Prosperity Division

IMPACT STORY
Strengthening response capacities to crisesof policymakers in SSA

October 2021

BackgroundResponding to an unexpected crisis has always been a challenge for policymakers. Health-relatedcrises, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, are no exception. With the aim of increasing
public officials' response capacity to develop and implement effective policies and actions in healthemergency contexts, UNITAR and the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
have organized the e-learning programme, "Responding to crisis: strengthening finance andtrade resilience to global pandemics and health emergencies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)".
The programme was financed by the State of Qatar through UNITAR's Strategic Framework Fund(SFF).
The learning objectives include:•Developing the practical skills necessary for mastering the challenges of pandemics, as arisk factor, on finance and trade resilience.

•Assessing finance and trade policy decisions and responses that have optimal impact in
responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advancing understanding and communication to better contribute to preventing andovercoming friction, barriers, misunderstandings and prejudices in responding topandemics and health emergencies.
Engaging in a culturally diverse learning environment and building a network ofprofessional relationships with fellow participants and experts.

••Ten lectures were delivered in November 2020. They focused on the impact of COVID-19 on trade,
economic growth and the 2030 Agenda in SSA; the global community's support of the response to
the pandemic, facilitating trade and financial flow and lessons learned from the region. The
programme methodology relied on a case-based learning approach to achieve the learning
objectives, i.e., group case study assignments of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in SSA withpeer-review.
One hundred and eighteen (118) professionals and students working in trade and finance from
SSA participated in the programme. Ninety participants obtained certificates of completion.
Participants came from 25 SSA countries, mainly Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, as illustrated inFigure 1 below. Most of the participants were male (76), followed by female participants (38) andthose identifying withother genders (3).

This Impact Story collects feedback from participants six months after completing programme. It
aims to highlight any changes that have occurred in their professional, academic or personal lives
as a result of attending the course. The analysis is based on an online survey completed by 53
participants (45 per cent response rate), as part of independent evaluation conducted on behalf ofUNITAR’s Strategic Framework Fund, and one in-depth interview. Other participants who indicateda willingness to discuss their survey responses in more detail were contacted to participate in theinterviews for this Impact Story. Unfortunately, we did not receive any further confirmation fromthem. We overcame this challenge by synthetising information from four video testimonials andthe summary notes of twelve semi-structured interviews collected during the course the UNITARSFF independent evaluation.

Application of knowledge and skills from the e-learning
programme
Of the 118 participants, most worked in governmental organizations, the private sector andacademia. At the beginning of the programme, participants expressed a willingness to use theknowledge and skills from the course in their professional life: Participants intended to apply their
new knowledge and skills for: academic research and teaching; advising policymakers and financeor trade institutions; legal advisory and capacity building activities; design of COVID-19 mitigation
and recovery plans; academic assignments; improvement of project planning and design; andresource mobilization.
Many of the above examples were cited by survey respondents for this Impact Story: 38 out of 53
survey respondents (72 per cent) indicated having applied the knowledge and skills fromthe programme, as shown in Figure 2. Specific on-the-job application described by surveyrespondents
includedthepotential impact of COVID-19 inproject
proposals,
marketperformance and organization
strategy, analysis of credit
extensions, drafting policy briefs
andresearch
papers,assessment of taxpayers, use of
information for panel discussions
and designing strategies to copewith financial challenges in theworkplace.
Oneof
the
respondents highlighted some
unexpected changes, such asincreased skills in managing
diversity in the workplace. He
confirmed an increased awareness of diversity after interacting with colleagues from othercountries during the course assignments. Testimonies from participants also highlight theapplication of knowledge from the course to academic tasks (e.g., master's dissertation).
The training programme prompted additional changes to participants’ working lives, such as
participants sharing knowledge from the course with colleagues informally (94 per cent) or formally(76 per cent), greater engagement in tasks related to the training topics (82 per cent), newresponsibilities at work related to the training topics (50 per cent), job promotion or new job due tothe programme (24 per cent each) and overall increased performance in the workplace (68 percent). Confidence in performing the tasks was the area with the greatest percentage of changereported (100 per cent). Figure 3 illustrates this distribution.

Moreover, survey respondents attributed a large part of the changes at work and application ofknowledge to the training programme (73 per cent). According to interviewees who took part in theindependent UNITAR SFF evaluation, the programme was very timely, given the COVID-19
context.
Factors for success of application of knowledge indicated by survey respondents included initialaction plans to apply the knowledge and skills from the programme (as highlighted above), support
from colleagues and peers and an overall enabling environment at work. The training materials,
trainers’ expertise, peer-review exercises and interaction with other participants were considered
to be the key strengths of the training programme, which facilitated their understanding of thesubject matter. Participants from the countries included in the case studies stated that the exercise
helped them to contextualize the knowledge in the workplace. However, participants suggested
extending the duration of the course and making the training materials available in good time toallow more time to prepare for the sessions.
The factors which posed a hindrance to application of knowledge included the lack of an incentive
system at work to encourage application of new knowledge, the absence of a supportiveenvironment (i.e., policies and structures), and the lack of opportunities to apply knowledge andskills.

Ali Baba Abdulkarim
Revenue officer at Kwara State Internal Revenue Service
Informed decision-making of tax payment in the COVID-19
context

Kwara State, Nigeria. Ali is a revenue officer at the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service. Heholds a bachelor's degree in economics and is a certified accountant. Ali's work has been focusedon the financial sector. Before joining the organization, he worked as a risk analyst in a
microfinance institution. In the future, Ali would like to have his own business, ideally in thetransport sector. In view of this, Ali considers it essential to acquire new knowledge that can help
him in his current job and any professional future endeavours. The e-learning programme fulfilled
his requirement for learning opportunities.
Ali describes his current role "as a mediator between the government and the population onrevenue and tax-related issues". Ali recently transferred to the tax department from the informal
sector department. In his previous role, Ali conducted taxpayer assessments to advise thegovernment on the best way to collect revenue from informal sector workers.
The programme helped Ali specifically in this regard. During the course, participants received
information on the impact COVID-19 had on the performance of different sectors in SSA countries.
Ali was able to use the information from his own country to make informed judgements on
how to negotiate and manage tax decisions for the population according to their businesssector. Ali says you have to be very careful when assessing taxpayers to ensure that youdo notdamage business performance, especially with COVID-19 which has affected many businesses,
some of which are now debt-ridden. Ali feels his analysis is more informed and fairer as aresult of using the information provided in the programme. However, he is not responsible for
deciding how to proceed with taxpayers, he can only advise on the way forward.
Ali acknowledges that he has not applied the knowledge and skills learned as much as he would
have liked but he is doing his best . He has been hindered by a lack of confidence, but believes
that experience can teach you new ways to apply knowledge. Nevertheless, Ali remains very
positive and continues to seek out opportunities to "maximize" his newly acquired knowledge. He
also hopes to exploit the new knowledge when he has his own business in the future.
Ali appreciates the programme’s format and is looking forward to new UNITAR courses to continue
his professional growth.

Conclusion
The programme was very timely and relevant to participants’ professional lives, especially in lightof COVID-19. The course content, training materials, trainers’ expertise and methodologies were
key to allowing participants to process and apply the knowledge and skills from the programme intheir day-to-day work. In addition, the regional perspective of the programme (SSA) helps
participants to visualize potential ways to apply knowledge in their workplace before the end of theprogramme. A high attribution rate (73 per cent) was observed among participants.
Although not all the participants were directly involved in policymaking, the examples show thatthe information provided during the programme could be applied to a number of different
professional settings (for example, in the academic field and tax revenue activities).