Africa boosts planning to succeed in development

  BY STAFF REPORTER

 As one common saying among management personnel goes “Failing to plan is tantamount to planning t fail” It clearly depicts the vital role of planning realizing important feats like development.  Planning plays such a meaningful role not only at such a nation or continent level, but also individual level too. Hence, the seriousness and quality of plan also determines the success or the desired outcome of a certain task. From this it is easy to understand how important the quality of planning is for a continent that aspires to score rapid development.

 Development Planning is the creation of measurable goals to support an employee’s career. This includes defining how to achieve a goal and the time frame within which this should be done.  Managers work with employees to document both their career goals and their personal goals. They then identify the skills and competencies required to achieve these. Regular check-ins are scheduled throughout the year to monitor progress and provide constructive feedback.

 Development Planning includes making an action plan to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. The development success of the continent mainly relies on the success of each member country. Therefore, the extent to which the member states are in line with uniform, compatible standard of planning also helps significantly in speeding up the continents developmental journey.

 In the past couple of weeks the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa has also been conducting training for more than 100 participants drawn from 25 African countries (Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia) have been following the course on “New Approaches to Sustainable Development Planning”.

 According to Press Release from UNECA the six-week bilingual course is in its third edition covering the period from 3rd April to 3rd June 2023, this time in the context of the challenges facing the continent – the climate crisis, post-Covid-19 recovery, conflicts, declining official development aide and debt –

 As such, and centred around a new planning approach called “Goal and Deliverable Based Planning (GDBP)”, the course aims to equip participants with the knowledge and techniques required to design, implement, monitor and evaluate development plans that are easy to implement and that allow for the integration of both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, not to mention resilience to shocks and inclusion.

 At the end of the course, participants are expected to understand GFP/L and its relevance to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. They will also learn more about the Integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit (IPRT) developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and its usefulness in monitoring the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

 This asynchronous course is in line with the discussions and recommendations of the eighth session of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, held in Kigali from 3 to 5 March 2022nd , on the theme: “Building a better future: A green, inclusive and resilient Africa, ready to reliver on Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063”.

 As in previous years, the 2023 edition of this course is placed under the direction of Dr. Corneille Agossou, International consultant in strategic planning and international economics, with the support of the tutor Paul Abete. In order to increase the efficiency of the course, direct exchanges are organized between the participants as well as with the pedagogical team, through dedicated discussion forums for each module of the course. This provides an additional opportunity for in-depth exchanges on the topics studied. Similarly, webinars, or live sessions, are organized with the participation of renowned external speakers and experts.

The first webinar, moderated by the course Director, was held on Wednesday 12 April 2023 and focused on “Introduction to development planning: Basic concepts, issues, challenges and main approaches”. In his speech, the course Director emphasized, among other things, the main issues at stake in any transformational planning and recalled the urgency of making changes in the elaboration of national development plans in order to improve their effectiveness.

 Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald

 THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 19 APRIL 2023

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