SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Evaluation of the Pacific Islands Managed and Protected Area Community (PIMPAC)
A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.
This request is for a new information collection.
The purpose of the evaluation survey is for NOAA to better understand the effectiveness of the capacity development efforts of the Pacific Islands Managed and Protected Area Community, as known as PIMPAC. NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program has provided partial funding via grants to PIMPAC since 2010.
The Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), developed under the authority of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-562; 16 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.) is responsible for programs intended to enhance the conservation of coral reefs. Under this authority, CRCP works with local partners in Florida, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to reduce key threats to coral reefs, including climate change, land-based sources of pollution, and impacts from fishing. Under Section 204 (h) “Project Reporting”, each grantee under this section shall provide periodic reports as
required by the Administrator. Each report shall include all information required by the
Administrator for evaluating the progress and success of the project.”
In 2010, PIMPAC established ten-year goals in its strategic plan to assist with evaluating progress. This survey will assess the extent to which PIMPAC has achieved its goals related to developing capacities to enhance protected area management in the Pacific island region. Respondents will primarily be partners working at not-for-profit organizations in the US Pacific Affiliated Flag Islands of Hawaii, Guam, the Central Northern Marianas Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as well as some staff from state, territorial and federal natural resource management agencies. Results of the survey are expected to help guide and improve the effectiveness of capacity development activities by PIMPAC for protected area management in the next ten years.
2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.
The information collected will be used to:
Understand and demonstrate accomplishments towards the PIMPAC goals;
Inform adaptive management, specifically the next PIMPAC strategic plan in 2020 (next 10 yr. expected results) to better support capacity development for conservation efforts;
Demonstrate the value of PIMPAC to NOAA and partners in not-for-profit organizations, state and federal agencies in the US Pacific Affiliated Flag Islands of Hawaii, Guam, the Central Northern Marianas Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, in achieving capacity development outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
PIMPAC is co-coordinated by two employees: one from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, based in Honolulu, Hawaii and one from the Micronesia Conservation Trust, based in Pohnpei State of the Federated States of Micronesia.
The information will be primarily used by these two managers on a weekly basis over from 2019-2020 to analyze and understand program outputs, outcomes and impact. The information will also be used to make programmatic improvements, which will be actualized through the development of a new strategic plan in 2020.
The information collected will also be shared with and used by US federal partners at NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and the Marine Protected Area Program, based in the National Ocean Service and NOAA’s Office of International Affairs. These agencies will use information collected, on an occasional basis, to better understand the capacity for marine management in the US Pacific Affiliated Flag Islands of Hawaii, Guam, the Central Northern Marianas Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The information collected will also be shared with external not-for-profit organizations, in the US Pacific Affiliated Flag Islands of Hawaii, Guam, the Central Northern Marianas Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. These include: The Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, the Chuuk Conservation Society, the Yap Community Action Program, Kosrae Organization for Conservation and Safety, the Palau Conservation Society, the Palau International Coral Reef Center, the University of Guam Marine Lab, the Marshall Islands Conservation Society. These organizations will use the information, on an occasional basis, to make informed programmatic changes to improve capacity development for marine protected area management
Participation in the survey is voluntary. Data collected will not be disseminated to the public. Information will be kept strictly anonymous and will not be shared in a way which could potentially reveal personally identifiable information (PII). The only demographic data collected will be gender, island of residence and name of the agency or organization.
NOAA will retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and destruction, consistent with NOAA standards for confidentiality, privacy, and electronic information. See response to Question 10 of this Supporting Statement for more information on confidentiality and privacy. The information collection is designed to yield data that meet all applicable information quality guidelines. Prior to dissemination, the information will be subjected to quality control measures and a pre-dissemination review pursuant to Section 515 of Public Law 106-554.
Survey Topics/Sections
Introduction
This section is to review the purpose of the survey, PIMPAC’s mission, goals, logic model, approach (to capacity development), training areas and to understand the interviewees’ perception of their role in PIMPAC and how long they have been involved with PIMPAC.
Category 1: Quality of Approach that PIMPAC Uses for Capacity Development
These first questions are about the “big picture” of PIMPAC. We are examining if PIMPACs overall approach to capacity development for effective site based and ecosystem-based management is the most strategic one possible. Over the past 10+ years PIMPAC’s carried out capacity development using the following approaches 1) training and technical support on various topics, 2) learning exchanges, 3) coordination and leveraging funds, and 4) partnership building with academic institutions.
Category 2: Efficiency of input to produce outputs
The next set of questions explore the effectiveness* of PIMPAC’s coordination and communications to plan and implement capacity development activities, including clarity of the roles of various PIMPAC partners. ***For the purpose of this survey, the term “Effective” is defined as “successful in producing a desired or intended result”. Please use the following scale to answer the following questions with 0 being not effective at all and 10 being very effective.
Category 3: Results and Outcomes from PIMPAC Activities
This next set of questions explores how effective PIMPAC has been at improving capacity for site-based management, and factors that have fostered or hindered effectiveness. For the purpose of this survey, the term “Effective” is defined as “successful in producing a desired or intended result”.
Category 4: Outcomes and Contributions PIMPAC Activities to Long Term Impacts (Conservation targets, Management Effectiveness, Community Resilience)
This section of questions focuses on PIMPAC’s contribution to improving management of natural resources, and ultimately the health of resources and communities that depend on them.
