Over
2,300 Sudanese Government Staff Benefit
from Knowledge Transfer Through TOKTEN
Khartoum,
14 June 2010 Close to 2,500 professionals in various institutions
affiliated to the Government of National Unity (GoNU) and the Government
of Southern Sudan (GoSS) have benefited as a result of the the Transfer
of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN). The TOKTEN Sudan initiative,
a unique partnership approach to capacity mobilization for effective governance,
has so far benefited from the knowledge and expertise of nearly 50 people
of Sudanese origin living in North America, Europe, parts of the Middle-East,
the Far East, Africa and Australia. There is considerable scope to involve
Sudanese abroad in far greater numbers in the task of capacity enhancement
for development planning, financial management and rule of law in the
country. This was stated at a national stock-taking workshop that reviewed
the impact of TOKTEN on national capacity and its areas of future expansion
in the country.
Opening
the Workshop, the Director for External Relations in the Ministry of International
Cooperation, Mr. Yassin Eissa said, “TOKTEN is a project led by
the Government of Sudan and it is our responsibility to make the best
use of the qualified Sudanese abroad”.
Speaking at the Inaugural Session, Ms. Yar Akech Onga from the Ministry
of Regional Cooperation, Government of Southern Sudan said, “Knowledge
is what makes the governments functional and without knowledge there can
be no governance. Our expatriate nationals can fill a critical gap in
national capacity development”.
In his keynote remarks, the UNDP Deputy Country Director, Mr. Auke Lootsma
said, “At UNDP, our primary focus is on capacity development. TOKTEN
has proved to be an effective tool in this endeavour. It is clear, we
need ever greater numbers of TOKTEN volunteers to fill in the capacity
gap in recovery and development efforts”.
TOKTEN
is a development initiative introduced by UNDP in 1977 as a means to counter
the exodus of professionals from developing countries. The programme allows
skilled professionals from developing countries to return home for a period
ranging from one week to three months to contribute their skills and services
to the country’s development.
The TOKTEN initiative in Sudan has a demand-driven approach with a strong
focus on development of institutional capacity. So far, as part of the
TOKTEN, organizations such as the National Population Council, the Sudan
University of Science and Technology, the Ministries of Interior, Finance
and National Economy, and Agriculture and Forestry, the Sudan National
AIDS Programme (SNAP) and Ahfad University of Women have benefited from
specialist knowledge transferred by the Sudanese professionals living
abroad.
Participants at the workshop called for boosting efforts for targeted
advocacy that could encourage the Sudanese diaspora to return for short
durations to their country of origin to impart skills and transfer their
knowledge for the benefit of host institutions in the country. It was
also noted that women TOKTEN volunteers needed to be enlisted in far greater
numbers in order to address the gender gap in volunteerism among the Sudanese
Diaspora.
UNDP Sudan is supporting the Government of National Unity of Sudan and
the Government of southern Sudan in several areas through its recovery
and development-support programmes, many of them with a strong capacity
development focus. The TOKTEN project, which started in Sudan in 2007,
with financial assistance from the UK Department for International Development
(DFID) and the Netherlands, has its primary focus on capacity building
through deployment of professional Sudanese in the Diaspora.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number of Sudanese diaspora
in the Middle-east. A vast majority of TOKTEN volunteers represent high
educational attainments. As many as 68 per cent have completed their Doctoral
studies and 21 per cent have a Masters Degree in fields as diverse as
software and information engineering, agricultural economics, criminal
law and criminal justice, demography and management sciences.
***
For
more information please contact:
Kumar Tiku: Head, Communications Unit, UNDP Sudan: kumar.tiku@undp.org
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change
and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help
people build a better life.
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