Introduction

Agricultural Research Development Support Facility (ARDSF) in Papua New Guinea

 

 

How to describe the ARDSF as facility which differed from program or project?

 

ARDSF stands for Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility, a 5-year initiative under financial support of Australian Aid (2007-2012). ARDSF was designed to respond to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the international community to reduce poverty, end hunger and malnutrition in the world over the decade which depend heavily on increased generation and uptake of innovations in agriculture. Such innovations not only relate to technology, but also to policy, institutions, organization, and management. These sentiments were echoed in Papua New Guinea (PNG) Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) and the National Agricultural Development Plan (NADP).

 

The AusAID funded Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility (ARDSF) was then designed to address some of these constraints related to capacity and resource needs of agricultural Research and Development (R&D) agencies and stakeholders. The GRM International was responsible for taking care of logistics and documentation to support ARDSF initiatives in PNG. As a “facility” rather than a program or project, ARDSF underlined its flexible responsive and demand-driven mechanism philosophy for helping agricultural research and extension organizations (PNG-NARS) to build their capacity to deliver services to smallholder farmers. ARDSF was created as a “facility” composed of three integrated components: (1) Institutional Develop of NARI, (2) Institutional Development of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and (3) The Agricultural Innovation Grants Scheme (AIGS).

 

The PNG-NARS comprised Cocoa Coconut Institute Lda (CCIL); Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC); Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA); Oil Palm Industry Corporation (OPIC); Oil Palm Research Association (OPRA); and National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI).

 

 

How to describe the ZFA contributions to ARDSF?

 

ZFA contributed to ARDSF from 2008 to 2012 under the leadership of the Technical Director of ARDSF and Senior Advisor of Agriculture Development in AusAID, Dr. Adiel Mbabu, after the inception phase (2007). From 2008, throughout four and half years, ZFA was linked to component 2 “Institutional Development of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS)” under the supervision of the Component Coordinator, Dr. Miok K. Komolong and ARDSF Facility Manager, (first) Dr. Jacqui Wright (today Jacqui Kami) and (after) Dr. Tesfaye Beshah.

 

By working in close relationship with the ARDSF Technical Director, the Coordinator (Component 2), and Consultants specialized in diverse areas of knowledge, ZFA led adaptation and/or development of learning materials of all kinds, defined approaches and methodologies to be used to support activities related to learning and capacity building.

 

As the strategic plans were revised, programs and projects re-formulated, ZFA became responsible for leading the Human Talents Management and Development within PNG-NARS. ZFA worked in close relationship with the ARDSF Officer Abel Philemon and the Human Talent Officers from the PNG-NARS, mainly from CCIL, CIC and FPDA. ZFA guided and coached the design and implementation of a strategic management and development of human talents framework within the organization in a systemic way to align the human talents strategy to the organizational strategic objectives and vision as result of a strategic planning process.

 

 

What were the outputs of ARDSF & ZFA collaboration?

 

The outputs of ARDSF & ZFA collaboration are comprehensively described in Chapter 8 of the Book titled “Capacity Building for Agricultural Research for Development. Lessons from Practice in Papua New Guinea” edited by Adiel N. Mbabu and Andy Hall (2012), published by United Nations University-Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), Maastricht; the Netherlands”. This book is available below to download.

 

Chapter 8 titled: “Empowering the Human Side of the Organization to Lead the AR4D Approach” by Zenete P. França, Abel Philemon, Anthony Woyengu, Steven Tumae, John Pono and Adiel Mbabu is part of ARDSF & ZFA outputs. It is presented below to download.

 

It describes the journey which ZFA and its Associates undertook throughout the ARDSF support to PNG-NARS in the area of human talents (HT) management and development program.  ARDSF-ZFA team based this HT program on a framework for Strategic Management and Development of Human Talents (SMDHT) from the Open University (UK) which was first adapted by V. Galleno (in 2001) for ISNAR project´s purpose and after by ZFA (2010) to respond to the needs of PNG organizations. This adapted framework is presented below.

 

Chapter 8 also presents an extensive list of publications which were produced during the collaboration ARDSF-ZFA.  In summary, ZFA contributed to ARDSF-PNG NARS outputs through defining learning approaches, methods and design of learning processes; in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a series of 30 workshops and other learning events, in addition to adapting and/or producing 55 learning documents, reports in hard copy with a total of some 8,000 pages, plus 13 CD–ROMs as listed in the Chapter 8.  

 

A copy of Chapter 8 is presented below as well as the list of these learning materials which were either adapted from the collection of ISNAR/IFPRI learning modules to respond to the needs of PNG and/or newly developed by ARDSF team. This list is under the title “ARDSF Learning Events and Materials, 2008–2012 (in chronological order)”.

 

ARDSF and NARI agreed to have NARI as the host organization to keep the collection of the ARDSF learning modules and materials in hard copy and electronic version. The NARI URL is presented below.

 

To illustrate ARDSF & ZFA outputs, and how the learning processes were planned implemented and evaluated, this webpage is presenting samples of some learning modules and other learning materials produced to support implementation of ARDSF-PNG NARS activities.

