At the national level, the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) has been facilitating the entire process of community action in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Population Foundation of India is the Secretariat for the AGCA. It is proposed that a small National Secretariat be set-up in order to implement the pilot programme of community based monitoring of services under NHM. The Population Foundation of India could facilitate the entire activity as a National Secretariat based in New Delhi. The Secretariat will be undertaking special facilitation of the community monitoring process at the national level in consultation with the MOHFW and NHM Mission. The National Secretariat would function within the framework formulated by the AGCA for community based monitoring of programmes under NHM.

The National Secretariat would have the following role and responsibilities:

• Coordinating activities of the national preparatory phase, which includes developing tools, model curriculum, workshops, awareness materials and documentation formats for the programme.
• process documentation and review of the pilot implementation phase in consultation with AGCA members.
• Develop a website on community based monitoring of processes and access to services under NHM
• Manage the financial responsibility of the pilot programme
• Prepare progress reports, field visits and the national dissemination workshops of the programme at the national level
• Conduct quarterly review of AGCA for review of the pilot programme.

Staffing

The National Secretariat would be managed by two co-ordinators for the overall programmatic and financial coordination as designed in the programme. The coordinators would report to the AGCA.

Funding

The pilot project on community based monitoring of health services under NHM will remain a GOI initiative. The fund for the pilot phase facilitation and implementation would be given by the NHM.

Reporting

The Secretariat will report to the AGCA and the MOHFW. The financial expenditure statement will be submitted quarterly and the audited Utilization Certificate to be submitted to the GOI directly at the end of the financial year (i.e. 31st March) or at the end of the grant period. An annual audit report will also be submitted at the end of the financial year.

At the State level, the State Mentoring team would guide the entire process, specific financial and organisational responsibility may be taken by one of the NGO members of this team designated as State Nodal NGO.

The District level and Block level funds in the pilot phase in each state could be given to designated District nodal NGO to enable a fast start-up and adequate flexibility in the process. The District nodal NGO would collaborate with Block nodal civil society organisations for execution of activities in specific blocks. Some separate funds would also be required to support an institutional mechanism (which could be managed by facilitating NGOs) for collation, analysis and regular report preparation based on the significant amount of information that would be regularly generated from committees at various levels. This activity would be especially important at District and State levels, and on a smaller scale at the block level.