Nigeria

UNDP Organises Workplanning and Procurement Training Meeting For Federal & State Partners

It was strategic thinking and planning time as development partners from the 18 UNDP-supported states some 30 Federal agencies gathered at the UN House from 12 – 15 February 2008, at the instance of National Planning Commission and United Nations Development Programme to fashion out the work and procurement plan for the year 2008.

Group Work:  Participants at the meeting brainstorm to produce their State draft work plan.

For Lawrence Udemgba, who chairs the Energy and Environment Committee in Abia State, it was an eye opener as to the inner workings of an international organisation.  “This has been a very useful meeting.  I learnt a lot – how to prepare work plans and how donor agencies run their projects,” he said. The experience he said will help accelerate programme implementation in Abia State.

In his welcome remarks, Secretary to the National Planning Commission, Professor Sylvester Monye, represented by the Director of International Relations, Mrs Bagaya, recalled that the Federal Government and UNDP had agreed make 2008 a bridging year before the next Programme Cycle in 2009.  The objective of the meeting he said was to come up with a work plan that would focus on completion of the most strategic outstanding actions required to achieve the goals set out in the 6th Country Programme.  “Transforming commitments into concrete reality will require the dedication, focus and collective will of all of us whom our country, Nigeria, has bestowed with the responsibility of directing the course of our nation’s planning.  We must therefore not lose focus and must not fail in this onerous responsibility,” he charged the participants.

On his part, UNDP Resident Representative, Dr. Alberic Kacou, in his remarks said the broad goals of the meeting was to build a stronger partnership between states, Federal agencies and UNDP through joint planning.  The meeting, he said, “provided an opportunity to take a critical look at steps to be taken to further improve on the quality and effectiveness of our programmes during the bridging year”.  To make the process easier, the core priority areas of focus identified for 2008 were put in clusters with options to programme and implement packages that are of strategic value and would deliver results.

The 120 participants at the highly interactive meeting discussed the priority areas of focus as well as the resource profile and budget ceiling for 2008; they were taken through programme procurement planning, and procurement guidelines and procedures as well as studied the guidance note on work planning.  Thereafter, the participants broke into groups according to the four UNDP practice areas, Governance and Human rights, Poverty reduction, Energy and environment and response to HIV/AIDS.  At the end of two days of intensive group work, Federal and States’ Workplans were finalized and signed off for implementation, to begin in March 2008.