Africa Lead (also known as PREG Learning) facilitated the FY19 ‘speed dating’ joint work planning workshop for USAID’s Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth (PREG) on 9 August 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. Thirty-one participants, representing 15 partner organizations and USAID attended the workshop.
Held for the second consecutive year, the overall goal of the ‘speed dating’ workshop was to provide a platform for partners to share and identify opportunities for collaboration, and common program areas and activities in FY19 work plans.Africa Lead (also known as PREG Learning) facilitated the FY19 ‘speed dating’ joint work planning workshop for USAID’s Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth (PREG) on 9 August 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. Thirty-one participants, representing 15 partner organizations and USAID attended the workshop.
The first session of the workshop involved a reflection on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned in the joint implementation of action items identified by different partner organizations during the 2017 workshop. Each PREG partner presented results and achievements, gaps and opportunities, and priority activities for FY19 for each respective program. “Last year, Kenya-RAPID and SERVIR identified an opportunity for collaboration during the speed dating workshop. Since then, we have successfully used SERVIR’s satellite technology expertise to install sensors on water boreholes. This has made it easier for our staff and communities to monitor individual boreholes and ensure timely repairs to dysfunctional boreholes,” said Beatrice Akinyi, Kenya-RAPID’s Agriculture and Nutrition Advisor.
During the ‘speed dating’ session, each partner identified at least two partners with whom they had opportunities for collaboration and discussed concrete ways in which they would partner to implement them in FY19. The outcomes of the individual dates including priority areas of action, responsibilities and timelines were presented to the wider group.
Towards the closing of the workshop, Dr. George Wamwere-Njoroge of the Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) project presented the successes, results, and lessons learned during the implementation of the project as approaches the end of its cycle later this year. “Our project began when PREG was already present in our counties of operation. We benefited tremendously from being part of this network which had already laid some of the groundwork with the county governments and beneficiary communities. We would not have enjoyed some of the significant successes in the implementation of our activities if not for PREG,” he said.
At the end of the workshop, partners agreed to review the progress of implementation of the action plans on a quarterly basis during the monthly national PREG meeting. In her closing remarks, Dorine Genga, USAID’s PREG Learning Activity Manager, noted, “It is encouraging to see that partners have found value in the speed dating exercise. The action plans developed today for inclusion in individual partner work plans are the principle tool for securing budget allocations for the implementation of joint activities, and will help us achieve the best results and meet our overall goal; building resilient and food secure communities in northern Kenya.”