Dates: 23 February - 7 March 2009
Place: Oshakati, Namibia
Background
The UNCRD Africa Office, in collaboration with the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD), Government of Namibia and the Finnish Government organized and implemented the first and second phase of a Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop on Regional Development Policy and Practices in Windhoek, Namibia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Seventy-five participants drawn from the various regions of Namibia and other line ministries were trained. The training courses aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of Namibia in regional development planning and management and supporting the ongoing policy reforms of the country for effective decentralization, accelerating economic growth, reducing existing socioeconomic and regional imbalances, alleviating poverty, and enhancing sustainable development. During the training courses, the participants were introduced to the concepts and theories of regional development and project planning and management as well as data collection and analysis. The training course also introduced the participants to budgeting issues and the principles of bookkeeping and accounting for effective regional development. The participants were also trained on techniques of TOT and prepared a re-entry plan that would assist them in organizing similar training courses upon return to their respective workstations.
Following the successful completion of the previous two training courses, UNCRD and the Government of Namibia will organize the third phase of the training course in Oshakati from 23 February to 7 March 2009.
Objectives
The main objective of the current training workshop is to train the Namibian planners on effective regional development policies and practices. More specifically, the training workshop aims at:
- Providing the participants with understanding, skills, knowledge, and access to information that will enable them to perform their tasks competently;
- Supporting the establishment of a regional-based decentralized and participatory regional planning and development framework;
- Training planners in regional development planning so as to enable them to establish a mechanism for guiding and coordinating the decentralization process;
- Enhancing the capacity of the planners in project planning and management; and
- Training the participants in data collection and analysis; budgeting and basic principles of book-keeping and accounting.
(Office: UNCRD Africa Office)