Effective implementation strategies are essential for the success of any project. Proper planning, monitoring, and evaluation along with collaborating partner institutions are crucial elements that must be considered to ensure that the project successfully meets its intended objectives. However, even with careful planning, unforeseen circumstances can arise, leading to delays and challenges in project implementation. In such cases, backstopping and technical guidance to all involved partners would be crucial in ensuring the success of the project.
In 2022 SWR Ethiopia has signed collaboration agreements to implement RAISE-FS project with six implementing partners institutions (Bahir Dar, Haramaya and Hawassa universities and EIAR, ARARI and SARI), in the three regions, Oromia, South and Amhara. The collaborators have jointly planned activities which validated by relevant stakeholders in all the three regions and put into action. However, due to the late start of the project activities, there were limited backstopping and technical support provided from the RAISE-FS team to implementing partners. To address this issue and based on lessons learned from the 2022 implementation of project activities, the RAISE-FS team planned and conducted backstopping sessions for all implementing partners in the three regions.
The backstopping and technical guidance support was meant to support implementing partners to smoothly execute jointly planned activities and achieve the expected outcomes of the project. The backstopping support was focused on monitoring and evaluation, data harmonization, documentation and publications of generated evidence. Besides, the team clarified the outcome areas of the project, the meta data that need to be collected, and the different templates proposed by the project. The team has also discussed on project workplans and budget allocation.
The backstopping sessions were held in three project implementation regions and a total of 111 researchers who are actively engaged on RAISE-FS project activities in the nine implementing partners institutions attended. The sessions were highly appreciated by all the experts who mentioned that it helped them to understand many important points related to the theory of change of the RAISE-FS project, and they requested similar and periodic backstopping sessions.
In a nutshell, the backstopping and technical guideline support provided by the RAISE-FS team are significantly vital to ensuring the success of the project. The session helped to clarify various issues related to the implementation of the project activities and to bring all involved partners be on the same page and share common understanding. Furthermore, the backstopping sessions helped to identify challenges facing implementing partners and alternative options. The team consolidated the feedback and discussed on the issues raised and suggested options on how to well addresses them.
In conclusion, backstopping and technical guidance are essential for successful project implementation. The RAISE-FS project is a clear example of how such support can help achieve expected outcomes. The feedback from experts indicates that such sessions are necessary for successful implementation of similar projects. Therefore, it is vital to continue providing backstopping and technical guidance to implementing partners to ensure that projects like RAISE-FS can achieve their intended objectives.
RAISE-FS 