Economic Cooperation Organization Regional Coordination Centre for Food Security (ECO-RCC) has organized a virtual introductory training on “Project Cycle Management (PCM)” in cooperation with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office for Central Asia (FAOSEC) between 16-17 March 2021.
The event was provided in English, Russian and Turkish and facilitated by Borja Santos Porras, a professor from IE University in Madrid, Spain, with extensive experience in leadership, problem-solving and public policy. The main purpose of the training was to improve basics and tools of PCM which are essential for developing and implementing projects. The participants also learned new approaches which have arisen recently such as Problem-Driven Iterative Adaption (PDIA).
During two days more than 80 participants from 10 ECO countries, institutes and bodies of ECO, FAOSEC, ECO-RCC and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Turkish Republic had an opportunity to ask questions to Professor Santos Porras in detail about PCM.
The training also aimed to improve capacities to support implementation of the new ECO Regional Programme for Food Security. In particular, it is designed to support the development of projects to alleviate food insecurity in the ECO region.
Volkan GUNGOREN, ECO-RCC Coordinator and Deputy General Director for Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, provided opening remarks and emphasized the importance of project cycle management to the successful implementation of projects designed to meet the needs of the ECO region. His remarks were followed by the comments of Sumiter Broca, Senior Officer in FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Asia, who explained that the training teaches both basic and new approaches to PCM. These different approaches help users to break down complex problems into their root causes and identify possible solutions.
Mr Memduh UNAL who is working as Director for Agriculture and Industry in ECO Secretariat also made a statement at the closing session emphasizing the value of investment in the human resources and social capital infrastructure in agriculture and he expressed his gratitude to ECO-RCC for organizing several successful training programmes and workshops.