Rolling Out Training 

The new CCA/UNDAF guidelines are out.

Prepared over the last couple of months by an inspired inter-agency, multi-lingual, gender-balanced, multi-ethnic team of upper-mid-level UN staff, consolidating lessons and inputs from everyone who cared to comment.

Ok, the guidelines are a consensus document with all the associated deficiencies. But they are non-controversial, politically correct, employ reasonably plain language and don’t contradict agency specific procedures.

And now the headache begins…. The roll-out monster is going to take its toll on precious resources, travel budgets, and staff time.

And I wonder: Why can’t the Resident Coordinators, Country Representatives, and Senior Programme Officers just download the guidance and get on with it? Why do they need another bunch of facilitators, trainers and consultants to read the guidelines to them? 

Is there anybody who would not understand that to achieve agreement on the analysis of a situation is the first step in programming – something the CCA is meant to do? And why would anybody think that country representatives should not sit together, prioritise and divide up the needed work among their agencies – which the UNDAF is about? What do facilitators know that we don’t expect studied and experienced representatives and senior staff to know as part of their regular work? 

I am going to talk this training business over with my buddies. And decide whether we need a facilitator to structure our discussion[1].

[1] I am supportive of well designed learning strategies for new staff that may involve training. But why would any team with a collective development experience of over 50 years need training whenever some rules change?

(21 November 2003)

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