September 28, 2022 (TADJOURA, Djibouti): IGAD commenced a regional meeting of the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP), Monitoring and Evaluation/Geo Information working group, this morning, in Tadjoura, Djibouti.
The overall objective of the three days of DRDIP Monitoring and Evaluation and Geo-Information Working Group meeting is to provide and facilitate a platform to enhance exchange information on operationalization of an effective Regional M&E system (with GIS capabilities) across DRDIP implementing countries, through effective and periodic data collection, analysis and reporting.
Speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, the Director for Health and Social Development of IGAD Mme. Fathia Alwan, welcomed the participants and disclosed that DRDIP development approach has placed local communities at the heart of identifying and implementing their development priorities and that development in the targeted areas has improved social cohesiveness amongst host and refugee communities.
“The project has benefited over 90 per cent of the targeted host and refugee populations (5,800,410) in the Project Countries. It is good to note that 57 per cent of project beneficiaries are women.” She explained.
The Director emphasised that the impact of the community-driven investments has resulted in accelerated development in refugee hosting areas that were hitherto ranked below national development indices.
“IGAD Secretariat recognizes that DRDIP project is all about ‘delivering real improvements in the lives of displacement persons in the targeted areas and in the choices and opportunities open to them.” Madam Fathia stressed.
On his opening remarks, the Prefect of the Tadjourah Region, Republic of Djibouti, Mr. Hassan Dabaleh, on behalf of the government and his own behalf, thank IGAD for unceasing efforts to support countries in improving of the conditions of refugees and displaced persons and hopes that this workshop will meet the expectations of IGAD Member States and that it will help to trigger a new dynamic within the different countries.
The Director General of the Djibouti Social Development Agency (ADDS) Mahdi Mohamed Djama also gave similar remarks and welcome the participants to Tadjourah region and offer visiting some investments implemented by Djibouti DRDIP in the region.
Finally, Dr Mohamed Elduma, IGAD’s Senior Programme Coordinator in the Health and Social Development Division expressed his sincerely thanks to IGAD partners, notably the World Bank and others for providing the needed financial and technical assistance.
The working group meeting resulted in validation of Terms of Reference (ToR) for DRDIP M&E and Geo-Information Working Group; an appropriate DRDIP data harmonization mechanism and methodological approaches for data collection adopted; technical inputs and recommendations for enhanced utilization of GIS applications by DRDIP countries provided; and Knowledge, lessons and experiences in monitoring and evaluation of DRDIP project shared.
The Working Group meeting comprised M&E officers and GIS officers for the DRDIP projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and technical staff from IGAD RS.
DRDIP is a government-led and community centric project focusing on the impact of the protracted presence of refugees on host communities and the two groups are the direct beneficiaries of the project.
In May 2018, IGAD RS convened the a DRDIP M&E and Geo-Information Working Group meeting that established a platform for experience sharing in mapping, spatial data collection, planning, monitoring and evaluation and created linkages for data and information sharing among project countries and with the RS, as foundations for learning. This working group will continue in the future to prepare for the regional project steering committees (RPSC) meetings.
Acknowledgement: IGAD expresses appreciation to the World Bank for funding this activity and project.
