Experience in Northern Africa since 2001

 

A. Development of an information and monitoring & evaluation system for the Support programme to the diversification of the economy in Algeria (DIVECO)

 

1. Dates: January and April 2012

2. Location: Algiers

3. Organisation: Diveco programme support unit (8 international and national experts) and the UE delegation in Algeria.

4. Position: short term M & E expert

5. Responsibilities: in charge of the setting up and launching the monitoring & evaluation system for the 3 components of the 3 years long Diveco programme (agriculture, agribusiness and tourism), which amounts to €20 millions (17.5 of which are funded by the « Neighbourhood and partnership » instrument) that started in 2011.

6. Major activities and achievements:

The long-term support team is mainly in charge of coordinating the assignments to be carried out by short-term experts (studies, support, coaching, training, technical provisions, TOR and tender dossiers) in response to the needs expressed by the technical services of the ministries and institutions through 3 national focal points. As the programme did not have an information management system at its disposal and saw its components evolve at a different pace since 2011, everything was still to be achieved in the area of and M&E.

A baseline analysis was thus carried out before tackling the revision of the main items and components of Diveco’s intervention logic: the results indicators, reformulated for most of them, were replaced in the proper position within the logical framework matrix, which was completely rewritten.

The grounds of a good information and M&E system (essential indicators monitoring fiches) have then been presented to those most concerned (support team and focal points) who were gathered during a final ownership workshop.

 

7. Experience and skills acquired:

A beautiful challenge to take up: the setting up of a performance assessment system for a programme evolving in a very particular context: a new form of collaboration with the EU in a sector left aside (economic diversification outside the oil & gas revenues) although related to essential development factors such as food security or the emergence of middle classes.

This in a country coming out of long years of a very serious political crisis (1992-2003) and opening up to the outside world with which it longs to trade and exchange. On top of it all, 2012 was an election year (legislatives in May) in the wake of new upheavals.

 

B. Engineering of a vocational training equipment & material procurement centre in Tunisia (cfr « engineering, procurement, contract management» folder for other details)

 

1. Dates: September 1999 to June 2002

2. Location: Brussels, Belgium (with many a assignment to Romania and Tunisia for EU funded programmes)

3. Organisation/ company: MWH Inc. (Montgomery Watson Harza), Belgian sister company of MWH Inc. (USA & UK).

International engineering firm specialised in contracting, turnkey projects and technical assistance in various areas, world leader with respect to water and environmental issues (waste-water treatment, sewers, hydro-power, industrial and household waste management) Numbers 5,500 staff and set-ups across the world (Americas, Europe, Africa, Near-, Middle and Far-east, as well as Oceania).

Turnover for 2001 fiscal year: € 850 million.

4. Position: Business Manager, seconded to the managing director of the EPC&M (Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Management) department.

5. Responsibilities:

As project manager, I would, amongst other activities, be involved in identifying, responding and following up international tenders issued by States or multilateral organisations which included contracting eventually.

6. Major activities and achievements - main projects (refer to the « EPCM » folder on the main web page, as well as to the « Monitoring & evaluation » and « Donors and international financial institutions » folders) with notably:

Looking into the possible implementation of a procurement centre (€ 40 million - MEDA) for Vocational training equipment and material;

This involved being twice on assignment in Tunis in 2001 in order to identify the needs in terms of what was to be procured as well as international and Tunisian public tender experts.

This analysis was the main component of the tender put together in response to a MEDA programme (EC)  MEDA) call for proposals and eventually submitted locally. Numerous contracts were set up with several institutions and organisations focusing on vocational training in Tunisia as well as other related sectors (mechanics and electronics, agriculture, construction, civil engineering, hotels and restaurants, logistics…).

 

7. Acquired skills and experience:

This professional experience with MWH, although initially focused on waste-water and environmental management, would regularly overflow on to other areas (in correlation with Pardevo’s practice and expertise) such as technical assistance or projects / programmes supported by the external and/ or development aid in fields as essential as (see also other above-mentioned headlines);

In this particular instance, it improved my knowledge as conducting from A to Z a tender dossier in a quite state-of-the-art sector on top of establishing professional contacts in this sector and related ones.

An opportunity to (re)*discover a North African country split between modernity, democracy à la Ben Ali and the realities of both the Arab and Muslim.

 

*Roland Deschamps crossed Tunisia from north to south-east in September 1978 while accompanying his father joining his new posting as a Belgian ambassador in Tripoli (Libya).