• Pooling donor resources to support a mutually-agreed portfolio
  of projects and programs
• Working through and within the Government's Master Plan for
  recovery
  
• Promoting bottom-up and demand-driven development
• Partnering with Government and non-government agencies
• Serving as a forum for donor coordination
• Supporting a dialogue among the international community, civil society and the Government on progress in the recovery process
• Flowing most of the funds through the Government budget

The expected results from achieving this goal would be :

• Regenerated communities and community infrastructure
• Restarted livelihoods
• Repaired larger infrastructure
• Rebuilt governance
• Sustained environment

How to does a project get funded?
It will be done in this order:

• Project initiator prepares draft project and submits to Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR)
• The BRR endorses and sends the draft project to the MDF Secretariat for evaluation and recommendation
• MDF Steering Committee reviews and endorses the draft project, partner agency and executing agency
• Partner Agency organizes detailed description and plan of the project (appraisal) and sends to Secretariat
• Project appraisal submitted to Steering Committee for approval.
• Signing of Grant between Partner Agency and Government of Indonesia
• Implementation and project monitoring commence

How to submit a project proposal?
All project concepts for possible MDF financing must first be vetted by the Aceh Recovery Agency (BRR or Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi).

We would therefore like to suggest that you complete the attached BRR project (could be downloaded here) template and submit it to them if you would like to pursue MDFTANS financing for your proposals. Please contact : Egan Dirgantara for queries that were previously directed to Cheryl Koesdjojo. He may be reached by email at projects@brr.go.id and by phone at 0651 43434.

How to become a donor member?
A donor member is a country, an organization or private sector contributor who has made a pledge publicly with confirmation in writing, either by the Trustee or by signing the contribution agreement.

A contribution of US$ 10 million or more, will give you a vote on the Steering Committee.
Those contributing less than this threshold may decide to pool their resources so as to reach or exceed this threshold thereby being able to nominate a representative as a voting member for their pooled contributions, possibly on a rotational basis.

What financial safeguards and anti-corruption measures are put into the MDF projects?
There are in 4 levels of fund monitoring for all MDF projects.

a.  the Trust Fund will be audited on a regular basis
     (disbursement)

b. each partner agency (the UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank or      other qualified international organizations) has its own monitoring and      auditing rules which will be applied to their respective projects

c.  the government (BRR) also has its auditing body which will be      supervising the processes.

d. the projects itself will also have rules & regulations outlining their      individual strategies to increase transparency and accountability. E.g. KDP      (hand in hand with housing project) project will be using community      announcement boards specifying, the amount of money that is being      disbursed, the status of the projects, salaries for facilitators, etc. As this      project strongly believes that social control in small community units      works well to the above effect.

How often does the MDF Steering
Committee Meet?
The Steering Committee will meet as frequently s necessary (meetings are expected to be held frequently during initial operations, but may subsequently become less frequent) to discharge its responsibilities.
The location of each meeting will be either in Jakarta, Aceh or Medan.

What criteria does the MDF Steering
Committee use to approve projects?
The MDF has adopted a set of policy rules that it uses to determine which projects can receive funding.

Implementation policy Projects need to deliver on the following :

• Enhance the quality of the recovery process
• Use different capacities over time (short, medium and
  long term capacity building)
• Support good governance.
• use participatory processes for design and implementation. 
  to enhance the capacity of district governments
• Pursue sustainable development policies
• Be gender sensitive
• Support sustainable environmental development
• Be geographically balanced over the tsunami and earthquake
  affected areas
• Balance the workload amongst the partner agencies
• Have a conflict sensitive approach
  Avoid regional disparity

Sectoral policy
project needs to respond to needs that are not sufficiently addressed by other sources of finance.
These sectors include :

• Transport
• Housing
• Flood control and irrigation works
• Environment
• Energy

Projects also need to have a measurable impact within the selected sector.

What is the position of the MDF
versus the Bapel/ BRR?
The MDF works together closely with the BRR. The BRR co-chairs the Steering Committee Meeting. All projects applying for possible MDF funding need to be approved by the BRR- project evaluation team first, and need to be in line with the master-plan of the Government of Indonesia for Aceh and Nias.

What is the difference between a MDF donor member and an observer member of the
Steering Committee?
A donor member is a country, an organization or private sector contributor who has made a pledge publicly with confirmation in writing, either by the Trustee or by signing the contribution agreement. They have voting rights, together with other members like the co-chairs, the goverement representatives and the Civil Society representatives.

The observation members are the representatives of the International Ngo's (1 person, selected by the NGO's to represent them as a group) and the United Nations. The observers participate in meetings for coordination purposes.

Does the MDF has defined priority sectors
or geographic locations to evaluate whether
to finance projects?
Yes, the MDF has clearly defined priority sectors that it seeks to fund. They are sectors and projects supporting those sector that are not sufficiently addressed by other sources of finance.

The policy of the SC at a minimum, addresses the substantial funding gaps that enable a full rehabilitation of Aceh and Nias to its pre-disaster situation. Once this has been achieved, remaining funds can be used to invest in improvements. This implies an initial focus on the substantial core funding gap, which yields the following sectors that are listed in descending order, from greatest to least funding gap:

• Transport
• Housing
• Flood control and irrigation works
• Environment
• Energy

While there are also funding gaps in Banking and Finance, Fisheries, and Communications, these are less significant.

The sectoral investment policy of the SC is thus be to initially focus on the sectors where there are substantial funding gaps to meet core needs. This suggests that funding in the short-term should go to meeting financing gaps and/or resolving critical issues in:
community infrastructure (particularly housing), repairing larger infrastructure (especially transport, energy, flood control and irrigation works), restarting livelihoods (fisheries and banking/finance could be included here although their funding gap is less significant) and the environment.
In the medium term, the SC could also focus investment on the "building better" aspects of the Master Plan, including rebuilding governance.

Does the MDF only finance projects
from its Steering Committee member countries?
No, any project that has been approved by the BRR and which conforms with the policies of the MDF could be approved by the Steering Committee for funding.

What is the role of the MDF in periodically evaluating the progress and results of projects
which it finances?
A monitoring and evaluation framework will be established for the MDF to help ensure that the desired results and outcomes of the GOI recovery program are achieved.
The framework will cover 2 areas:

• Grant approval and supervision process
  The MDF will prepare a summary report every three months comparing actual performance with defined standards where appropriate. The report will be forwarded to the GOI, its Grant Executing Agencies, designated Partner Agencies and the Steering Committee. The report will cover 1) time taken to complete different steps in grant review and approval process, financial performance (contributions versus pledges, disbursements) complaints received and their handling and the status of project supervision activities.
• Reporting on results
  Each financed activity will define indicators for monitoring achievement
  Precisely defined indicators and targets
  Ensure M&E functions are established within Implementing Agencies and Partner Agencies. They will report every 6 months.

Can my firm contract directly with the MDF
for business?
No, the MDF finances activities that are implemented by others (government agencies, NGOs, UN agencies, etc.) according to procurement procedures that are acceptable to the World Bank.