Abstract
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Institutional Strengthening project (FISP) supports USAID/Pakistan's Development Objective -- increased stability in focus areas. According to the FISP results framework, the strategic objective of the project is to ensure the institutional viability of the FATA Secretariat (FS) and FATA Development Authority (FDA) as service-oriented government bodies capable of managing their duties in a transparent, well-planned manner. The project is pursuing the following: (1) improved capacity of the FS to govern through systems development, training, and strengthening of the IT infrastructure [to include] strengthened planning, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting, finance, human resources management, office management, and communication functions of the FS and FDA; and (2) strengthened IT infrastructure and IT capacity of the FS and FDA. By achieving the above-mentioned intermediate results, the project expects to improve: (1) efficiency; (2) transparency;(3) accountability; (4) and the quality of project plans, proposals, monitoring, and reporting in government departments. The evaluation aims to assess progress toward institutional strengthening in relation to the organizational needs of the three key FATA institutions, the FS, FDA and the Governor's Secretariat. The evaluation focuses on five main questions: (1) how and to what extent are the systems developed by FISP and currently in use addressing the organizational needs of the departments that own and use the systems, and what factors explain progress or lack thereof in this regard; (2) how and to what extent have the FS, the FDA, and the Governor's Secretariat institutionalized the systems introduced by FISP; (3) what has been the usefulness of the policy-related reports prepared with FISP assistance; (4) what evidence is there of women's participation and a concern for gender issues in FISP interventions; and (5) what changes could better serve the project objectives and the priority organizational needs of the FS, FDA, and the Governor's Secretariat? The evaluation found that six of the seven systems in use were being used to address some or all of the organizational needs expressed by the owner/user departments and other users. The evaluation also found that top-level support for the systems deployed so far is the most important factor facilitating implementation of the systems and progress toward meeting organizational needs. Specific evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations are provided with detailed analysis for each evaluation question. (Excerpt, modified)