Throughout the day, the different units from Senegal’s Direction Générale de la Planification et des Politiques Économiques (DGPPE) – in English, “the General Directorate of Planning and Economic Policies – met in cross-departmental small groups. By the end of the day they had reviewed, revised, and technically validated the key indicators contained in the Development Strategic Plan and reviewed various elements in the Contract Performance Review.
As the workshop was ending, a frequently heard comment was, “Why haven’t we worked this way before?”
The Senegal Feed the Future Program for Increasing Investment in Agriculture in Africa, implemented by Africa Lead, supported and facilitated a one-day, in-house, Key Indicators Finalization Workshop for the 10 units from the DGPPE.
The workshop, held on March 26, 2019 in Dakar, brought together 26 participants and included staff from administration, planning, human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and technical teams.
DGPPE is the government division responsible for providing oversight of the processes of economic integration as outlined in the Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PSE), the country’s national development economic and social policy strategic program.
Situated within the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning (MEPF), the DGPPE was created in 2014 as part of Senegal’s major overhaul of a number of key governmental units as part of the launch of the PSE. The PSE is the Senegalese government’s blueprint for achieving its goal of increasing annual GDP growth and becoming an emerging market economy country, that is, one that has low to middle per capita income, by 2035.
The one-day, in-house DGPPE workshop, brought together staff from 10 different department units, among them administration, planning, human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and technical teams. Photo Credit/Africa Lead
Working together in mixed departmental groups was indeed a new way of working for the DGPPE team members. In the past, the different units, working separately, completed the indicators that fell under their responsibility and each did its own annual planning. These contributions were then sent to a third party who compiled the propositions into one document.
This workshop was a follow-up to the Strategic Visioning and Team-Building Workshop held on Jan. 10-11, 2019. That training helped lay the groundwork for this critical DGPPE Key Indicators Finalization meeting in terms of fostering among the staff greater appropriation of the division’s mission, as well as increased understanding about what each unit does, how they fit together, and the importance of breaking out of silos and working together holistically.
The first half of the day was focused on reviewing and verifying that the selected key indicators were in alignment with the definitions adopted by the DGPPE, including a review of certain key concepts and terminology and the presentation of the overall development strategic plan. The second half of the day centered on completing all the remaining indicators.
In addition to finalizing the 2019 Annual Work Plan, the staff also spent time discussing future goals and needs in terms of capacity strengthening and organizational development.
Africa Lead will continue to support the DGPPE in its implementation of its 2019 Annual Work Plan and as it looks forward to the future.