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The BoS is a document, which helps us to see how the OMT can come up with a 5-year strategy to support One UN programme delivery at Country-level. The BoS covers 7 main areas, namely; 1) The Baseline Analysis; 2) The Needs and Requirements Analysis; 3) The Cost Benefit Analysis; 4) The Prioritization; 5) The Results Matrix; 6) The M&E Framework; and 7) The OMT Work Plan. This structure helps us to come up with more efficient and effective common services taking into account the Programme needs resulting from UNDAP, as well as other needs, which are not tightly linked to Programme delivery. It is important to note that Rwanda has been pioneering some aspects of BOS since 2010.  

                   

   

               

   

                                           

             

Empowered  Lives.  Resilient  Nations.

 Amakuru ki i Rubavu? OMT Special Retreat on One UN Business Operations Strategy

Internal Newsflash, 24-27 March 2013  

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Day 3 message from the Chair

As a matter of fact, various tools, systems and models developed by Rwanda are being shared with other BOS pilot countries. We definitely believe that by maintaining this momentum, the OMT in Rwanda will demonstrate greater efficiency gain and substantive reduction of transaction and service costs by 2018. The flagship projects, the joint interventions, as well as key activities within the UNDAP framework will definitely benefit from the BOS, which will be developed by OMT in terms of CO support in the areas of Procurement, ICT, HR, Finance, and One UN House. One of the challenges within OMT is members’ participation and commitment to the WGs. In order to guarantee that the UNCT in consultation with OMT-WG staff will have to:

1- Update the job description of these staff to take into account their contribution to OMT-WGs

2- Nominate through writings their representative within OMT-WGs

3- Ensure that the performance of their staff has one result linked to their participation to the OMT-WGs

4- In finalizing the performance appraisals of these staff, HoAs will have to seek the OMT/WG chairs’ inputs and comments on the full participation of their staff

All the above points, if properly implemented, not only will help the OMT enjoy greater cooperation and collaboration of its mandate, but also it would increase the accountability framework for greater results.  

Editorial Amakuru ki i Rubavu? literally means “What are the news in Rubavu?”. This is a special newsflash produced by UNDP Communications Office as a means of internal One UN communications during the Operations Management Team’s 25th-27th March 2013 Retreat. This is a unique opportunity for Operations Team to recap and openly discuss with RC’s presence on the challenges and lessons learnt over the past UNDAF cycle and to make a roadmap in support to the One UN Programme Team and UNDAP process. This issue covers Day 3 of the retreat, which was a very hectic day loaded with noteworthy topics. Special thanks to Solange Uwera for her support in the production of this issue. Enjoy!

Janvier Wussinu Chair of the One UN Rwanda OMT  

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What to remember from today’s sessions and Group Discussions

 

BoS Process: Needs and Requirements Analysis  The first Group Work exercise was on the Needs and Requirement step. Janvier explained “The requirement analysis is the analysis of what will be the key performance indicators This shows the current needs in our common services in HR, ICT, Procurement, Finance and One UN House”. After the introduction of this step, the Needs and Requirements Analysis was done within different WGs.  

BoS Process: Cost Benefits Analysis  The second group work of the day was on the Cost Benefits Analysis step. This allows us to determine how one time/recurrent cost and one time/recurrent benefit can be quantified to determine priority ratios, where time and effort can be used to implement common services. After the introduction of this step, the Cost Benefits Analysis was done within different WGs.  

BoS Results Framework  In order to allow the WGs to work on BOS results framework the RBM tool was again explained by the M&E Specialists. This was followed by a presentation of the template for the Result Framework by Janvier Wussinu. Then the WGs started to develop the Results Framework.

OMT Annual Work Plan  This session was followed by presentations by each of the WGs on one outcome per WG developed during the previous session. This is still work in progress and the results framework will be furthermore finalized and presented. The OMT should seat for a critic of the work done so far on the development of the BOS results framework, to suggest further improvements on what’s missing.

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As  the  day  was  very  rich  in  exercises  and  in  a  number  of  concepts  to  assimilate,  Janvier  Wussinu  suggested  recreational  activities  to  help  stimulate  participants’  minds.  One  such  activity  was  group  dances  of  Rwandan  ballet,  Zulu  dance,  and  electric  dance  by  the  participants.    

The day was a little bit difficult because there were a lot of concepts to understand and absorb. Everything we learned during the day was essential for us to understand better our purpose as Operations staff, but one day is not sufficient to debate about the concepts and sharing of experience. There is still room for improvement in order to be able to speak one day in coherence as the One UN.

Germaine Gahuranyi, UN Women  

The Business Operations Strategy (BOS) is a strategic plan for the OMT to support next UNDAP 2013-2018. This is a very important and useful document for the UN both at national and global levels. In the past, we had been able to formulate One Programme for UN Agencies in Rwanda, but this did not include a tool that shows to what extent we have been able to better harmonize our business processes and reduce transaction costs. The BOS will not only guide us in improving our efficiency, it will also help us demonstrate to our partners the costs saved within the One UN for the upcoming 5 years. For instance, it was said that if we implement common services related trainings, we would be saving costs at a 90% rate. The new proposed common services are more than 20 for the five years, and if we are able to implement half of them, you can imagine the tremendous costs that will be saved. This is the first time the OMT is able to bring together the PPOC and M&E Specialists (the Programme side of the One UN) on the same table in order to discuss on how the One UN can effectively and efficiently support the country in its transformational development agenda. This shows that we are truly Delivering as One! The full participation of RC has motivated the OMT members and has shown high commitment from the top management of the One UN.

Solange Uwera, RCO  

Today we learned difficult notions on BOS. When you are not daily involved in the processes of transaction costs, you do not fully understand the direct implications of pulling together all One UN efforts in order to identify our needs and come up with adequate solutions which impact the overall UN Operations costs reductions. In a similar way as buying large quantities of products in a market as opposed to buying small quantities, when we evaluate our needs together as the One UN, we find better solutions to reduce our costs, but when agencies deal with costs reduction individually, there is hardly a cash cutback.

Placide Ruhungande, UNDP

What did we think of Day 3?