On 28th of July, 2006 the Project Progress Review Meeting was held in participation of Ms. Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecka, UNDP Resident Representative a.i., Mr. Sergei Volkov, Senior Programme Manager, Mr. Jaysingh Sah, International Project Manager, and UNDP/MGSDP team members.
Progress report of UNDP/MGSDP was presented by Jaysingh Sah covering various dimensions of the Programme activities for the period January-July 2006 in the framework of the annual workplan for 2006. Specifically, the Programme was found to have managed 62.5% delivery against actual cash (available) fund; satisfactory progress in terms of physical targets except for economic (SME/micro-credit) component, satisfactory level of utilisation of resources from various donors, namely SDC, NET, UNDP and municipality, raising public awareness on various aspects such as HIV/AIDS, gender, UMDG etc. and enhancing their access to municipal information. A list of key opportunities and challenges facing the Programme were presented. In this light, a budget revision was proposed. Also, delivery by the year end was forecasted to be 88.9%.
In course of discussion, it was recognized that the key Programme activity namely the small grants for community projects, was tied with joint funding of UNDP and the partner municipalities and faced constraints. Uncertainty was observed regarding timely transfer of resources from the municipalities to UNDP account as well as payment procedures at UNDP CO was felt to be lengthy. On the other hand, initiation on partnership development with key national government/non-government agencies such as UALRA, cabinet ministry, academic institutions for strengthening of participatory governance, knowledge base and national human resource development was considered to be worthwhile opportunity to exploit.
In his remarks, Sr. Programme Manager Sergei Volkov reiterated the procedural constraints for resource transfer. However, he suggested continuing follow up to the municipalities for meeting their obligation on cost sharing. He emphasized the need of forging partnership with the aforesaid institutions and recommended for budget revision with inclusion of appropriate activities and budget to exploit the opportunities.
In her final remarks, Ms. Joanna Kazana, UNDP Resident Representative a.i., commended the project team for bringing out positive results and appreciated the cooperation extended by the donors and partners at all level. She enquired about the public awareness on HIV/AIDS, gender etc. carried out by the Programme in greater length and informed about possibility, being considered by the management, for decentralisation of payment-process to the project level so as to facilitate faster payments. At the end, she made following suggestions to the project team for enhancement of the Programme effectiveness:
Taking into consideration the global experience and especially that of UNCDF regarding micro-credit, utmost care should be taken by the Programme while launching this activity in the partner municipalities;
Opportunity should be exploited for job creation especially through public-private partnership. The project must be in touch with the expert Elena Panova who is expected to arrive in near future to support UNDP Ukraine in this direction;
Success of the Programme lies in mobilizing national resources (from municipalities). The Programme should share its experience through learning sessions to other UNDP-projects in Ukraine;
The Programme should continue raising public awareness on HIV/AIDS, gender etc. To maximize effectiveness, it should develop synergy with related projects of UNDP and other national/international agencies in the same field.
Progress report of UNDP/MGSDP was presented by Jaysingh Sah covering various dimensions of the Programme activities for the period January-July 2006 in the framework of the annual workplan for 2006. Specifically, the Programme was found to have managed 62.5% delivery against actual cash (available) fund; satisfactory progress in terms of physical targets except for economic (SME/micro-credit) component, satisfactory level of utilisation of resources from various donors, namely SDC, NET, UNDP and municipality, raising public awareness on various aspects such as HIV/AIDS, gender, UMDG etc. and enhancing their access to municipal information. A list of key opportunities and challenges facing the Programme were presented. In this light, a budget revision was proposed. Also, delivery by the year end was forecasted to be 88.9%.
In course of discussion, it was recognized that the key Programme activity namely the small grants for community projects, was tied with joint funding of UNDP and the partner municipalities and faced constraints. Uncertainty was observed regarding timely transfer of resources from the municipalities to UNDP account as well as payment procedures at UNDP CO was felt to be lengthy. On the other hand, initiation on partnership development with key national government/non-government agencies such as UALRA, cabinet ministry, academic institutions for strengthening of participatory governance, knowledge base and national human resource development was considered to be worthwhile opportunity to exploit.
In his remarks, Sr. Programme Manager Sergei Volkov reiterated the procedural constraints for resource transfer. However, he suggested continuing follow up to the municipalities for meeting their obligation on cost sharing. He emphasized the need of forging partnership with the aforesaid institutions and recommended for budget revision with inclusion of appropriate activities and budget to exploit the opportunities.
In her final remarks, Ms. Joanna Kazana, UNDP Resident Representative a.i., commended the project team for bringing out positive results and appreciated the cooperation extended by the donors and partners at all level. She enquired about the public awareness on HIV/AIDS, gender etc. carried out by the Programme in greater length and informed about possibility, being considered by the management, for decentralisation of payment-process to the project level so as to facilitate faster payments. At the end, she made following suggestions to the project team for enhancement of the Programme effectiveness:
Taking into consideration the global experience and especially that of UNCDF regarding micro-credit, utmost care should be taken by the Programme while launching this activity in the partner municipalities;
Opportunity should be exploited for job creation especially through public-private partnership. The project must be in touch with the expert Elena Panova who is expected to arrive in near future to support UNDP Ukraine in this direction;
Success of the Programme lies in mobilizing national resources (from municipalities). The Programme should share its experience through learning sessions to other UNDP-projects in Ukraine;
The Programme should continue raising public awareness on HIV/AIDS, gender etc. To maximize effectiveness, it should develop synergy with related projects of UNDP and other national/international agencies in the same field.
