BUCHANNA, Grand Bassa – United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in partnership with the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Wednesday began a two-day awareness and training workshop on National Aid and NGO policy and the Liberia Project Dashboard-LPD.
According to the organizers of the event, its main is to make sure that CSOs/NGOs fully grasp the major principle of the policy and system mentioned above with respect to users’ roles in the management and coordination of external assistance, and responsibilities in the flow of information for aid accountability.
The main objective of the training is to acquaint stakeholders with the major tenets of the National Aid and NGO Policy of Liberia, its role in the management and coordination of external assistance; the respective function of each stakeholder in ensuring the fulfilment of that role and sensitize stakeholders of the importance of systematically implementing the policy with emphasis on mutual accountability among others.
Making remarks, the Assistant Minister for External Resources and Debt Management at the Ministry of Finance, Barcon Vah, appreciated the UNDP for its commitment over the years at the same time thanking them for being the driver of Liberia’s development agenda.
“So, we are on a flight and the pilot of this flight is the UNDP assisted by the Ministry of Finance and the entire crew including representatives of various ministries and the counties; so CSOs, the NGOs and the INGOs are all boarding this flight,” exclaimed Min. Vah.
He continued: “so I want to again recognize the UNDP which has been very much supportive from the inception of this program up to present.”
He however called on the participants to be focused and understand the main reason for the training so that they[participants] can be able to apply the added knowledge in their different institutions.
“Get to know the objective and importance of this program; you cover long distances to be a part of this program not to merry-make but to know your role and function and to know exactly what you should be doing in your various counties of operation,” stressed Min Vah.
Representing the UNDP, the National program Specialist, Sidiki Quisia, thanked the Ministry of Finance for recognizing the role played by UNDP in supporting the National Aid and NGO policy of the country.
“ We are indeed aware that the relationship between us is long. When UNDP first arrived in Liberia years ago, there was an agreement signed with the government of Liberia at the time and that spelled out the different interactions, relationships and role the UNDP and GoL had to play in the development of Liberia,” explained Mr. Quisia.
Quisia stated that aside from soliciting funds for the government of Liberia he’s excited that the partnership has gone a step further as it relates to the direction of Aid into Liberia for the benefit of both the government and people.
“UNDP has been at the full front galvanizing support from the different community of development partners to support this process and we are happy that today the Aid platform is transitioning to the Liberia project dashboard
For her part, the Assistant Director of Bilateral Aid at the Ministry of Finance, Jamilatu Bah emphasized to participants that the awareness and training workshop is an exposure on how development projects are ongoing nationally.
“The training is mainly based on data related activities so we will take you through donor projects and then we will show you how to enter the Liberia project dashboard,” she explained.
Participants of the Workshop include Data Clerks from Civil Society Organizations, local and international NGOs as well as staff of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. It also brought together stakeholders of development assistance from Liberia’s 15 counties.