The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with APRM Continental Secretariat and Tanzania APRM national governing commission, organized a national training workshop entitled "Harmonizing the APRM Tanzania NPoA with the National Development Plans" in Zanzibar, Tanzania (24 to 25 August 2017)

The workshop intended to provide technical skills and tools to national civil servants, such planning authorities, finances, budgets and other departments mainly from Zanzibar, in order to advocate for the integration of APRM-NPoA into existing national and sub-national development plans, i.e. Zanzibar Development Vision 2020, and MKUZA III and to provide necessary tools, through peer-learning from APRM pioneer countries, for its monitoring and reporting.

Since 2009, to effectively track the progress towards the implementation of the NPoAs, UNECA developed tools and frameworks and provided tailor-made training programmes to public servants and CSOs actors through peer-learning and sharing experiences to facilitate the harmonization of the NPoAs into existing national development plans.

The workshop was opened by Mr. Juma Hassan Reli, Executive Secretary of Zanzibar Planning Commission. Mr. Juma expressed the enthusiasm the government of Zanzibar has towards improving governance challenges in line with the recommendations of the Report. In her remarks, the ECA' representative, Mrs. Hodane Youssouf, highlighted the main reasons why few countries report annually on the implementation of the NPoA, such as lack of political backing, lack of financing architecture and challenges of collection, disaggregation and dissemination of data.

He pointed out that with this current unprecedented political commitment, it is expected that the country submits its first APRM annual progress report in the January 2018 APRM Summit.

The Vice chair of APR Panel of Eminent Persons, Hon. Brigitte Sylvia Mabandla, acclaimed the government of Republic of Tanzania for its stewardship in reviving the APRM process in the country, and emphasized that the implementation of the NPoA remains the weakest link in the APRM process yet it is the most significant output of the review process. She suggested the integration of APRM Action Plan Program into national development plans such as, Zanzibar Development Vision 2020, MKUZA III and Medium Termination Plans to be accelerated.

The representative from the president office said that Zanzibar's government is committed to implement all the challenges identified in the APRM country review report (CRR).

ECA presented for the 1st time a manual developed in 2017 "Harmonization and integration of APRM NPoA into NDP" and made presentation of integration of Agenda 2063 and SDGs into NDP.

The participants from Zanzibar and the Tanzania National Governing Commission, with the support of ECA and the APRM Secretariat, approved an Action Plan with timeline in order for the Head of State to present its first progress report to the APR Forum in January 2018.

The workshop was attained by 58 officials from various Ministries, Department and agencies (MDA); development partners, Members of the APRM National Governing Council, and members of the media.