1. Activities and Achievements of the Month
1.1 Summary of Progress
The Project has entered the third month of COVID-19 restrictions. GoB office closure was lifted on 30 May, allowing the office activities to resume this month. SREDA PIU members returned to their daily presence at their offices from thereon. The Project Implementation (PI) Consultant Team also started to reappear in their Project Office situated in SREDA premises. International consultant members of the PI Consultant Team still had to work from remote environment, not even with a plan to resume their field activities in Bangladesh.
The major part of the PI Consultant Team’s work this month was devoted to technical evaluation of the newly-proposed technologies and equipment for the loan eligibility list. The Team consulted with the experts and prepared an easy-to-understand PowerPoint document to be presented to the Technical Advisory Committee (refer to Appendix 10-1). The PI Consultant Team will, first of all, share some of the key findings through this work with the SREDA PIU members in due course.
1.2 Project MIS Improvement
Three improvements were considered / implemented during the reporting months. These works could be conducted even in a remote working environment among the PI Consultant Team members, SREDA and the IFIs. The Works are aimed to be preparations for a better work environment in future, when the Project stakeholders’ mobility restrictions are relieved.
(1) Identifying possible improvement to ESPR preparation
It was during the preparation of the quarterly progress report for the quarter ended in March 2020 that the environmental and social performance report (ESPR) preparations at both IFIs were not appropriately done on the Project MIS, being conducted manually. The PI Consultant Team reviewed the MIS to find that the system, which was initially designed to manage a greater number of sub-projects for much lower amount of loan, was not appropriately addressing to the need for ESPR under the current condition (the current system was for one-off screening of many sub-projects).
The PI Consultant Team, having discussed among their Environmental and Social Consideration experts from the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), decided to readjust the ESPR contents so that all of the sub-projects will be monitored of their environmental and social considerations issues continuously until the repayment of the loan has completed. A report on the current structure of the function and the list of required changes was drafted as a requirement for the modification of the system (Appendix 10-2).
(2) Business Process Re-engineering for DASH Functions
With the introduction of DASH, the business process in SREDA for the Project effect evaluation and inclusion of information from a wider scope of activities for EE&C promotion, is expected to become more effective and efficient. An analysis skill known as the business process re-engineering (BPR) is be applicable for this case where the business process is refined with the introduction of DASH, and then, DASH can further evolve to improve the business process.
The PI Consultant Team’s Information management expert Dr Mahady Hasan applied the BPR analysis to define some indicators for the expected improvement in the business process, identify the effect brought about with DASH, and the issues to be further addressed. The first draft of the report was made, and the process is ongoing. It is expected that, with participation of the energy audit experts in the PI Consultant Team, the BPR analysis will further continue, so that DASH function improvement, together with some recommendations for SREDA to improve the business processes will be spelled out, to be achieved in the month to come.
(3) Change Request (issue) Monitoring Module & Additional Reports Module
The development of these two modules has been going on for few months already (refer to Appendix 07-2, which defines the requirements as attached to the March monthly progress report).
The additional (for analysis) reports module was already released in May, but the remaining change request monitoring module was finally completed, to be uploaded on the production environment of the Project MIS in June 2020. With two of these modules the Project implementation support and reporting works conducted by the PI Consultant Team are expected to become simple, transparent and reliable.
1.3 Project Administration Works
Under a restricted movement where the international consultant members cannot physically be present in Bangladesh, and the national consultant members have to minimise their daily commuting, the Project administration, focusing on communication and coordination has become an essential function for the Project to be going on. Because the Project administration work does not produce tangible outputs such as documents to be attached onto this monthly progress report, a list of work conducted during the month is included herewith.
- As per the PI Consultant team decision, scheduling and managing National PI team members’ physical attendance at SREDA office work place by rotational support at a good team collaboration to avoid infection through social distancing and safety precautions due to COVID-19 outbreak worries in the country;
- Preparing EECPFP Monthly Progress Report for the previous month of May 2020 (MPR09);
- Following up the revision of the Business Process Manuals version 4.1b, which is yet to receive concurrence from JICA Bangladesh Office;
- Support and following up the business document correspondence which was despatched on DHL to the PD, SREDA notably on the customs clearance issue;
- Regularising MIS and energy data calculation on DASH; coordinated among the team leader, MIS operations manager, the MIS developer team and the energy audit sub-team to create a better understanding and safer input environment in the MIS interface to support the data updating task which was found to be SREDA’s pending work. For the data updating purpose, a dedicated user name and password has been prepared with plans and gathering necessary resources;
- Managed schedules for the meetings and recording decisions and communicate as and when necessary to all/ individual team members for action items or progress during meetings and performs basic follow-up afterwards;
- Maintained good communication and collaboration among the international and national team members due to recent COVID 19 situation sharing updates among the team especially by specifying urgent tasks, setting timeframes & goals, provided documentation to team members retrieving necessary information from previous sources;
- Maintaining and monitoring project implementation plans, project schedules, work hours, sharing updates with the SREDA PIU members;
- Organised and monitored car usages, checking invoice (rental car bill for the month of May, 2020) and log-sheet information provided by the service provider, orchestrating movements of the national team members and arranging services when necessary;
- Observed the national team members’ activities and reporting to the TL and other international team members for smooth-running of the team activities and cross-checked the planned-work schedules as required;
- Keeping the Team Leader updated with the current COVID-19 countermeasures in Dhaka including movement restrictions, and providing supports for making a suitable plan of activities;
- Study and following up EECPFP awareness raising plan and foreign training plan to find reviewing and refining those proposed plans together as requested;
- Shared ideas and advices on the latest design on “EECPFP New presentation template” as we needed a genuine Project presentation slide master. Accordingly took initiative on implementing new template to be used on upcoming team presentation document materials;
- Observation and going through several versions (1.1 to 1.3) of the “Additional Report Component Analysis Document” on the “MIS: Additional Report” module updated by CSL, incorporated the module in the Live system and followed up the performance and progress of update process;
- Coordinated on the Business Process Re-engineering on DASH activities updating, project performance, progress and address potential issues, continuously seeking improvement calling team members, service providers, making appointments, ordering supplies, doing site visits and preparing reports;
- Following up NOC requests submission from IFIs (both IDCOL and BIFFL) on MIS;
- Arranged and coordinated a meeting on 15th June with an internationally renowned apparels brand on “Consultation on EEC in dyeing & finishing processes”;
- Coordination support on updates on the Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) on DASH, checking updates MIS environment as a user on several developed versions, report templates, follow-up usage of the system / observations and feedbacks, attending discussion meetings on problem analysis and development;
- 9th June 2020 from 12:00 noon arranged a remote meeting on the Business Process Re-engineering updates on DASH with the Energy Audit sub-team members;
- Checking and following up the PI consultant team’s SREDA office space rental conditions;
- Preparing upcoming three months’ work plan as requested from the SREDA PIU;
- Arranged a national consultants’ meeting on MIS & DASH on 22nd June 2020 4:30pm.
- Arranged and coordinated an “EECPFP Environmental and Social Considerations remote meeting” taking care the issues: Annex 34 of the Business Process Manuals and information gathering on the newly proposed cement mill technology (Roller Press), and;
- Prepared a presentation and reported on “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project’s vivid visibility at SREDA website”, which was presented on an EECPFP Team meeting (Project website / new member introduction) 23rd June 2020.
2. Appendices
Appendix 10-1: Scope Enhancement Proposals to the Eligible Technology and Equipment List (30 June 2020)
Appendix 10-2: System Requirement Specification (SRS) for Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) Related Functions Improvements on Project MIS