Every year and a half, IFAD’s Asia and the Pacific Division hold its Annual Performance Review (APR) Workshop.

The workshop is an important opportunity to engage project directors, regional partners, private sector and IFAD staff in conversations oriented towards the improved performance of IFAD-supported projects and programmes in the Asia and Pacific region.

The 2010 APR is comprised of three activities:

1. The APR workshop: 1–3 November

2. Field trip to the West Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Project: 4 November

3. A south-south cooperation event (open to invited Project Managers, high-level officials and interested CPMs only): 5-6 November

This information note provides details on the APR Workshop as well as logistics to support your travel. Additional information related to the other activities will be shared in subsequent communications.

The APR Workshop

Similar to previous APRs, this year’s workshop is being planned with the following objectives in mind:

• Review 2009-2010 achievements and reflect on project performance during this period.
• Learn from each other experiences – both successes and challenges – through the exchange of best practices and peer supported mechanisms
• Develop capacity on key issues of implementation and thematic areas through hands-on mini-workshops and chat show formats
• Familiarise Project Staff, Country Programme Managers (CPMs) and Country Presence Officers (CPOs) with the “Learning Highways in Asia” initiative and showcase selected innovations.

While we are not including the following as objectives in the workshop, we see the larger APR event as an opportunity for (1) Country Programme Managers (CPMs), Country Presence Officers (CPOs), and projects to convene and further develop country activity planning (e.g. M&E, RIMS and KM; and, (2) soliciting feedback on the “Learning Highways in Asia” proposal.

Participants

A total of about 170 participants will be attending this year's event, representing 62 ongoing projects from throughout the region. Participants include representatives from the Government of China, managers of IFAD-supported projects/programmes in the region, representatives of innovative projects/programmes from other regions, country and regional development partners, private organizations, and IFAD staff.

What's different about this year's APR?

The last APRs were held in Thailand, where IFAD does not support any projects and programmes through loans. This year’s event will be different.

The evaluation results from last year’s APR highlighted a significant interest on behalf of participants on learning from the successes in China. In response, this year’s APR will be held in China and include direct project exposure through a field visit to the IFAD-financed West Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Project.

Also in feedback from last year’s APR and the division’s retreat, project and IFAD staff highlighted the need to better draw on the experiences of the projects – especially in terms of what’s working and what isn’t working so well. As a result, the format for this year’s APR will be different. An emphasis is being placed on the exchange of programme and projects experiences through a variety of session formats such as:

• Hands-on Mini-Workshops:These are intended interactive sessions oriented towards specific learning objectives. Up to 2 hrs maximum.

• Chat Shows: An interactive session where people discuss a hot topic. Usually a host facilitates the conversation and invites questions from the audience. Chat shows offer an alternative to panel presentations and can last 1 – 1.5 hrs.

• Peer Assists: These are small group discussions oriented towards a challenge or specific problem and used to elicit new ideas and insights from one's peers. Each round lasts approx 30 mins.

• Speed Sharing Rounds: Based on the concept of "speed dating", lessons learned or best practices are shared in 10 minute rotating small group rounds.

These formats have been selected since they promote knowledge sharing among participants and learning from each other’s experiences and know-how. 

What outcomes do we expect from the APR?

With your engagement and participation, we expect this event will influence the following set of outcomes:

• Stronger teams and relationshipswith peers, colleagues, country and regional partners, as well as with China colleagues, as a basis for networking to continue sharing good practices, knowledge and experience.
• Deeper understandings of implementation issues and thematic areas
• Future regional collaboration and strengthened south-south relations.