 

 

What does ZFA consider to be the major achievement as result of its contributions to ARDSF in the area of NARS human talents management and development?

 

ZFA considers that its contributions to the shift of emphasis from Learning and Capacity Building to the Strategic Human Talents Management and Development (SMDHT) which took place during its work with ARDSF-NARS as its major achievement.  Learning and capacity building is one of four components of SMDHT within the internal integration and should be coherent with the other three components, namely, human talents planning, performance assessment, and performance rewards.

 

ZFA´s contributions towards the NARS human talents were linked to the AR4D-framed capacity building orientation of ARDSF which explicitly focused on achieving development outcomes through a system-oriented approach to learning, innovation and capacity development.

 

Most PNG-NARS organizations had no holistic, strategic, integrated system in place that would enable them to tap the full potential of their human talents. At the same time, in every NARS organizations there were a number of valuable, creative staff who were highly self-motivated, equipped with technical and non-technical knowledge, and who were able and willing to learn and innovate.  

 

Innovation systems perspectives and an AR4D orientation demanded new types of human inputs, including creativity, vision and interaction. This in turn called for the development of new competences and positive attitudes – new talents. Individuals in the NARS needed to be treated as “human talents” instead of “human resources”.

 

Based on these needs, ZFA introduced the Strategic Management and Development of Human Talents (SMDHT) framework and assisted NARS to implement its components.

 

 

How was the Strategic Management and Development of Human Talents (SMDHT) framework introduced to PNG-NARS?

 

The SMDHT framework was introduced to PNG-NARS and the Human Talents Strategy was designed by the NARS officers during a series to workshops and seminars.

 

A learning module on SMDHT was designed to guide the workshops/seminars implementation. The learning module aimed to develop complementary competences and attitudes among NARS staff related to (1) organizational culture that nurtures the talents required to enable their members to implement organizational goals and objectives; (2) managing performance at the individual organizational and inter-organizational levels; (3) providing integrating structures and systems that enable the implementation of their strategies.

 

In summary, the SMDHT framework supported the formulation and implementation of human talents strategies designed to organize, manage and develop human talents to lead the implementation of programs, projects and project activities, in line with the results of their strategic planning, identification of thematic areas and priority objectives, as well as activities to support the management of four key organizational areas: Strategy, System, Structures and Culture.

 

This was intended to ensure that the NARS relied on the logical framework that enabled the strategic integration required to align human talents with organizational goal. Alignment between the organization´s strategic objectives and its human talents strategy should be done for effective performance.

 

 

What the PNG-NARS´ participants thought of the Human Talent Management and Development Program?

 

The workshop modules and other learning materials produced during this program all included provision for evaluative feedback from participants. Throughout, this feedback was positive. The following comments are from NARS participants in ARDSF activities. In addition a set of participants´ feedback collected from workshops´ reports are presented below.

 

“My major lesson: we have to transform ourselves to transform the organization”

 

“Transforms me in a better person now. It is motivating!”

 

“ARDSF having capacity building skills in place is really vital.”

 

“The prioritizing exercise was useful: learning by doing”

 

“The technique of priority setting really helped in deciding projects that need to be done”

“I learned the leading role of human talents in overall implementation process.”

 

“Using logframe to identify competencies, attitudes and indicators to assess performance was very insightful.”

 

“Great learning and very important to see senior participants contributing to ideas, though towards change.”

 

“The emphasis of the AR4D paradigm at each strategic level is the paramount presentation. Each staff member needs to be reminded of the paradigm shifts that are going to transform the organization.”

 

“I discovered the importance of activity plan, budget and M&E plan to enable the achievement of project, program and organization at high level objectives”

 

“Explanation of cascading logic in organizational, programs & project levels and who is responsible for what needs to be done. Strong event!

 

“Some values are related, but they reflect how people see us from outside. We have to reflect how we show our inner image to the community.”

 

“My major lesson: Impact is associated with people performance! We must pursue it!”

 

Two comments received during the meetings with CCIL and CIC in December 2011 revealed how welcome the AR4D approach was to the staff of these organizations.

 

From a senior manager at CIC:

 

 “I do hope that AR4D approach — which values Human Talents — is effective in motivating our staff. These proposals to deal with CIC staff are very much welcome, because CIC has not given the attention the staff deserve for years! Performance assessment has not been done for years! I observe lack of motivation, interest among our staff, but I cannot blame them because this is the organizational mismanagement. I am glad that this new approach will change our organization for the better.”

 

At CCIL, one employee said:

 

“I welcome this new approach to re-deploy staff based on competencies and on the freedom to apply for the job position. I have been in a position that I dislike. I am told to perform tasks that I do not like and I am not prepared for doing them. But I have a family to feed and…many times, when I go home, I feel guilty, because I did something which I was not competent for, I am aware of I did not do well, and yet, at the end of the month I receive my salary. This is not a good feeling! I am very happy that this will change!”