Contacts
In Berlin: In Berlin/Bonn: Andreas Baaden, +49-0228-4460-1771 andreas.baaden@inwent.org In Washington: Christopher Neal (202) 473-4029 cneal1@worldbank.org BERLIN, July 9, 2008 – Senior officials responsible for professional and staff training at 30 national institutes, universities, bilateral and multilateral development organizations, including the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, issued a statement today outlining their consensus on future directions for training and capacity-building. The “Berlin Statement”, named for the site of the meeting at which it was drafted last month, will be submitted to the upcoming OECD “High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness” in Accra, Ghana, September 2-4. “This statement is an important step to set up collaboration,” said Acting Vice President of the World Bank Institute Rakesh Nangia. “Capacity-building is the glue that holds the elements of development together, and by aligning our interventions, we will make them more effective.” The statement includes seven key points of agreement by delegates to a June 4-5 conference on “Effectiveness of International Development Training” hosted in Berlin by InWEnt – Capacity Building International, and the World Bank Institute. Together, these points affirm that life-long learning is essential for individuals and countries to compete successfully. They also recognize that the world’s leading training institutes must join forces to deliver effective capacity-building that meets the goals of global development assistance. “We cannot go on just doing what we have been doing so far. Investing in sustainability and ownership through national and regional training centres would mean a major improvement in effectiveness,” said InWEnt Managing Director Gudrun Kochendörfer-Lucius. The Berlin Statement complements a consensus reached at a workshop in Bonn May 15-16 hosted by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), at which delegates from South and North committed to sustained and comprehensive efforts on capacity development. The Berlin Statement contains the following key points of agreement: 1. Effectiveness - Training in the context of capacity development Training must be integrated with a comprehensive capacity development approach to effectively address capacity gaps in organizations and institutions. Effectiveness of training depends also on trained staff being retained by institutions, so as to strengthen them. 2. Guidelines for the development of training programs In international training for development, there is a strong need for general directions on training cycle management to guide training institutions worldwide. 3. Metrics - Indicators and evaluation of training Research is needed on the metrics of training programs to improve monitoring of results, and to facilitate learning about what works best in different contexts. Metrics need to be formulated on the basis of general guidelines agreed between partner governments and donors. Development Training Institutes (DTIs) must also seek ways to share methodologies and results of training evaluations. 4. Country Ownership - Strengthening training institutions Promising approaches to strengthen existing national training institutes are: Supporting national champions and for centers of excellence, and linking them to DTIs; training of trainers; making increasing use of national training experts in DTIs’ own programs; and providing salary and budget support to improve staff retention rates. 5. Alignment - Partner country needs assessments DTIs need to align their practices to partner countries’ needs assessment systems. All partners need to have a development strategy that includes identifying local institutions and stakeholders to participate in assessments linked to results and clear priorities. 6. Harmonization - International division of labor DTIs agree on the need to improve harmonization of their work to reduce duplication and burdens on partners, and to build synergies among themselves. 7. Collaboration - Joint content development, sharing rosters, didactic approaches & training formats International development training materials developed with public funds should be disseminated as widely as possible. Sharing existing materials or expert rosters would be an effective first step for collaboration. “The effectiveness of the international capacity building agenda can be enhanced through synergy with institutions such as the African Development Bank or the African Capacity Building Initiative,” said Ghana’s former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey. “Developing national and regional training centres should become a part of the harmonization efforts for training programs.” Training experts from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), bilateral agencies such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and professionals from training institutes from around the world attended the conference.
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