ILO Concludes Inter-regional Workshop on Country Programming in Dakar
Over 50 participants from came together to enhance their capacity in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating effective country programmes.
20 May 2024
DAKAR (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO) successfully concluded its inter-regional workshop on "Country Programming in the ILO: Stock-taking of recent Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) experiences in the context of the UN reform," held in Dakar from 14-17 May 2024.
The workshop gathered over 50 participants, including programme officers, monitoring and evaluation officers from around the world, and representatives from the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Senegal and the Regional UN Development Coordination Office.
The primary objective of the workshop was to strengthen the ILO's capacity to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate effective country programmes, with a particular focus on Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs).
This is a central element of the ILO’s results-based management approach as they serve to identify and work towards the priorities of national tripartite constituents. This effort is also essential to align ILO activities with the UN's Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
During the workshop, participants engaged in a series of interactive sessions, sharing experiences and best practices related to country programming. The sessions covered various aspects of the country programming cycle, including the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and communication of DWCPs. Participants also discussed the integration of ILO initiatives in UN Joint Workplans, resource mobilization, and the coordination of ILO specialists and development cooperation projects.
Fanfan Rwanyindo, ILO Regional Director for Africa, opened the workshop by emphasizing the importance of country programming in addressing the many crises faced by countries today. "In an ever-changing world, where economic, social and environmental dynamics interact in increasingly complex ways, country programming provides an indispensable framework for identifying the specific priorities of our national constituents and working on their behalf in a concerted and effective way," she said.
Mohui Jiang, Director of the ILO’s Strategic Programming and Management Department, highlighted the critical need to accelerate efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "We are facing a lot of crises today which have contributed to the SDGs being badly off track. To overcome this, the ILO has been working to strengthen country-level programming for the past five years to deliver better results. So, now is to time to come together and take stock of the lessons learned to find common solutions for the future," Jiang remarked.
The workshop concluded with participants developing follow-up actions to apply and disseminate the knowledge gained. Additionally, the ILO aims to use the insights gathered to review and update its corporate guidance on country programming, ensuring a more robust and effective approach to advancing decent work and economic growth, including through the Global Coalition for Social Justice.