Elements and Performance Criteria

RANGE STATEMENT

The Range Statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Add any essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts.


Local legislative requirements may include:
Requirements unique to the local context
Requirements which are common to many countries and/or areas
Taxation requirements
Customs and excise requirements
Currency taxation requirements
Labour and industrial relations requirements


Currency transaction restrictions may include:
Limits on the amount of foreign currency able to be imported into or transported within the country
Requirements that only certain banks or entities carry out currency transactions


Concepts and principles of aid effectiveness and community development include:
Ownership, including:
using delivery processes that support partner countries to exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies
coordinating development actions
involving communities and local government in decision making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
encouraging community's and local government's contribution to problem solving
Alignment, involving maintaining a comprehensive understanding of partner countries' national development strategies, institutions and procedures to guide program delivery
Harmonisation:
actively seeking to collaborate with other Official Development Assistance (ODA) partners to create added value and greater development effectiveness
Managing for results, including continuous improvement of systems to:
manage for development results
support evidence-based decision making
Mutual accountability, involving demonstration of:
full transparency and accountability for the use of development resources in program delivery


Key donor requirements may include:
Reporting data and information requirements
Reporting timeframes and frequency
Reporting formats
Project flexibility
Purchasing standards
Use of funds for overhead costs
Restriction on purchase from certain countries
Level of back-up documentation required to support reports
Tracking of staff time
Utilities
Rentals etc
Need to expend funds or percentage of funds within donor country of origin
Budget variance allowances


Local financial environmental constraints refer to:
The sum of issues impacting on financial operations, including but going beyond local legislative restrictions to aspects such as:
currency and banking laws
financial infrastructure
economic health
inflation
price volatility
Other factors may include:
scarcity of goods and/or services
local monopolies
inflation rate
transportation difficulties
criminal activity
numbers of traders
scarcity of currency
black market or barter systems


Major differences may include:
Financial information required
Reporting formats
Operation to different financial year ends or funding and reporting cycles
Audit requirements


Donors may include:
Government:
Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
European Union (EU)
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Multilateral:
World Food Program (WFP)
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Private donor:
internal
external
Corporate donor
Local representatives of all of the above
Local host government


Circumstances may include:
The number of beneficiaries has changed significantly
The price of material and supplies has changed significantly
Emergency circumstance prevented completion of the project
Insufficient funding in some line items due to inflation
Currency exchange rate


Core costs may include:
Some operational costs
Travel
Capital expenses
Staff training
Cost of maintaining local or regional office


Monitor expenditure may include:
Collation of financial information to enable production of monthly reports
Working closely with field staff or managers where expenditure levels are of concern


Control expenditure involves:
Feeding information about remaining funds back to field managers prior to expenditure of funds and then not processing requisitions once all funds have been expended


Available funding may include:
The unspent portion of funds which have been promised by donors, funds which are actually currently available (which may include both more and less than the level of funding originally committed to by the donor)


Options for negotiation may include:
Reporting deadlines
Country of origin restrictions on purchase of goods
Overhead rates
Disposition of assets
Carry-forwards/project extensions (cost or no cost)
Pre-approvals/pre-authorisations
Amendments to budgets
Changes in interventions

EVIDENCE GUIDE

The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the Performance Criteria, Required Skills and Knowledge, the Range Statement and the Assessment Guidelines for this Training Package.

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate this unit of competency:
The individual being assessed must provide evidence of specified essential knowledge as well as skills
The application of competency is to be assessed in the workplace or realistically simulated workplace
Assessment is to occur under standard and authorised work practices, safety requirements and environmental constraints
Consistency of performance should be demonstrated over the required range of situations relevant to the workplace
The circumstantial or unsolicited testimony of project participants, governments or other non-government organisations regarding ethical behaviour should be considered as significant evidence in relation to this unit
Assessors need to be aware of potential complexities and note that complying with donor requirements in a straightforward, small scale grant situation may not provide evidence against all performance criteria within this unit
Assessors unable to assess through observation in a relief environment should particularly ensure the validity of evidence and determine with care the level of complexity at which management was undertaken
Assessment must confirm a reasonable inference that competency is able not only to be satisfied under the particular circumstance, but is able to be transferred to other circumstances


Access and equity considerations:
All workers in development and humanitarian assistance should be aware of access, equity and human rights issues in their own area of work
All workers should develop their ability to work in a culturally diverse environment
In particular workers should be aware of cultural, historical and current issues facing the people and culture in which they are working
Assessors and trainers must take into account relevant access and equity issues relating to the culture in which they are working


Context of and specific resources for assessment:
This unit may be assessed independently, however, holistic assessment practice with other related units of competency is encouraged
Assessment of essential underpinning knowledge, other than confirmatory questions, will usually be conducted in an off-site context
Assessment must comply with relevant regulatory requirements and/or standards
Resources required for assessment include access to:
workplace location or simulated workplace
specifications and work instructions
policy manuals and procedure manuals (international and local, including sector specific finance manuals)
relevant documents (such as contracts, records of communications with donors, staff briefing notes and records)
relevant equipment (such as office equipment and communications equipment)
managers, co-workers and other finance staff


Method of assessment:
Assessment needs to take into consideration the practical difficulties associated with attempting on-job assessment in the field
Assessment may be applied under project related conditions (real or simulated) and require evidence of process
Given the nature of this unit, assessment should be supported by supplementary evidence from a wide range of sources, preferably including evidence from one or more field situations