-learning and counselling) and manuals for peer education. UPSU also ensured that all projects received appropriate resource materials and that a maximum of them were printed in Urdu and English versions. Technical assistance was also provided in the realm of PTRS, KMS and financial issues. Due to the earthquake in Muzafarabad district the entire work plan had to be revised; UPSU helped to devise a strategy for RHIYA implementation with additional funding.

5) Advocacy of RHIYA programme promoted: UPSU ensured that advocacy and visibility materials were developed and widely disseminated: this included brochures, flyers, caps, T- shirts, banners, track suits, pens, bags, shields etc. with RHIYA, EU and UNFPA logos. Advocacy was mainly promoted by UPSU through regular interaction with GoP official and the NAG which ensured support at national level. Annual youth summits organized by UPSU were also seen as a good platform to introduce RHIYA and advocate for ARH and youth development. In addition, UPSU also facilitated about 5000 advocacy events organized by partner NGOs at national, provincial, district and union council levels with, and presented the good practices and lessons learned in Pakistan in a dissemination workshop attended by national, regional and international officials

Lessons learned: Peer education has been vital while addressing ARH: Initially, peer education was not an integral part of RHIYA intervention in Pakistan. It was only in the first quarter of the year 2006 that the need for a comprehensive training on peer education was emerged during the mid term review. UPSU quickly responded by tailoring peer education to program activities.

Special attention had to be paid to culturally sensitive communication and approaches to involve the hard line communities. In this connection, a series of seminars on “Islam and ARH” were held in the target districts, facilitated by religious scholars, and a set of booklets and brochures on ASRH, HIV/AIDS related to Islam were produced by UPSU. Theatre for change concept was also recognized as a powerful BCC tool, owing to its indirect approach regarding to ASRH. In addition, continuous dialogue, meetings, orientation and sensitization sessions resulted in furthering the creation of an enabling environment to address ARH issues in target communities. Further, keeping in view the cultural context, RHIYA devised gender sensitive strategy like separate locations of YFCs for boys and girls.

Investing in institutional and individuals' capacity enhancement can contribute to the success of ARH interventions and its sustainability: The capacity building interventions designed to strengthen capacity of NGOs/CBOs, trained staff and enhanced capacity of community can advance ARH promotion in conservative context. Youth participation in a conservative society such as Pakistan can be arranged through getting youth to have enough self confidence and trust to speak up and share ideas and opinions, and getting adults and gatekeepers to allow youth to speak up and listen to youth voices seriously.

Project Profile: The Umbrella Project Support Unit (UPSU) was established as a part of UNFPA central Office in Pakistan to assist and support partner NGOs in the implementation of the RHIYA in Pakistan, and work with Regional Dimension Projects. His tasks ranged from facilitating capacity development of partner NGOs, and developing resource material and to increasing collaboration and synergy among RHIYA partners and key stakeholders in the country. UPSU in Pakistan was particularly effective in advocating for ARH development at the national level through regular interactions and meetings with policy makers.

Contact: Umbrella Project Support Unit 5th Floor, Saudi-Paktower 61-A Jinnah Avenue P.O. Box 1051 Islamabad Pakistan Tel: +92 512 800 105 Fax: +92 512 800 055