OOn the 18th November the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Libya launched its Country Programme Document exercise with a workshop hosted in Tripoli. The workshop brought together UNDP Libya programme staff and over 30 government officials representing 22 different General People’s Committees and government authorities.

The Country Programme is a document signed between UNDP country offices and host governments, setting out development priorities and approaches that UNDP will pursue over a three to four year period. It is intended to support effective programming, allowing UNDP to focus its efforts and plan its interventions according to both national priorities and UNDP’s own areas of expertise.

The next Country Programme for UNDP Libya will run from 2011-2014. It will be constructed on the basis of analysis, discussions and working groups involving both UNDP Libya staff and government counterparts, to ensure that the end result is based upon a collaborative process between UNDP Libya and its partners.

Ramanathan Balakrishnan, UNDP Resident Representative a.i, pointed out in his opening speech that counterpart involvement during these stages is crucial to the success of the new country programme. He stated that “UNDP does not carry out development work for the sake of UNDP. It is a partner to government, and it aims to support the government in carrying out its development aims.”

This introductory workshop looked to induct UNDP’s current and potential counterparts to the process of developing UNDP’s new country programme. It also offered background information on UNDP Libya’s previous development work, and on UNDP’s global strategy and programming techniques.

UNDP Libya expressed its intention to finalise the first draft of the Country Programme for 2011-2014 by January 2010. It must then be endorsed by the Libyan government and submitted to UNDP’s executive board in March. The Country Programme 2011-2014 will come in to force on the 1st January 2011.