Category 5: Adaptive Capacity (monitoring, evaluation, adaptation, and learning)
This section explores how PIMPAC carries out adaptive management. This includes strategic planning, monitoring progress over time, learning from experience, and adapting to address gaps and emerging issues.
3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology.
The collection of information will involve in-person interviews and interviews using the telephone or web-based communications, such as Skype.
4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.
All of the current and previous PIMPAC managers and coordinators have been contacted regarding this survey and none have indicated that the proposed survey has been conducted in the past or is currently planned.
PIMPAC partners, led by the Nature Conservancy’s Micronesia Program are planning a similar evaluation survey of the Micronesia Challenge in 2019. Our survey instrument has been shared with those who will be involved in developing their data collecting instrument and we will continue to work with them to ensure duplication of efforts are avoided.
5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.
This information collection will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.
This is the first time this evaluation has been conducted. Not conducting this evaluation would undermine NOAA, the CRCP and PIMPAC’s abilities to effectively evaluate its programs, to ensure that they are helping achieve their missions and to improve cost effectiveness.
7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.
No special circumstances are anticipated. The information requested will be voluntary and the collection will be conducted in accordance with OMB guidelines.
8. Provide information on the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.
A Federal Register Notice published on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 (83 FR (55697-55698)) solicited public comments. No comments were received.
9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.
No payments or gifts are provided to respondents.
10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.
The only demographic data collected will be gender, island of residence and name of the agency or organization.
All data received from the surveys will be placed on a secure server and will be password protected. This website will not be available to the public. All computerized data will be maintained in a manner that is consistent with NOAA’s IT Security Program. No data files will contain personal identifiers.
This information will be covered by the Privacy Act System of Records COMMERCE/NOAA-11, Contact Information for Members of the Public Requesting or Providing Information Related to NOAA's Mission.
11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
For this collection, no sensitive questions will be asked. Additionally, participation in answering any question in the survey is voluntary. No response options will be added in the analysis.
12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.
It is estimated that 100 hours will be required to complete interviews with 80 respondents.
The number of respondents expected annually is 80. The frequency of responses per respondent is 1. The total number of responses expected is 80. The average response time per respondent is estimated at 75 minutes. The survey questions are simple and require respondents to state their opinions and perspectives, and therefore will not require third party review. Respondents who are not able to be interviewed in person will be interviewed over the phone or on a web-based program such as Skype.
13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in Question 12 above).
There will be no cost to respondents beyond burden hours.
14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.
Costs to the federal government are estimated at: $57,500.
A contractor has been secured to work with a NOAA federal employee to implement the necessary actions to complete the evaluation survey. Estimate days require to complete the evaluation survey is 50. The contractor and federal employee will each need two trips for to conduct interviews. A JIMAR/NOAA contractor will help with the survey design and analysis of the data.
Travel is estimated to be:
Contract travel=$10,000
NOAA Federal travel = $13,500
Subtotal=$23,500
Labor is estimated to be:
Contract labor= $14,000
JIMAR/NOAA contractor $10,000
NOAA Federal labor =$10,000
Subtotal=$34,000
Actions for completion of evaluation survey
Desk review of files, reports and communications from 2010-2018: 25 days
Implement initial consultations to conduct the evaluation survey and collect information to understand accomplishments, gaps, challenges, and proposed future directions of PIMPAC: 25 days
15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments.
This is a new program.
16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.
Upon completion of the evaluation survey, the results will be reported to NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program following the Program’s Publication and Data Management Requirements:
The Public Access to Research Results (PARR) is a White House memorandum (Feb. 2013) created in support of the idea that citizens deserve easy access to the results of research that have been paid for with tax dollars. In order to meet the requirements established by PARR, NOAA has implemented a number of data management requirements for all programs collecting data. [internal projects that contract out work are required to follow these requirements]
Data Management Plan PD - The basics of this procedural directive state that all data being collected must be covered by a data management plan. There are two options for complying with this procedural directive:
You can submit your own data management plan (there is a template at the end of the Data Management Plan PD).
If you do not wish to submit your own data management plan, you will be covered by and expected to follow the CRCP Data Management Plan.
All peer-reviewed publications and grey literature that is part of a NOAA series must be submitted to the Institutional Repository. (submission form)
The following needs to be supplied:
For non-NOAA series articles, not published in an open access journal, a “clean” version (with no publisher formatting) of the final approved manuscript needs to be submitted.
Include the following information with the manuscript: title, contributors, date of publication, digital object identifier (DOI) and suggested keywords.
Please contact CoRIS when this is completed, or you have any questions. Make sure to include the associated project information with the deliverable.
All documents submitted to the Institutional Repository must be 508 compliant (see below)
Data must be publicly web accessible within one year from the end of collection. If a paper is published on the data within this one year it is required that the data be made available at the time of publication.
Make data available until deemed of no future value.
Archiving at NCEI fulfills all data access requirements. This is highly recommended.
Instruction for archiving can be found here. This is a living document and will be updated as needed.
Any deviation from these requirements requires a waiver that must be signed by the CRCP Program Manager.
Metadata is required for all projects producing any data.
CRCP metadata requirements can be found here.
508 Compliance
All published documents must be 508 compliant
Library guidance for word and pdf compliance
More detailed and all encompassing Microsoft Word guidance
17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.
Not applicable.
18. Explain each exception to the certification statement.
Not applicable.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | Richard Roberts |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-15 |