Organization Background 

RCDC is a non-political, non-governmental and non-profit humanitarian and development organization that has been working to improve the life of the Afghan people since 2002. RCDC works in rural areas and aims to improve rural livelihoods through sustainable activities that engage Afghan communities to be agents of their own development process. RCDC applies a holistic approach to all rural development activities in order to ensure long-term viability of projects. Over 580,000 Afghans across 5 provinces have benefited from RCDC relief, rehabilitation and development activities since its establishment through financial support of German Government, Caritas Germany, EU, ECHO, WFP, UNHCR, WB, GIZ, URF/KFW, UNAMA, UNOCHA, UNOPS and USAID. 

The overall objective of RCDC is to contribute to equitable and sustainable livelihoods for rural Afghans – with a par­ticular emphasis on vulnerable groups. As a general planning tool, the program framework serves to keep on track the process towards this objective. 

Since 2002 RCDC has completed several projects as follows:

• Water Supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH) +Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
• Women’s Empowerment (WE)
• Primary Health and Nutrition 
• Literacy Courses
• Emergency program
• Food For Work (FFW) and Cash For Work (CFW) program
• Construction & improvement of irrigation system, roads and bridges
• Staffs capacity building 
• Shelter program

Purpose: 

Having a program development policy will enable RCDC to design a program according to the assessed needs of communities safe the organization time and money on recruitment new staff or capacity building expenses and will minimize the chances of losing any opportunity. It is a tool to develop and response to CHF allocation.

1. Program Development Policy
2. Human Resource Policy
3. Accountability on Affected People Policy
4. Conflict of Interest Policy
5. Local Security Policy
6. Financial Policy
7. Procurement Policy
8. Gender Policy
9. Child Protection Policy
10. PSEA Policy
11. Monitoring and Evaluation Policy
12. Stock Management and Disposal Policy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Purpose: 4

Definitions: 4

What is project?. 4

Project management. 5

What is a program?. 5

Program life cycle.. 6

RCDC PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS. 7

I: PROGRAM IDENTIFICATION AND DESIGN PHASE.. 7

Identification of Program Idea: 7

ASSESSMENT: 8

Data Collection Method: 8

Primary Data: 8

Secondary data. 8

Quality Control of DATA.. 9

PROGRAM ANALYSIS / ASSESSMENT.. 9

How is assessment data analysed?. 9

What can data be compared to?. 9

Stakeholder: 10

Proposal parameters: 10

Concept note. 10

Proposal in Response to a RFP.. 11

Feasibility studies: 11

Capacity assessment 11

Risk Management 11

Design the project: 12

Logical Frame work: 12

Overall Objective/Goal: 12

PROPOSAL AND BUDGET DEVELOPMENT: 13

Project Summary. 13

Context Analysis. 13

Need Assessment and Problem statement 14

Problem Statement. 14

Selection of Beneficiaries, Risk analysis and Conflict sensitivity. 14

Risk Analysis. 14

Conflict sensitivity: 15

Budget summary: 15

Lesson learnt: 16

II: SET UP &PLANNING PHASE.. 16

1:Pre-Program Set-up. 16

2. Program Set-up. 16

3. Establish the Program Management and Technical Infrastructure. 17

4: Deliver the Incremental Benefits. 17

5. Close the Program.. 17

PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION.. 17

Planning Phase. 18

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT PLAN.. 18

PROGRAM/PROJECT WORK PLAN.. 19

The Project Work plan will help: 19

Project Work Plan Template.. 20

PROJECT/PROGRAM CLOSE OUT PLAN: 20

Closeout Contracts. 20

Closeout Administration. 21

Build a Project History File. 21

Create the Final Project report 21

Technical inspection. 21

PROGRAM/PROJECT TECHNICAL REQUIREMENT AND PARTNERSHIP.. 21

Configuration Management 22

PROJECT / PROGRAM TEAM REQUIREMENT AND STRUCTURE: 22

Head of Program.. 22

Program Manager. 22

M&E officer. 22

Internal staff communication for projects. 23

PROGRAM/ BUDGET: 23

Survey team; 23

Technical team; 23

Decision making team; 23

Proposal developing team; 23

Implementing team; 24

Monitoring and Evaluation team; 24

PROJECT / PROGRAM WORK BREAK DOW... 24

PROJECT/ PROGRAM SCHEDULE: 24

QUALITY CONTROL/ASSURANCE.. 24

QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY, GOAL, AND OBJECTIVE.. 25

Safety and Security: 25

Security strategies. 25

Feedback policy: 26

III: PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION.. 26

Initiation Phase. 26

Implementation (Execution) Phase. 26

Closing Phase. 27

Staffing: 27

QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY, GOAL, AND OBJECTIVE.. 27

Safety/Security: 27

MONITORING AND EVALUATION.. 28

Compliance monitoring /M&E officer.. 28

Evaluation in the RCDC: 29

PROGRAM /PROJECT END.. 29

Signatures: 30