INT0085: REGIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON PROJECT DESIGN FOR NATIONAL PROJECT COUNTERPARTS IN AFRICA

Within the framework of the Formulation of the Technical Cooperation Programme 2012-2013, the Division for Africa in collaboration with the Division of Programme Support and Coordination, organized two Regional Training Courses on Project Planning and Design for National Project Counterparts for English and French-speaking countries.

The Regional Training Course for English-speaking countries took place from 17 to 21 January 2011 in Accra, Ghana under the auspices of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) meanwhile the Regional Training Course for French-speaking countries took place from 31 January to 03 February 2011 in Algiers, Algeria under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Commission (COMENA).

The Training Course in Ghana which was officially opened by the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology brought together more than 70 national project counterparts from 23 Member States meanwhile the Training Course in Algiers officially opened by the Commissioner of COMENA was attended by 63 project counterparts from 17 Member States.

The objective of the training was to enhance the effectiveness of the technical cooperation programme by sharing best practises for the design of the national projects and management of TC projects across Africa.

In order to achieve the above, both training courses included a balanced combination of presentations in plenary sessions and case-studies in working groups. The presentations included inter alia, an overview of the TC programme planning, the objective, problem and stakeholder's analysis, the Logical Framework Approach, workplan/budget development, monitoring and reporting and the PCMF. The working group sessions using real-life national project concepts enabled the participants to apply the knowledge and skills acquired through the presentations to develop high quality project designs using the national project document template and the PCMF platform.

Through these training courses, there has been a common understanding of the terminology, process and logical approach required for the formulation of quality project designs. it is expected that National Project Counterparts whose national concepts have been proposed for design have the required knowledge and skills to submit project designs of high quality which will include the required design criteria i.e relevance, ownership, sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency.