UNDP rolls out ‘new Roadmap’ for Sierra Leone Country Programme 

In line with National Development Priorities, the Country Programme Document lays out the plans and strategies UNDP will employ to compliment the Sierra Leone’s efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Freetown, 27 January 2020: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sierra Leone officially launched the roll-out of its next Country Programme Document (CPD) which covers the years 2020 – 2023. As part of its implementation process, UNDP in Sierra Leone is also carrying out a ‘CPD rollout and capacity strengthening exercise’ from 26^th to 31^st January 2020.

The aim of the rollout exercise is to better prepare the Country Office (CO) and its partners to successfully launch and implement the CPD. The exercise will ensure a common understanding and a clear implementation roadmap as well as the skills and tools for designing programmes and projects to achieve the CPD results in Sierra Leone over the 4-year period.

The exercise seeks to achieve the following objectives among others:

·       Reflect and highlight key lessons learned from the concluding CPD and their application to the new CPD. Drawing on the CPD evaluation report and key recommendations from the audit reports the COST and RBM team will facilitate discussion on the critical lessons from the implementation of the past CPD and how these could inform the new CPD.  This will be undertaking during the planned workshop.  Ahead of the workshop the CO will share a summary of lessons learned from the reports as well as reflections undertaken during the design of the CPD.

·       Design and agree with partners a roadmap for the development of portfolios, programmes, and project: Based on the lessons from the concluding CPD, a new portfolio/programme/project architecture and implementation roadmap will be developed and agreed.  The exercise will also identify potential areas of portfolio/pipeline growth and mechanisms for system-wide expertise to support concretization of the concepts into joint or targeted projects documents, as well as sound project management.

·       Review and where needed streamline the CO Partnership and Communication Action Plan (PCAP) in close collaboration with partners.

·       Design and validate a robust strategy and architecture for accounting for results. 

·       Design and agree an implementation strategy and action plan for the CPD Cycle.

Expertise comprising of quality assurance and compliance, results-based management, partnership and resource mobilization specialists from UNDP’s Regional Service Bureau for Africa led the exercise along with programme colleagues from the CO under the guidance of the Resident Representative and the Deputy Resident Representative who is also in charge of programmes.

The UNDP Executive Board approved the Sierra Leone CPD (2020 -2023) on 4 September 2019. The goal of the programme is to support the people of Sierra Leone to eradicate poverty and build resilience to disasters (man-made or natural) and climate change shocks. Prepared in consultation with national partners, the programme will contribute to the goals of the 2019-2023 Medium-Term National Development Plan (MT-NDP). 

The CPD is organized in two interdependent clusters: a) inclusive democratic governance (IDG) and sustainability and local economic development (SLED). Total resources committed to the CPD priorities is estimated at US$102.215 million over the 4-year period, with an average annual resource envelop commitment of US$ 18.6 million—mostly from non-core resources.

The MT-NDP titled, Education for Development, aims to bolster human capital development as a fundamental pathway to achieving middle-income status by 2035 and the Sustainable Development by 2030. The MT-NDP has eight policy clusters: 1) Human capital development; 2) Diversifying the economy and promoting growth, 3) Infrastructure and economic competitiveness, 4) Governance and accountability for results, 5) Empowering women, children, adolescents, and persons with disability, 6) Youth employment, sports, and migration, 7) Addressing vulnerabilities and building resilience, and 8) means of implementation.  The MT-NDP is fully aligned with the SDGs and the Africa Agenda 2063.

Specifically, the CPD is UNDP’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) jointly developed with the UN Country Team (UNCT) and the Government of Sierra Leone.  The UNSDCF is the collective contribution of the UNCT to the MT-NDP, as well as, in achieving the SDGs in Sierra Leone.  It seeks to contribute to four interdependent development solutions: a) promoting sustainable agriculture, food and nutrition, and strengthening resilience to prevent the adverse effects of climate change; b) transformational governance for inclusive and accountable institutions and sustaining peace; c) access to quality basic services with strong focus on the government’s flagship programme for free quality school education and human capital development; and d) empowering vulnerable groups to be included in the economy.

“The UNDP Country Programme Document is a tool that will support effective implementation of both UNDP and the country’s national development plan. The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development is fully committed to ensure that all programmes designed in the 2019-2023 CPD are fully implemented, therefore, the National Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (NAMET) among other things, will ensure that implementation challenges are identified and addressed at early stage to increase the rate of delivery to the people; support effective coordination at district level; ensure that one sector is not oversubscribed against others; and trigger commencement of annual development plans”. Remarks of Sierra Leone’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development at the event. 

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For media enquiries and more information please contact:
1. Helen Mayelle (helen.mayelle@undp.org)
Communications Analyst, UNDP Sierra Leone, +232-78605355

2. Mohamed Kanu (mohamed.kanu@undp.org)
Communications Associate, UNDP Sierra Leone, +232-78605355

Note to Editors

Notable participants who joined UNDP staff members at the official launch of the CPD rollout exercise including representatives from the Government of Sierra Leone, Civil Society, and Sister-UN Agencies including:

1. The UN Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone

2. The Country Director World Food Programme in Sierra Leone

3. The Minister for Planning and Economic Development

4. Chief Justice of Judiciary of Sierra Leone

5. Clerk of Parliament

6. Commissioner, National Youth Commission

7. Director, Sierra Leone Correctional Services

8. Chair, National electoral Commission (a.i)

9. Office of the Vice President

10. Directorate of Environment

11. Department of Disaster Management, Office of National Security

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