At the co-located ISPA Coordination Desk, the team has been hard at work following the development of new tools, encouraging the application of existing ones, increasing our outreach, and continuously striving to improve. Here are some of the highlights since our first newsletter.
ISPA Regional Training Event
From March 12th-16th, 2018, the ISPA team delivered a training for government social protection experts and ISPA partner agencies from the South, East, and Pacific Asian regions. The event would not have been possible without DAFT and GIZ, who sponsored the event, and the hard work of the ILO-WBG team who prepared and delivered the training. More than 60 participants attended, half of which were government counterparts from 11 countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Vietnam) while the other half were experts from 7ISPA partner agencies (the Embassy of Australia in Indonesia/DFAT, FAO, GIZ, ILO, UNICEF, UNDP-IPC/socialprotection.org and WBG). To see session recordings, learning materials, and presentations please visit our website.
ISPA Executive Group Meeting
The ISPA Executive Group met in NY on January 31st of this year, where the Coordination Team (CT) shared the status of tools currently under development and the ones in the pipeline (see section below for the latest updates).
Here are some of the main discussions during the meeting:
- The CT shared results from a survey carried out last year to learn how to better serve countries applying ISPA tools. Executive Group members recommended to complement the survey by exploring results and perceptions about tools’ applications.
- The group discussed ongoing and future tool developments, in particular regarding tools on social information systems, gender, disability, financing, cash transfers, and health (see below).
Tool Development
As most of you know, milestones in the creation of ISPA tools include the development of a first draft of the tool or “V_0” (zero draft) to be piloted in at least two countries. An inter-agency workshop informs the revision of the zero draft into “V_1” that is submitted for approval of the ISPA Executive Group. After editing and formatting, the tools are available as a global public good. Please, find below the status of the main milestones for respective tools currently under development.

Food Security and Nutrition
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is organizing an inter-agency workshop to finalize the Social Protection Programs for Food Security and Nutrition: An Assessment Tool (FSN-ISPA). The workshop will take place from September 4th to 5th, 2018 in Rome, Italy. The main objective of the 1.5 day workshop is to gather members of the technical Working Group and other interested agencies to finalize the tool drawing on the lessons from the three country pilots (Cambodia, Palestine, and Paraguay). The workshop will be organized in three moments: i) presentation by national government of piloting experiences; ii) group work reviewing the tool and integrating country experiences; iii) defining way forward to finalize tool.The updated version of the tool will be submitted for final approval of ISPA Executive Group.

SPPOT
The assessment-based tool for national dialogue on policy options (SPPOT) is being developed under the leadership of the ILO. The SPPOT tool was translated into French for the first application in Togo. This pilot was supported by the EU-SPS program and the government of Finland. Following a training of the assessment team, an inception workshop informed all stakeholders about the objectives and application process, highlighting the importance of making available the necessary data and information. During the workshop, it was decided that regional stakeholders will receive trainings on social protection to be able to participate more meaningfully in the dialogue. The report was drafted in 2017/18 and will be discussed at a roundtable in September 2018. Senegal expressed interest to also carry out a SPPOT analysis and this second pilot will start shortly.

Social Information Systems
A kick-off workshop was held in NY in January 2018 under the leadership of the WB. This workshop was attended by delegates from DFAT, DFID, EC, FAO, GIZ, ILO, IPC-socialprotection.org, OECD, UNDP, UNICEF, WB, and WFP. The workshop presented a conceptual framework for consideration in the development of the tool. The WB team shared the work recently launched on social registries, beneficiary operations management systems, and integrated social information systems. DFAT shared reactions and recommendations for the development of the tool. A Unicef and WB team shared lessons learned from the pilot project in Iraq on how social registries can be strategically used for better design and delivery of social protection programs. WFP presented on the experience with the SCOPE platform and specifically its application in Somalia. After discussing, the workshop concluded with some of the main outcomes being a defined the scope of the tool, a working and reference groups conformed, and a proposed action plan. Since the workshop, an initial working document was circulated. The Working and Reference groups provided useful comments, which are guiding the development of zero draft of the tool. The draft is expected to be circulated in the fall.

Social Assistance Cash Transfers
The WB is taking lead in developing a Social Assistance Cash Transfer tool. A call to establish working and reference groups will be issued prior to the kick-off workshop that is planned to take place this fall. In the meant time, the team is drafting a discussion note, which delineates the tool as both an assessment framework and operational manual for selecting appropriate design options and implementation of non-contributory cash transfer programs, in view to expand the coverage to those most in need of social protection. The tool aims to support government’s plan and implement a scaled up social assistance cash transfer based on a diagnosis of already existing programs, or assessing the feasibility and setting the parameters of the new transfer to fill in the gaps in the SP system identified by CODI or other analytical work. The discussion note is expected to be shared with ISPA partners soon as part of an invitation to a kick-off virtual workshop.

Gender and Disability
SPIAC-B constituted a gender group that will start working on including gender issues systematically into existing and upcoming ISPA tools.
Similarly, preparations are underway to integrate disability into ISPA tools as well as develop a summary ISPA disability module. Anyone interested in participating in these groups, please contact the coordination team at info@ispatools.org.
Tool Downloads
To date, ISPA tools and corresponding components have been downloaded more than 11,000 times. CODI’s “What Matters” guidance note, the first available tool, has been viewed over 2,000 times. Similarly, Payments and Public Works Program’s”What Matters” guidance notes have been downloaded more than 1,500 times. ID has the most downloads of the complete tool, the combination of the guidance note, questionnaire, and assessment matrix.
Web traffic on our website during the last three months shows visits from 51 countries around the globe. Most visits during this period originate from the US, followed by Indonesia, UK, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. Please note that this metric is not precise given privacy settings of each user. It is very encouraging to see an increase in visits from Southeast Asia after the face-to-face training event held in March.

Tool Applications
ISPA tools are in the process of or have been implemented in a total of 52 countries to date. Since the last newsletter, there have been 19 new implementations (or plans to apply the tools) in Angola, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Honduras, Lebanon, Lesotho, Nicaragua, Palestine , Sao Tome e Principe, Togo, Uzbekistan, Vietnam (via ID4D), and Zambia (see map below). If you are applying ISPA tools, please let us know by contacting info@ispatools.org.The ISPA Help Desk is willing to provide technical assistance and guidance on your application.
Click here to view a map of all implementations and scroll down for a full list of tool applications to date.

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