By Augustine Octavius,augustineoctavius@gmail.com
Efforts are underway by the Liberian government with the support of the United Nations in the validation of the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development Indicators and Data collection Tools with support from the United Nations.
A discussion on this, which lasted for a couple of days, has ended in port city of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, some 88 miles east of Monrovia.
It brought stakeholders, including spending entities from ministries and agencies, directors and senior staffs of Ministry Finance and Development Plannin who discussed on how to enhance reporting on SDGs and the Agenda 2063.
The validation process was held under the theme: “Strengthening data Collection Platform for PAPD Monitoring and Evaluation to Enhance Reporting on SDGs and the Agenda 2063 Implementation Readiness, Monitoring and Evaluation Strengthening.”
This is in line with the ‘manual’ and will serve as a guide to convene working pending entities intern of project reporting actors within the ministry.
The stakeholders reviewed and updated of various working tools and template developed by the Department of Budget and Development Planning to be used during the five years implementation period of PAPD.
The discussion led to the validation of the proposed national key indicators of the Pro-Poor agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD.)
Making remarks at the ceremony, the Assistant Minister for Development Planning, Benedict Kolubah said the discussion will help improve the planning, implementation and monitoring processes of the national development plan, while at the same time reduce government, NGOs and development partners’ processing time.
“This is a validation that brings about increase sense of ownership on us and allow us to focus on the job we have to do,’’ Assistant Minister. Kolubah said.
The PAPD is being rolled-out by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
This national development plan of the CDC government of President George Manneh Weah was launched in October 2018, thus seeking to create better living conditions for Liberians.
According to him, the vision of the president is being led under the leadership of Finance and Development Planning Minister. Samuel Tweah, who is mandated by the president to focus on the indicators of the national development plan of the PAPD; a development plan aligned with the SDGs and the agenda 2063.
“In the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development,” Minister Kolubah went on.
“We have targets and indicators that every line ministries and agencies are responsible to produce those data national development plan,” the Assistant Finance Minister explained.
The Assistant Minister was hopeful that at the end of the validation, tools that are used to collect data at various ministries and agencies will aligned with the agenda of the PAPD over the next five years.
In addition, he said the data collection tools will clearly guide all relevant agencies on how information is gathered and use.
The validation gathering was organized by the Department of Budget and Development planning at the Finance Ministry, with support from the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).