Wrap Up

Pic by Linda

In the main, a very happy conference!!! Although the feed back form was crude...a blank piece of paper..... the over all impression of the event was good. Only the toilets and showers came in for a bit of stick!!!

Recommendations for next time.

1. Try not to finish day to quickly

2. Include more plenary sessions

3. Follow up actions, nominate people for actions, (Done)

4. Give feed back

5. More energisers

6. Stricter time keeping

7. More discussion opportunities

8. Involve more people in planning (Humm)

9. National volunteering under represented

10. 2 days is enough

Seeking Solutions - Mail and Communications

Volunteer Mail.

Challenges

1. Mail late or does not arrive
2. Countryside volunteers not in UB often to collect mail
3. Cyrillic address not possible for all friends and family to use


Solutions

1. Countryside volunteers to open local Post Office box
2. Take a photograph of your cyrllic address and email to family and friends
3. System fix for out of town mail delivery.

Recommendations

1. VSO should collect all parcels from Post Office for out of town volunteers
2. Secure post should be part of support from Programme Office .
3. More effective communication from UB needed to countryside volunteers.
4. Do not rely on internet alone for communications


Volunteer to Programme Office Linkage.

Challenges

1. Linking volunteer clusters with each other and the programme office

Solutions

1. Nominate one volunteer to represent each cluster.
2. Cluster reps. to ‘meet’ in January and pre conference events in May and October
3. The responsibility for facilitating the ‘meeting’ and progressing issues arising to be rotated between cluster reps. David to do the October facilitation.

Recommendations

1. Review and consolidate the remit of the cluster representative.
2. Cluster reps to organise their own activities as they see fit.

Seeking Solutions –Exchange visits and conference policy

Objective : Clarify Exchange and Conference visits approval.

Outcome : Devise an equitable policy for VSO support of exchange and conference visits

Issues:

Fund allocation (both local and international visit)

1. No guidelines for how to organise or who will pay

2. Differing PM support for visits

3. No budget for visits

4. Cost of air trips from Dornod discourage visits

5. Devising a fair policy

Process suggestion:

• Create a form (similar to PC05 one?) that identifies purpose, participants, brief description, evaluation criteria and funding requirements. (amendments to current form). Current form will be required to be filled by partners as well (Mongolian translation required).
• It would be requirements for vols to submit at specific times of the year for budgeting purposes.
• There will be two deadlines (based on the two arrival periods of vols each year). These deadlines are suggested to be end of July and October (based on budget cycle)
• Following exchange an evaluation of exchange would be completed by vols and submitted to the PO. This report will be based on the original request form.

How does the program office choose?

Based on scheduled submission dates it will not be first come first serve

• Option #1: Is there a per volunteer budget reservation like PC05? If not all volunteers request then this ‘pot’ of money can be made available to those you have applied.
• Option #2: There is a finite amount budgeted – it is a competition for these funds. The PO would be required to evaluate and choose the exchanges that will receive funding. Suggestion to have a transparent rating mechanism so that vols can understand why some exchanges are funded and some are not.
• Option #3: PO staff are able to adjust the budget based on the number of request. Therefore justified requests can be funded.
• Option #4:Partial funding of an application is an option for PO staff.

International Exchanges

• VSO Mongolian does not budget for the support of international exchanges.

• International exchanges will be handled differently (budgetary) with more involvement from VSO UK. Guidelines are available for those wishing to make a request for an international exchange.

Shadowing during ICT

• Suggestion: shadowing volunteers for one or more days as part of ICT – this would require an increase to the ICT budget.

Differences in program areas:

• Each program area will receive a finite amount of money for exchanges – not all PA receive the same amount
• Over time the amount of funding given to each PA will change based on the needs of those placements and the goals of VSO.

Broad suggestion – Budget transparency. Each PA would make budget available for all to see. (then we can understand why some funded and some are not)

Policy on visiting conference

- Long distance travels by plane for conferences will be paid by VSO, but anything arranged for between vols (like exchanges) will be cheapest transportation

- Don’t change policy in current group of vols. If changes in policy are made, introduce these to the new vols in ICT. Then, everybody knows what to expect from the PO.

Follow up action : Work these ideas into a policy document

Action by : Programme Office

Can You Help?

1 - Gek and Lotus Products

Gek was well pleased with the helpful suggestions and advise she received from fellow volunteers. Some of the ideas have already been discussed with the Lotus Centre director, Didi.

2- Life Skills

A small group had a chance to go through the Peace Corp publications on life skills workshop guides. These were found to be excellent and very practical to use. If you would like a copy of the 12 books on CD please contact David at david.whitworth1@btinternet.com. Thanks to Hazel for bringing these to our attention.

3- Mongolian Management

It was clear pretty early in the discussion that there is no golden bullet to harness the "no plan" Mongolian approach to project implementation. The search goes on!!!!

Seeking Solutions - Accommodation

Objective: Find Solutions to UB Accommodation Problems

Outcome : Acceptable, workable accommodation policy for UB placements

Rent issues

Because of accommodation rent rises,

• Poorly funded partners cannot afford rent rises
• Differences in standards of accommodation are being experienced
  

It was clear that these issues only relate to accommodation in UB.

Solutions

• Volunteers to share accommodation
• Accommodation sought in outlying areas of UB
• Use Ger accommodation

Relate issues

All Placement documentations for UB should mention sharing accommodation with another volunteer. Placement documentation should ask whether volunteers are willing to share with opposite sex or staying in a ger.

• Ideally accommodation should be allocated before end of ICT, so that vols can settle and start work promptly
  
• PO encourage partners to pair up over accommodation arrangements. Pairing should happen after vols have been accepted to be able to match same sex/age etc.
• For short term volunteers the PO will continue to provide shared accommodation e.g a VSO rented flat

Follow up action : Inform VSO London of the new accommodation reality for volunteers in UB

Action by : Alison

Monitoring Evaluation.

Objective: Promote cross programme area working, Facilitated Volunteer to programme office working

Outcome : Improved placement management support documentation

The conference was fortunate to have attending Paul Wooster who is responsible for Secure Livelihoods and Monitoring and Evaluation in VSO Manila.

Four separate session were held on various aspects of the information flow in VSO Mongolia.

1. Programme area review documentation
2. Information gathering
   
3. Partnership review and planning documentation
4. New partner evaluation and needs analysis documentation

The session proved productive in recommending amendments and additions to the existing information systems for monitoring and evaluating VSO volunteer placements and partners in Mongolia. From Paul we learned that M & E processes are being developed in all VSO Programme Offices worldwide. The fruits of our deliberations will by felt by us all as the Programme Office incorporates appropriate recommendations into their information gathering systems.

Follow up action : Revise the management documents and information flow for VSO Mongolia.

Action by : Alison

Disability Workshops

Objective: Raise Awareness of the disability issues in Mongolia

Outcome : A handbook to promote main streaming disability in all placements

The two linked disability workshops gave the opportunity for awareness raising amongst volunteers on disability issues and the opportunity then to make suggestions on how the Disability Handbook could be enhanced. The first session included three contributions from Mongolian associations working in different areas of support for the disabled in the country.

From the response to the second session, the points were well made by our guest speakers. The suggestions made by the conference are to be considered and some of them will be incorporated into the Handbook .

Our thanks are due to............... for giving of their time to prepare and deliver the briefing sessions.

Follow up action : Edit the Handbook and distribute.

Action by : David and Lindsey