Join us for a webinar on July 30: The Role of Local Government Staff in Coordinating and Overseeing Social Services

 WEBINAR: The Role of Local Government Staff in Coordinating and Overseeing Social Services

Wednesday, July 30, 2014 8:30am – 10:00am, Washington DC

2:30pm Harare, 3:30pm Kampala

This webinar will explore the role of government workers, particularly those at the district or sub-national levels, who play a key role in supporting community systems to enhance the delivery of quality services and support to vulnerable children and families. Speakers will address the way in which the social service system as a whole can be strengthened by reinforcing the technical and leadership skills of local government staff to coordinate, lead, monitor and evaluate services and support in their region. Experiences from the Bantwana Initiative in Zimbabwe and the SUNRISE-OVC Project in Uganda will be used to illustrate the key involvement of government staff in these countries. Speakers will also address the results and impact of having strong staff at the sub-national level. They will discuss inputs that have led to increased coordination with community structures, better workforce planning and skills development, strengthened referral systems and case management systems, stronger monitoring and evaluation systems, improved annual planning and budgeting for social services, and ultimately, stronger services for children and families.  During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to discuss the implications of this type of work in their countries.

Speakers:

Ms. Patience Ndlovu, Zimbabwe Country Director, World Education/Bantwana Initiative  

With a Master’s in Policy Studies, Ms. Ndlovu has worked for over 17 years in development and emergency relief efforts largely focused on assisting vulnerable children and addressing women’s protection and rights issues. She is currently the Country Director for WEI/Bantwana in Zimbabwe providing technical and management oversight and leadership for 3 large national programs - the Vana Bantwana project offering comprehensive support for vulnerable children and their families affected by the HIV epidemic funded through USAID; an innovative systems strengthening program with the Department of Social Welfare that has developed a national case management program supported by UNICEF and USAID; and the Second Chance Learning program for children who have dropped out of school supported by UNICEF and OSISA.  Before joining Bantwana, Ms. Ndlovu managed the OVC program for Capernaum Trust Zimbabwe, specifically marshaling efforts in policy formulation and model designs. Previously under World Vision International Zimbabwe, Ms. Ndlovu provided technical support to the National Director in strategic planning, policy development, negotiations, proposal writing, reporting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all country programs. She was also instrumental in the design of the USAID/WFP-funded Food Aid Program.

Ms. Grace Mayanja, Chief of Party, Uganda SUNRISE-OVC Project

Grace Mayanja  has 20 years of leadership and management experience at grassroots, national, regional and international communities. She is one of Uganda’s top social development specialists with expertise in social policy development and implementation, human and economic development, gender analysis and planning, development management, child development and rights. She holds a First Class Division Honors of the Master of Science Degree in International Development Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland. She also studied Master of Arts in Gender and Development Studies, and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management. Grace has been instrumental in leading and working with teams that have developed various child development and related frameworks for Uganda and other African countries. She was the civil society lead person on the National Steering Committee that spearheaded the first National OVC policy and Strategic plan development for Uganda as well as other OVC related guidelines, standards, systems, technical tools and strategies. She is currently International HIV/AIDS Alliance'sChief of Party for USAID SUNRISE-OVC project in strengthening Uganda’s local government responses for OVC in 80 districts.  Previously, Ms. Mayanja was Chief of Party for the USAID CORE project in supporting and building capacity of Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to lead and coordinate the national OVC response. Her other experience includes working with World Vision as technical advisor for OVC and HIV/AIDS Models of Learning global Hope Initiative Program.

Please use this link to access the webinar any time after 8:15am EDT on July 30: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SSWS_webinar16

You will be asked to complete a short registration form and then copy a link to the webinar.

To calculate what time the webinar will be held in your part of the world, use this link:  https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

 Please visit www.socialserviceworkforce.org/webinars

to learn more about this webinar series and to access the series’ archives.

 This webinar series is supported by: