Tag: Caritas International

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“NABOCADO should be made a center of excellence for dev’t organizations” – CRS Country Director

Country Director of Catholic Relief Services, CRS, Daniel Mumuni has praised the Navrongo- Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organization, NABOCADO and called for it to be recognized as a Center of Excellence for all Diocesan Development Organizations.

Speaking Tuesday, 8th November 2023 at a three-day Learning session for Caritas / Diocesan Development Organizations held in Bolgatanga, Mr. Mumuni expressed his excitement at NABOCADO leading the engagement, highlighting the importance of peer learning being preached by CRS Ghana.
He stated “I have always advocated that NABOCADO should be made a center of excellence where all dioceses can come to learn about the structures needed to implement development programs. So, they’re registered, they have a board, they have a strategic plan, they’ve robust financial management systems. They have various structures, including program management teams that can go out to deliver and implement programs. So, makes it easy for us to either put funds in them or support them to attract resources.

The CRS Country Director also mentioned their successful collaboration with NABOCADO over the past year, resulting in increased resources for the organization. “In the last year, we have implemented two or three programs together and on the back of it, they have also gotten more resources. Today [NABOCADO] is one of the largest implementers of UNHCR on the Refugee crisis. It is happening because they (NABOCADO) have taken the pain to develop their institutional capacity.”

The three-day learning session attended by Diocesan Development Coordinators from across Ghana, aims identify gaps and best practices, it also draws upon NABOCADO’s learning experiences and develop a prototype organizational structure that will enhance the roadmap for functional Diocesan Development Organizations (DDOs).

Below are excerpts of the meeting in pictures.

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Capacity Strengthening; NABOCADO, CRS holds EMPOWER Assessment review workshop.

NABOCADO has successfully completed a two-days capacity strengthening assessment and action plans review meeting with EMPOWER West Africa.

The meeting, which was facilitated by The Catholic Relief Services, CRS aims to increase and advance local leadership of humanitarian responses through institutional strengthening and direct funding of Local Humanitarian Actors (LHAs).

NABOCADO as an LHA has been working with CRS to improve its capacity and operations to meet international standards through self-assessment and evaluation.

About 20 staff from all directorates of NABOCADO were taken through presentations and discussions which in the areas of Caritas International, CI Management Standards and CRS HOCAI, EMPOWER sectoral assessment tools and high-level results and findings of NABOCADO
SRFMP assessment.

The EMPOWER (Empowering Partner Organizations Working on Emergency Responses) project began in 2018 in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. It expanded in 2021 to CRS’ Asia Regional Office and is being launched in CRS’ West Africa Regional Office (WARO) at the start of 2023. Leveraging lessons learned and recommendations from the preceding EMPOWER projects, EMPOWER West Africa will grow a team of emergency response technical advisers whose primary role is to strengthen the emergency response capacity of LHAs in West Africa and support them to implement high quality emergency responses.

Very Rev. Fr. Lawrence Azure Vicar General of Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese,

Based on local organizations’ self-assessment of their self-identified operational and technical support needs and requests for support, EMPOWER provides participating organizations with demand-driven technical resources, on-the-job support, training and accompaniment, and organizes regional workshops to facilitate shared learning and strengthening of peer networks among local humanitarian actors.

EMPOWER also manages a rapid response fund, through which, participating local organizations propose and receive funding for emergency response programs to support communities impacted by crises in West Africa.

Present for the session was Vicar General for the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese, Very Rev. Fr. Lawrence Azure expressed the Diocese’s gratitude to CRS for its continued support for the activities and growth of NABOCADO whiles urging staff to implement the ideas and learnings derive from the engagement.

The two day’s workshop was facilitated by Head of Office at CRS Tamale, Timothy Akanpabadai, Micheal Augustin, EMPOWER at CRD in Dakar Senegal and Kassoum Ouattara, A Technical Advisor at the Himan Resources Department of CRS in Burkina Faso.