Sub-Regional Resource Facility for Arab States

In-house expertise: SURF-Arab States’ Mutual Support Initiative

By Sonya Knox (SURF-Arab States)

Imagine you've been working with a project for over a year, but somehow something's just not quite right. You need a fresh set of eyes, and the advice of someone with a more technical background, to help the project enter its second phase and make it truly sustainable. However, there's no money for a consultant. If you're working in a UNDP Arab States CO, then the Mutual Support Initiative (MSI) can help.

An innovative endeavour by UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States and the Sub-Regional Resource Facility – Arab States, the MSI capitalizes on UNDP’s vast in-house expertise by fostering intra-regional knowledge and experience-sharing.

“There are so many skills and capacities within the COs of the Arab States region,” says Ramla Khalidi, Deputy Chief at SURF-AS, who manages the MSI on behalf of the Regional Bureau. “The MSI is about tapping into, and maximizing, the potential of the region by providing an opportunity for staff from COs to help one another. It also provides great learning opportunities.”

In short, through the MSI the UNDP COs in the Arab region can use other UNDP CO staff for in-house consultancies, trainings and support missions at no cost to them – with DSA and travel costs covered by the MSI. An incentive award system is also in place, to reward those Country Offices for sending their staff on intra-region support missions.

Currently in its second year, the MSI has recently been used in missions ranging from in-house training on Bank Reconciliation, to advising a Joint Needs Assessment in conflict-sensitive outputs, to leading e-discussions on governance issues. The Somalia CO has received expertise from Yemen, South Sudan from Bahrain, Algeria from Tunisia, SURF-AS from PAPP, and – expanding outside the region – Nigeria from Somalia.

Earlier this year, Yemen’s Economics Advisor, Mohammad Pournik, undertook an MSI mission to Somalia to support the CO in its Joint Needs Assessment for Results-Based Matrices. Given the complexity of the situation in Somalia, Mohammad found that “my role was not to do the work – the Somalia CO knows the context. So I didn’t replicate what others do, but rather worked in partnership with them. The results were proposals relevant to the reality of the governmental situation, but with more concrete outputs.” Basically, he continued, “I focused on coming up with outcomes and outputs that people could relate to – showing results, not activities.”

David Bassiouni, UN Senior Technical Coordinator for the Somalia JNA, explained that, “Mohammad’s most significant contribution to the Somali JNA was in advising and guiding the UN and WB Cluster Leaders/Advisors to master the technique and skills for prioritizing and costing the Results-Based Matrix (RBMs).”

Although the mission took place in April, Mohammad has continued to support the CO through desktop support. In June, he was brought back to the Somalia CO by the Somalia JNA Project. “I am constantly in touch with the office and we have established a continuing relationship – this was not a one-off experience.” Administrating the MSI was “simple,” according to Mohammad, “there weren’t any technical difficulties or fancy paperwork.”

Mounir Kleibo is a Program Analyst at PAPP, responsible for the TOKTEN portfolio and working on issues of democratic governance. Mounir recently started a month-long MSI mission, working with SURF-AS’ Governance Institutions Policy Advisor Noha el-Mikawy. Mounir is supporting Noha in HURIST, human rights-based programming in the Arab region, and will be moderating e-discussions in the regional community of practice on parliamentary strengthening.

“The MSI is a great way to build on the collaboration and cooperation that already existed,” Mounir explained. “I’m very excited to benefit from greater exposure to all the exciting projects within the region.

“The MSI,” Mounir continued, “provides me with a wealth of knowledge and experience; it offers me a unique opportunity to further investigate my personal and institutional capacities within the context of democratic governance.” Administratively, the MSI “worked smoothly,” said Mounir. “It’s really impressive teamwork.”

Shalet Pais, Finance Associate at UNDP Bahrain, helped the South Sudan CO in January to implement their Bank Reconciliation. “I focused on the reconciliation of the Global Payroll,” she explained, “and on accounts receivable for the recording of bank charges and direct journal deposits.” As much of the finance staff were new to the ATLAS system, Shalet “also conducted an in-house training session on the process of Bank Reconciliation.”

Describing Shalet’s mission as “excellent,” South Sudan Operations Manager Biswash Gauchan said, “her presence and role have been useful in providing hands-on input and confidence to our staff in concluding the process.” He added that MSI missions “help resolve problems faced by new UNDP units or large offices where some of the issues are pending for a long time”. 

Since her MSI mission, Shalet has maintained contact with South Sudan’s finance staff, answering queries and troubleshooting issues related to Bank Reconciliation. Organizing the mission through MSI was effortless, she said, “it’s a very useful, effective and efficient tool, and easily accessible.”