BACKGROUND
With the support of the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Mekong Institute (MI) is implementing the project on Capacity Building of Mekong Institute for Enhanced Secretarial Support and Development in the Mekong Region. The project’s goal is to strengthen MI’s internal capacities, its support to the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) and its reputation as an organisation across the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on policy, planning and coordination and communication strategy.
On February 2, 2024, MI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Thailand, designating MI to assume the role of back-office support of an interim ACMECS secretariat (AIS), a cooperation framework among Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam with the aim to utilise member countries’ diverse strengths and promote balanced development in the subregion. The secretariat will be under MFA, Thailand, where MI will provide its technical support for the next three years. In preparation for MI to assume the role, it is imperative for MI to enhance its knowledge and expertise in several areas, such as policy, planning, and coordination, communication strategy, and reporting skills.
Staff members’ knowledge, skills, and abilities are crucial to ensure quality support and service delivery in any organisation. Technical knowledge and skills always need to be up to date with current theories and best practices to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Furthermore, the work of a regional development and cooperation framework is highly complex and evolving, considering new challenges, emerging trends, and wide-ranging stakeholders. Hence, human resources require continuous capacity-building. Through this capacity-building initiative, it is expected that MI will be equipped with knowledge and skills required to carry out the task of providing support to the AIS across various areas.
PROJECT COMPONENTS
The project aims to enhance the capacities of leading MI personnel through a combination of various capacity development measures and activities.
Activity 1: Learning from subregional secretariats and organisations.
Objective: Provide opportunities to learn from, connect, and exchange with other subregional secretariats, international or intergovernmental organisations with similar nature and obtain good practices.
Two Structured Learning Visits (SLVs) have been planned to be conducted from December 2023 –February 2024 and March 2024–June 2024, where five key MI personnel involved in this project will participate. Potential organisations include the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat, based in Vientiane, Lao PDR, and a Bangkok-based organisation, a government agency, or a research and academic institute.
Activity 2: Capacity-building training at MI, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
Objective: Enhance the internal capacity of MI staff on strategic areas in view of ACMECS.
A 10-day training program was planned to be organised from April–June 2024, for approximately 20 MI staff, including department directors, unit heads, program managers, senior staff, specialists, coordinators, officers, and assistants. Considering the training is happening within MI premise, all staff members are invited to join the training. The customised training program aims to enhance MI’s capacities on policy, planning and coordination and communication strategy, as well as contribute to increasing MI’s capacity to suppport the implementing agencies in project management, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
Activity 3: One online knowledge-sharing session for MI staff.
Objective: Learn from regional/international experts about their experiences and best practices supporting regional development frameworks and/ or secretariats.
An online knowledge-sharing session have been planned during August–October 2024, where key MI staff are supposed to participate. In the webinar, regional/international experts/resource persons will be invited to share their experiences and best practices to support regional development frameworks and/or secretariats.
PROJECT DURATION
December 1, 2023 – November 30, 2024