S. Sudan showcases capacity building efforts at trade fair
September 25, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s government on Thursday pledged its commitment to build and strengthen the capacity of its workforce, stressing it would do all that was required to stimulate effective production.
Hellen Achiro, the acting undersecretary in the labour and public service ministry, said her department was closely working with development partners to devise way of developing labour policies and strategies to improve performance in public and private sectors.
“The ministry is looking at holistic approach to improve performance. We are putting in place policies and strategies to harmonise all the efforts at different levels to increase productivity,” Achiro told reporters in the capital, Juba.
She commended development partners for providing technical assistances in form of training to build capacities of government employees at different levels of the country.
In a separate development, Pact South Sudan successfully concluded a capacity development trade fair, which brought together over 150 participants comprising of government officials, donors, civil society entities and non-governmental workers.
“This is a unique and memorable moment, where all of us from different parts of South Sudan have come together to exchange ideas. You have given us much and you are creating a lot of change within us which will go up to the last beneficiaries,” Ramadan Adam, the director of Women’s Organization for Food Basket (WOFB) said.
Richard Hoffman, the country director for Pact South Sudan, said he was optimistic that the initiative would grow into greater levels and realise its objectives.
“It is excellent that various spaces such as this meeting today and online efforts via the associated portal are being created where forces of demand and supply can come into play, where individuals and groups with great plans and ideas can be introduced to each other and learn more about service providers who can help make those dreams come true,” he observed.
The fair was an element of the National Civil Society Organisation Capacity Development (NCSO) project, a three-year initiative funded by the Swedish government.
Through market-based approaches, the NCSO project reportedly contributes to the development of an accountable and engaged civil society in South Sudan by increasing the ability of civil society entities to be self-directed representatives of what their constituents require.
(ST)