UNFPA Country Office in Mali Faces Challenges in Results Reporting and Language Barriers
Koulikoro, Mali - The UNFPA Country Office in Mali has faced significant challenges in its results reporting processes, according to the latest annual report.
The office struggled with inadequate target setting and milestone formulation, which limited its ability to objectively assess performance. This was evident in three instances where the same milestone was set for two different output indicators with different targets and timelines, preventing a clear assessment of progress made towards achieving output indicators’ targets.
Technical Issue Delays Results Report
Additionally, the office experienced a technical issue in its Strategic Information System (SIS) functionality, which delayed the finalization of the 2018 results report. The issue was caused by inadequate training and supervision, leading to incomplete or inexistent documentation and inaccurate reported results.
The Office Management explained that the achieved results reported in SIS were estimates, without providing a basis for these estimates during the audit review. In three other instances, discrepancies were noted between reported results and supporting documents uploaded in SIS for corresponding output indicators.
Recommendations
===============
To address these issues, the office is recommended to:
- Provide training to personnel involved in results planning, monitoring, and reporting processes to ensure the formulation of quality targets and milestones and accurate results reporting.
- Establish a monitoring process to ensure timely finalization of plans and reports.
Furthermore, the office is urged to improve access to policies, procedures, and other guidance documents through translation in all UNFPA working languages. Currently, these documents are mainly available in English, which creates challenges for personnel who do not have high proficiency levels in the language.
Language Barriers
================
The issue of language barriers is not unique to the Mali office, with many field offices in West and Central Africa region, East and Southern Africa region, and Latin America and Caribbean region facing similar challenges.