Enhancing Salesians’ Offices worldwide

The Project “Co-partners in development”, promoted by the Italian NGO Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS) in 36 ACP countries in partnership with the Don Bosco Network, aims at enhancing the Salesian’s Project/Planning Development Offices (PDOs) capacities in organisational management and sustainability. The PDOs are in charge of supporting Salesians projects in areas such as youth promotion and vocational training.

Initially, the PDOs were created as a point of reference for the projects submitted to various agencies to support Salesians’ activities in the field of youth development and vocational training. At first, they were very simple project cycle executing tools, but after more than 20 years, some of them have turned into complex tools for the planning and overall systematic development of the Salesian provinces (which, in most cases, covers more than one country).

The purpose of this project is to strengthen the capacity of 14 PDOs, enable them to coordinate and cooperate among themselves and with external development actors and share good practices in the field of education and vocational training. The target PDOs operate in 36 different ACP countries, facing a wide range of different challenges and constraints. This led each PDO to develop different expertise (both in the technical and in the organisational management spheres). The project offers a unique opportunity for the 14 PDOs to meet and share best practices, sectoral knowledge and potential solutions to common problems.

PuntoSud is providing its support throughout the entire capacity building process, through a two steps approach:

• The first phase consists in the definition, implementation, monitoring and follow up of a general capacity development plan, to set a common arrival point for all the 14 PDOs. This includes the adaptation of a pre-existing “self assessment tool”, the presentation of the tool itself, the support to the PDO in the compilation of the self-assessment, the translation of the 14 self assessments into 14 specific capacity development plans. Based on the information provided by the project staff, the capacity development plan is re-evaluated (on annual basis) and, in case, adapted/updated.
• The second phase consists in the definition and implementation of specific capacity building tools in order to support the PDOs in the achievement of the objectives indicated in their capacity development plan. This involves the preparation and delivery of classical training modules (where topics are adapted per language and level to the specific audience); the preparation and delivery of distance learning modules via webinars; online training follow up (through specific forum on the dedicated platform or email /skype exchanges).