The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) trained key Ugandan government officials during a four (4) day applied training program on the integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit (IPRT), from 23 – 26 May 2023, in Kampala, Uganda. The training was organized by the Development Planning Section of the Macroeconomics&Governance Division, in collaboration with the National Planning Authority of Uganda (NPA).
Countries are signatory to various global agendas such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) (or Addis Agenda) on Financing for Development (FfD), and the Doha Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries. Many African countries are also signatories to regional agendas such as Agenda 2063 – the Africa we want. To ensure implementation of these commitments, countries must align and integrate these agendas into their national development plans. Integrated development planning frameworks that: reflect countries national development plans, and varied regional and global commitments, targets, and goals; are aligned with financial frameworks; appropriately identify catalytic and transformational interventions; and are continually tracked and calibrated to respond to emerging crises and shocks are vital for ensuring value-for money in the use of national resources.
Mr. Bartholomew Armah, Chief of the Development Planning Section, noted that “the follow-up training came at a time when countries are grappling with the interlocking impacts of Covid-19, the Ukraine-Russian conflict, and an uptick in extreme weather events occasioned by climate change. Incidentally these events are unfolding as we approach the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda.” He also emphasized that while “strengthening development planning capacities is no panacea for achieving the SDGs, Agenda 2063 or national development priorities, appropriately designed development plans increase the chances of realizing these objectives.”
Ms Rekha Shrestha, representing the UN Resident Coordinator for Uganda in the opening session, expressed pleasure that the capacity building training was being organized, and noted that it was a testament of Uganda’s continued commitment to implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Uganda had previously been trained on the desktop version of the IPRT. Since then, improved IPRT functionalities including enabling a digital web-based version and a module that enables member states to align the NDP with their budgets had been added. The training comes at an opportune time for the country which had just carried out a mid-term review of its National Development Plan III (NDP III) and kick started the development of its National Development Plan IV (NDP IV). The training, which was based on NDP III, provided key insights for participants on how to streamline their results framework, check and track alignment of the NDP III at goal, target and indicator levels with the SDGs and Agenda 2063.
Government representatives expressed satisfaction with the training and the insights it provided on aligning NDPs with varying agendas and ensuring a robust monitoring and evaluation framework. Mr Charles Oleny Ojok, the Deputy Executive Director, NPA noted that the training will be useful for the formulation of NDP IV and affirmed the need to institutionalize the IPRT for sustainability purposes. He further observed that the IPRT will come in handy to forge closer links between budgeting and planning.
The IPRT has already been deployed in 28 member States and one Regional Economic Community (SADC) with ongoing efforts to ensure its use by other countries on the continent. The countries that have so far engaged with the IPRT with the support of ECA are: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia (Republic of The), Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
