Stocktaking progress of SRECs I and II

1
Stocktaking progress of SRECs I and II

• Joseph Opio-Odongo
• Environmental Policy Specialist
• Nairobi, Kenya

2
Why the SRECs?

• Build a sub-community of practice in line with
  UNDPs KM for Sustainable development
• Inform the Environmental Focal Points at the CO
  level of new development within the Environment
  Practice and the delivery of GEF-funded projects
• Provide the Environmental Policy Specialists with
  a mechanisms for tailoring their services to the
  demands of the COs
• Enable members of the sub-community of practice
  share knowledge and experiences
• Build the skills of Environmental Focal Points
  for more effective backstopping of environmental
  and energy services in the programme countries

3
SREC I and II Workshops to date

• SREC 1 Workshop held in Nouakchott, Mauritania,
  11-14 March 2002 in pursuit of 4 Objectives
• Developing capacity of EFPs/SDAs
• Updating the EFPs/SDAS on trends in UNDP
  Programming
• Promoting better coordination and networking
  among UNDP units in delivering environmental
  services
• Improving mainstreaming of environment in UNDP
  Business Plans and country-level programming

4
SREC I and II Workshops to date (cont.)

• Methodologies used at the Nouakchott workshop
• Presentations by resource persons and discussions
• Group discussions including role playing
• Clinics for in-depth discussions
• Main conclusions and recommendations
• Increased awareness of new developments within
  the Environment and Energy practice
• Greater familiarity with nature and operations of
  new sub-regional and regional units with which
  the EFPs/SDAs could collaborate

5
SREC I and II Workshops to date (cont.)

• Main elements of the Nouakchott work plan
• Creating a mailing list for SREC 1
• Producing concept papers on at least three
  regional and/national projects addressing
  trans-boundary environmental problems in the
  drylands
• Produce and disseminate guidelines to assist COs
  in poverty-environment mainstreaming
• Providing COs with formats for conducting
  environmental advocacy
• Disseminating information on resource
  mobilization

6
SREC I and II Workshops to date (cont.)

• The Objectives of SREC II Workshops

7
SREC I and II Workshops to date (cont.)

• Methodologies used at the Yaoundé and Kigali
  Workshops
• Presentations by resource persons and discussions
  (both venues)
• Group discussions including role playing (both
  venues)
• Clinics for in-depth discussions (both venues)
• Field learning (Kigali)
• Main conclusions and recommendations
• More skill-building on estimating incremental
  costs of GEF projects
• The 3 execution fee earned by UNDP on GEF
  projects should help strengthen the substantive
  capacity of the CO Environment Unit
• Map areas of donor support to environment within
  the sub-region
• Exchange information of good practices and
  lessons learnt
• Committee/Focal points be established to foster
  sharing information on mainstreaming environment
  into programmes
• Share information on experiences with use of
  environmental indicators

8
Lessons learnt

• The SRECs remain relevant and valid KM tools for
  enhancing Sustainable Development in the region
• Need for better planning to enable the workshops
  have sharper focus, yield quality deliberations
  and create greater impact
• The SRECs have not adequately responded to the
  emerging development initiatives within the
  region the SRECs must resonate with these
  initiatives!
• Despites efforts made by COs ,GEF, SURFs and the
  DDC to finance the SRECs, the financial
  sustainability of the SRECs is at risk. Can we do
  better with GCF III this time around?
• The implementation record of work plans adopted
  at the SRECs is poor
• The visibility of the SRECs at the levels of the
  CO, the RBA and the BDP ranges from poor to fair
  and that is bad for a knowledge based
  organization that is
• Better use is yet to be made of the SREC mailing
  lists that were established to foster sharing of
  information on good practices and lessons learnt

9
Proposals

• Use the session on vision at the present workshop
  to do a serious SWOT on the SRECs to determine
  how best to anchor it on corporate priorities (KM
  and MDGs) and the development initiatives within
  the sub-region (e.g. NEPAD, AMCEN)
• Reflect on the modality of the SREC in order to
  sharpen focus, maximize on in-house facilitation
  capacity and aim at i impacting by incrementally
  resolving priority KM constraints to
  country-level delivering on SD
• Evolve a robust strategy to handle both the
  political visibility and financial sustainability
  of the SRECs, short of that it will continue to
  be difficulties to get the minds and money of
  those who control the funds within UNDP
• Use the SURF and EEG newsletters to popularize
  the SRECs

10
THANK YOU

• MAKE THE SRECs SHINE