Background

Mekong Institute (MI) is an intergovernmental organization that promotes regional development, cooperation, and integration across the Mekong region by working closely with the governments of Cambodia, P.R. China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand. To further advance sub regional cooperation, Republic of Korea established the Mekong–Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund (MKCF) in 2013 following the Han River Declaration in 2011.

The Mekong Korea Cooperation Fund is a mechanism that provides project grant to support regional initiatives fostering cooperation and integration in the Mekong region for shared benefits across five Mekong countries and the RoK. Projects could be initiated and led by a single organization in one country, with implementation encouraged to involve other Mekong countries. Regardless, projects are meant to fall under seven priority areas to address national issues as well as regional challenges.

Mekong Institute, as the Fund Coordinator of MKCF, has been tasked to announce, evaluate, and select project proposals prepared and submitted from the Mekong countries. MI also provides guidance to overall implementation, documentation of results, and outcomes sharing of these projects to integrate, replicate, and upscaling them into larger program interventions.

To boost the regional nature of MKCF projects and to realize the intended shared benefits through this funding mechanism, MI recognizes the need to enhance the institutional capabilities of the Mekong countries, particularly institutional networking and developing projects that address emerging transboundary issues. It is under this context that Mekong Institute is implementing a three-year project on ‘Capacity Building on Regional Project Design, Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation of MKCF projects’ (2023-2026) to enhance capacities of eligible partners under the MKCF program on whole project cycle management with systematic M&E to reinforce regional cooperation and integration among the Mekong countries and the RoK.

The Capacity Building Project of MKCF

One of the expected outcomes from the project are enhanced capacities of project managers and personnel to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate regional development projects that achieve desired results within budgeted costs in the planned timeframe. Under this overarching goal, MI plans to conduct a Regional Project Identification Training to highlight critical analysis of regional issues and to design, plan, and develop projects that ultimately benefit Mekong region and promoting sub regional cooperation in seven priority sectors.

Moreover, the capacity building project will develop a web-based M&E system for effective project management and timely communication of project results. During the course of developing the capacities of project implementers in project design and planning, the regional project identification training will also help lay the foundation of this upcoming web interface of M&E with focused introduction and discussion in project M&E to gauge and surface needs for better users’ experience and participation. 

The objective of the Regional Project Identification training is to develop participants’ capacity to identify and develop regional development projects that address issues of the seven priority sectors of the MKCF in the Mekong region.

To achieve the set objective, the training course will focus on developing projects underlining regional cooperation and addressing regional challenges including M&E design. The final outcome of the course will be regional projects (for each sector) developed by cross country participants groups in similar sectors.

This course is designed for 30 project development and implementing professionals from six countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Thailand (CLMVT), and RoK, Five participants for each country). The criteria of the participants are;

• Mid-level officials of organizations representing seven priority sectors of MKCF: (1) Culture and Tourism, (2) Human Resources Development, (3) Agriculture and Rural Development, (4) Infrastructure, (5) Information and Communication Technology (ICT), (6) Environment, and (7) Non-traditional Security Challenges;
• Master degree or equivalent in development studies, economics, management, environment, and other relevant disciplines
• At least 5 years’ experience in implementation of projects, developing project proposals, evaluation of projects, etc 
• Experience of working in Mekong/ASEAN countries specially in the development sectors is desirable
• Able to communicate (speak, understand, read and write) in English is essential; – Committed to attend the entire training course;
• Interactive and participative at the training;
• Maintain effective coordination with the project team at MI.

Additionally, it is recommended that participants have over 5 years of experience working in one (or more) of the seven priority sectors and 3 years or more in international/regional cooperation

The training will take place in 5 consecutive days (i.e., one-week, Monday to Friday).

