The East African Community Partner States reviewed the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) Strategic Plan 2021-2026 from 11th-12th November, 2021 in Kisumu County, Republic of Kenya.
The Strategic Plan review was in line with the LVBC’s activity plan for July-December 2020. The delegates from the EAC commended LVBC team for steering the Commission despite challenges occasioned by COVID-19.
The Draft Strategic Plan prioritizes both strategic and programmatic interventions as one of the approaches for reducing critical development challenges in the Lake Victoria Basin. One of the challenges identified included environmental degradation and climate change. Participants also took note of the changes occasioned global pandemic: COVID-19.
Acting Deputy Executive Secretary for LVBC, Isaac Nyarwaya informed the delegates that the draft Strategic Plan was internally developed through a consultative process and the objective of the engaging Partner States will reinforce the Strategy’s quality.
“Key principles guiding the Strategic Plan development included: building on lessons learned from the previous one (2016-2020), setting realistic and achievable objectives and aligning the present draft strategic plan with regional and global strategic frameworks,” Nyarwaya said.
He however promised delegates that the formulation and implementation of the Strategic Plan will be informed by the institution’s commitment to the principle of continuous improvement. He thanked the contributions of both Partner States and Development Partners in the implementation of the previous Strategic Plan.
Joseph Mungere, the meeting chairperson from the Republic of Kenya stressed the importance of the strategic plan to LVBC and Partner States, specifically “facilitating the resource mobilization efforts.” He also stressed how Strategic Plan is an effective tool for planning and organizational management in the next five years.
Mungere participants in the Strategic Plan Review meeting to align the Strategic Plan to LVBC vision, the current operating context and meeting strategic planning standards.
In line with the meeting objective – to review and validate the 4th LVBC Strategic Plan, delegates systematically reviewed the structure and content of the overall draft strategy and thus recommended: building on the generated inputs, LVBC to update the draft Strategic Plan and circulate the revised copy to the Partner States by 3rd December 2021 for final inputs and present the Strategy to the 21st Sectoral Council of Ministers for the Lake Victoria Basin.