Strategic Planning Out

The Joint Strategic Planning Unit was tasked to bring together the political mandate of UNIPSIL with the various development and humanitarian mandates of the agencies, programmes and funds of the UN system. The unit also helped to integrate and mutually reinforce the various political and programme activities within the UN behind our common aim of consolidating peace and promoting development in Sierra Leone. 

The Joint Strategic Planning Unit was the Custodian of the Joint Vision of the UN family and as such it was responsible for reviewing and monitoring its progress. In doing so the Joint Strategic Planning Unit undertook three tasks:

  • Promotion and implementation of the UN Peacebuilding strategy
  • Facilitation of the efficient interagency coordination and programme integration
  • Coordination with the Government and international Development Partners 
 
The Work of the Joint Strategic Planning Unit    

The Joint Vision was a quite complex strategy that, in order to be successful, required substantial coordination among and with:

  • the seventeen UN agencies and organisations that have come together in implementing the Joint Vision;
  • the Government and its various Ministries and departments that the programmes and projects of the Joint Vision are intended to support;
  • the community of development partners and donors who support the UN family financially and operationally in implementing its Joint Vision and finally;
  • the UN governing bodies that regularly review and discus the progress Sierra Leone is making in achieving peace and stability, above all the Security Council and the UN Peacebuilding Commission.

To assist the ERSG in effectively performing the role of coordination among the aforementioned four target groups, UNIPSIL and the UN Country Team set up a joint Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) that included staff from UNIPSIL, the resident coordinator’s office and the peacebuilding support office. 

In particular, the SPU conducted the following functions:

  • prepare, organise and follow up on the weekly meeting of heads of UN agencies and facilitate its subsidiary working groups such as the various theme groups and the operations managers’ group meetings;
  • prepare, organise and follow up the monthly meetings of international development partners and facilitate the working of the theme groups;
  • act as the focal point of the UNCT for DEPAC meetings and meetings with DACO; support the ERSG in his function as the co-chair of the DEPAC;
  • function as the secretariat for the Government Steering Committee for programme and project approvals;
  • act as the focal point for the UN Peacebuilding Commission and for the Peacebuilding fund;
  • help organise, coordinate and facilitate programming and programme evaluation missions, disseminate their results / reports and administrate ONE UN resources for funding those missions on behalf of the UNCT;
  • coordinate the preparation of the following regular reports:
    • An annual progress report on the implementation of the Joint Vision (combined with the RC Annual Report);
    • The bi-annual report to the UN Peacebuilding Commission
    • A quarterly report on the financial status of the MDTF;
    • Any other report that requires the inputs for all UN agencies