Development partners in the Horn of Africa region are working closely with IGAD as it builds its capacity for expanding roles on drought resilience. A donor working group on Technical Assistance to IGAD for Resilience met in August and October, 2012 and in May, 2013 to promote coordination and effectiveness. This group has agreed to align all activities with IGAD’s Institutional Strengthening Action Plan (ISAP), which has been supported since 2010 by a group of Nordic countries coordinated by Denmark. The group is also linked to the IGAD Partners’ Forum (IPF), which was created in 1997 as part of the formal governance structure of IGAD. IGAD’s agenda on drought resilience and sustainability is closely linked to the Global Alliance for Action on Drought Resilience and Growth formed in 2012 to align the headquarters of a wide range of international development partners around new ways of bringing together humanitarian and development assistance to build sustainable resilience..
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland channel support through a Joint Financing Agreement (JFA). The ISAP is focused on strengthening the capacity and performance of the IGAD Secretariat, as well as its linkages with member states, development partners, and external stakeholders. As it starts its second phase (2012-2014) ISAP is providing an organizing framework for tracking the full range of activities of the IGAD Secretariat, to which the other donors are aligning their technical assistance contributions, both within and outside of the JFA. The ISAP is also supporting improved mechanisms such as a common annual workplans, standard reporting formats, and joint audits to pull all management procedures into IGAD’s own systems operating according to international standards, rather than respond to separate procedures required by different donor agencies.
In addition to its participation in the JFA for the ISAP and funding the IGAD Facilitation Office in the Sudan, Finland supports the institutional strengthening through 1) the establishment of a Project Preparation and Management Unit (PPMU), 2) both long-term and short-term Technical Assistance (TA) 3) funding support for three Regional Experts based at IGAD Secretariat. Support has focused on procedures, guidelines, training manuals and tools, while providing training for the staff of IGAD Secretariat, specialized institutions and regional projects.