19 participants, representing the partner Associations of the Regional Capacity Development Network (RCDN) for water and sanitation services, took part in the second Training Management Cycle (TMC) training, from 2-5 October 2018 in Budva, Montenegro.
Ensuring the highest quality of capacity development is RCDN’s paramount. Thus, the project invests in developing the capacities of all 16 partner Associations from 6 countries of South-East Europe to achieve full compliance with the 9 Quality Standards set by the RCDN Quality Management System. The TMC training focused on all the quality standards and accompanying templates for two capacity development formats – training and peer exchange. Participants learnt how to assess and analyse the needs, design and develop the best programs, and successfully implement and evaluate the measures.
The training was delivered by Svetlana Zdravkovska from GIZ and Jelena Janevska and Miodrag Kolic from NALAS, using participants-centered learning, through modern learning tools and interactive methodologies, which ensured active learning, participation and co-construction.
“This training is unique, specially developed for the needs of RCDN, and designed to ensure implementation of the RCDN Quality Standards by the partner Associations, to enable them to provide high quality products delivered at national level”, says Mr. Kolic.
“Participants are going through each and every step of the training management cycle, experiencing the different tools and templates to be able to meet the quality standards. Needs based assessment, contextualized design, collaborative learning, co-constructing solutions – are just part of the crucial elements for quality assurance that we master at this training”, says Ms. Zdravkovska.
“This is a very interesting and useful training”, said participants in their reflections. “The knowledge gained will help a lot to better implement RCDN activities in the upcoming period”.
“We expect that thanks to RCDN, the investments in human capacities and organizational development, our partner LGAs and APUCs will become leaders in capacity development for the water sector in the region”, concludes Ms. Janevska.
The Training Management Cycle (TMC) training, delivered for the Associations, complements with other RCDN capacity development measures, especially the series of Training of Trainers (ToT), which develop national capacities for training delivery for the water sector. The next ToT is taking place in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 22-26 October 2018.
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RCDN aims to increase effectiveness and efficiency of the water utilities in the Western Balkans, contributing to better service provision with larger numbers of population groups getting access to drinking water and sanitation services and meeting the European Union (EU) environmental Acquis Communautaire. To achieve this, RCDN has three key components: 1) Association Development, 2) Capacity Development Offer and Delivery and 3) Partnership and enabling Capacity Development Environment.
RCDN works with LGAs and APUCs in 6 project countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), while the final beneficiaries are the top and middle managers from municipal and regional utility companies and officers in charge in municipalities. The project is managed by GIZ, on behalf of SECO and BMZ, and is implemented by a Project Implementation Team consisted of IAWD, Aquasan and NALAS.