• Module 1 Regional Development and Regional Project
• Module 2 Project Design – Problem identification, Goal Setting and Logical Framework
• Module 3 Stakeholders Identification & Partnership Development
• Module 4 Results-based Monitoring & Evaluation System
• Module 5 Developing a Regional Project with results-based M&E framework
• Module 6 Presentation of Regional Project Concept in seven sectors

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Have an overall view of regional development in the context of ongoing Mekong-RoK cooperation frameworks
• Understand new trends of development in Mekong region and main characteristics of regional projects
• Identify internal and external opportunities and challenges (SWOT) in seven priority areas

Overview:
The context of Mekong region, including its development trends and cooperation needs, is the backbone of developing and implementing relevant projects that ultimately foster regional development and cooperation for the benefits of Mekong countries and their people. By taking a broad view of this context and recognizing this contextual background, projects that will be developed as interventions for change under the support of cooperation framework such as the Mekong-Republic of Korea, can be better aligned with overarching programmatic goals. It will also inform critical project design processes and activities such that project outcomes can contribute more directly and effectively towards regional needs and priorities.

Click here to see the session contents.

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Learn about problem analysis, objective setting, and logical framework and use each of the tools in project design for regional project development

Overview:
A main component of situation analysis is the needs or problems identification and analysis. Following an understanding of the broader context in the overarching program and the region, with/before roles of pertinent stakeholders defined, key issue(s) or problem(s) will be identified. The next step is to analyze the problem’s underlying causes and their effects, in order to propose targeted interventions to address them. The process of analyzing problems is the mirror image of setting goals where current issues (negative) are reversed into future (positive) state deliberately. After setting up realistic goals within reasonable scope, project design will be completed with a clear logic of the intervention – usually depicted visually by a logical framework or theory of change.

Click here to see the session contents.

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Identify stakeholders in relations to an issue, objective, or a context
• Learn the process of identifying and analyzing stakeholders in project
• Assess stakeholder’s interest and influence towards project and design partnership development and/or engagement strategies and actions throughout project cycle

Overview:
Project is the key responsibility of implementing agency/organization. But project concerns and can be affected by groups other than the main implementing body. These are called project stakeholders, and they will need to be involved one way or another throughout project design, implementation, and evaluation phases, to ensure perspectives, considerations, and capacities from groups with vested interest in the project can be incorporated and employed for achieving the set objectives. The engagement of stakeholders in projects is both science and art, where stakeholders’ roles and motivations need to be analyzed rationally while the processes to apply findings from the analysis to bring in stakeholders (e.g., communication, facilitation, and consultation) is more of an art that requires creativity and flexibility.

Click here to see the session contents.

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Understand concepts and structure of results-based M&E system
• Apply learning of M&E system to sample MKCF project
• Identify and provide recommendations in areas to improve in developing and using a project M&E framework

Overview:
To ensure a project is implemented as designed and planned, with possible corrective actions during the course, project monitoring plays a key role as a cross-cutting theme of project management. Equally important though happening less often is evaluation that takes aim at tracking higher levels of project results, i.e., outcomes and impacts. Built upon levels of results formulated in project design phase, the results-based Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system makes the project alive and active with constant and periodic examining of project progress by collecting data against measurable indicators. A M&E framework illustrates the different elements of the system while an M&E plan is essential to develop and have from the onset of project to guide subsequent tasks in feeding information to the system. 

Click here to see the session contents.

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Obtain information about available resources to develop regional projects under MKCF
• Understand the structure and the requirement of concept paper under MKCF and assign resources and efforts to developing it
• Draft a concept for regional development and cooperation project with M&E framework and elaboration of various components of project design outputs

Overview:
This session puts learning into practice through development of an actual regional project concept. Before working into respective groups on this assignment, specific requirements including formats, assessment criteria, and other pertinent information of the MKCF call of concepts will be shared to guide trainees into shaping their concepts in a quality and conforming manner. At the same time, supportive resources that are available for project developers to access will be introduced to enhance exchanges and collaborations across sector, country, and projects.

Click here to see the session contents.

Learning Objectives:

The trainees should be able to do the following:

• Develop and present regional project concept in seven sectors following MKCF’s requirement

Overview:
The final product of the training, i.e., concept paper, will be packaged and presented to all participants and MKCF team for timely feedback and critique for possible improvement. While the finished concept is a testimony of learning for the participants, it is also an insightful demonstration of the capacity levels of project proponents and implementing agencies in developing regional projects under the context of interest.

Click here to see the session contents.