49th Workshop Meeting of Heads of NPOs
21–23 October 2008, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Closing Remarks of Secretary-General
by Mr. Shigeo Takenaka
APO Secretary-General
Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, and Distinguished delegates:
I would like to begin my statement by congratulating the National Productivity Center of Cambodia (NPCC), the youngest NPO in the APO family, for the smooth, successful implementation of this workshop meeting. I am much encouraged by the commitment and great effort made by Cambodia in spite its relatively recent entry into APO membership. Organizing an event that brings together all heads of NPOs, agriculture delegates, and many advisers and observers is not easy. I applaud the NPCC for a job well done and I would especially like to thank Mr. Yea Bunna, Director of the NPCC and Chair of this WSM, for his leadership and warm hospitality to ensure that our meeting proceeded well and that all delegates had a pleasant stay in this wonderful city of Siem Reap.
This workshop meeting marks another important step in the process of putting in place the biennial budgeting system that will officially come into effect from 1 January 2009. We have come a long way, starting with the lively discussions on the new membership contribution formula that spanned three Governing Body Meetings: from the Tokyo GBM in 2005 to the one in Ulaanbaatar in 2007. In October 2007, we organized the second WSM of the year in Hanoi, where we took up a new exercise to establish prioritization of projects. In April this year, we went on to have a historic Governing Body Meeting in Tehran at which the directors decided for the first time ever on the amount of the total membership contributions to the APO for the 2009–2010 biennium.
With most of the decisions relating to the 2009 and 2010 Program Plan taken care of already, this WSM is not expected to make major new recommendations. This does not mean a lesser role for the WSM. Instead, we had ample opportunity to promote cross-fertilization of ideas and to discuss program-related issues, which would otherwise be limited given the task in hand and the short time available. In this spirit, the Secretariat prepared a series of presentations on new program initiatives to share with member countries the efforts undertaken by the Secretariat to maximize the benefit and impact of APO projects. I hope that the delegates found this useful, and we plan to continue this exercise in the future.
I greatly appreciate the inputs from the delegates through the country reports as well as the frank exchanges of views at both the plenary and the two strategic planning sessions. Among the many subjects discussed, I would like to comment on three: centers of excellence (COE); DON Implementation; and project evaluation. In terms of COE, the presentations by delegates informed us of a number of areas in which a COE might be considered. The presentations also suggested that there were issues that need to be studied by the Secretariat, including those related to the definition, criteria, and funding mechanism of COE. The Secretariat appreciates the views and suggestions made at this meeting, and I assure you that we know that it is our turn to act on the idea.
Under DON Implementation, particularly the in-country training program to facilitate the capacity building of NPOs, I was encouraged by the feedback from the three countries that implemented in-country projects on a pilot basis. I am aware of the expression of interest from several other member countries and also noted that some of you are unsure how to proceed from here given the absence of a Project Notification. As the Secretariat is still debating internally whether we should formulate a separate Project Notification for the DON Implementation Program or conduct DON Implementation using the existing TES and other Category C project schemes, I would like to advise those member countries interested in launching an in-country training program not to wait until a Project Notification is ready. Instead, I would like you to inform us of your intention and discuss your plans with the Secretariat departments and officers concerned so that we may consider how to accommodate your interest and plans in a timely, effective manner.
A few suggestions were made to improve the existing project evaluation methodology so that the Secretariat would be able to determine the impact of projects more accurately. A number of delegates also pointed out the need for NPOs to be more involved in the evaluation process and in undertaking follow-up activities.
Needless to say, improving the evaluation of projects is of foremost importance to the Secretariat. That is why we have made efforts to reformulate APO projects in such a way that it would be easy to evaluate them objectively. To take our training projects as an example, we now include written tests and make it compulsory for participants in training projects to take the test at the end of the session. The results of the test are instrumental in evaluating whether we successfully and effectively imparted new knowledge to participants through our training.
The emphasis in APO research projects is to produce tangible results. This means that the outcome of research must be sought after by the general public. One means to determine this is monitoring the use of our research, specifically how frequently our findings are quoted by others. According to amazon.com, the largest online bookseller, as of last month 424 books quoted APO publications. The comparable figure for the Asian Development Bank was 3,200. Keeping in mind the fact that the APO is a much smaller organization than the Asian Development Bank, we take this as a rather encouraging sign. Another way to track the utilization of our research publications is monitoring the number of downloads of our e-books from the APO Web site. The record for the two years from 2007 to September 2008 indicates that we had close to 1 million downloads. Having said all this, we will certainly take into account all the suggestions and ideas put forward during this meeting to improve project evaluation.
In closing, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Chair and Vice Chair and to the committee chairs and rapporteurs for their leadership and smooth facilitation that enabled fruitful deliberations and a satisfactory conclusion to this meeting. I thank the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia for its generous support for the workshop meeting. My very special thanks go to the staff of the NPCC for their dedicated work and warm Khmer hospitality conveyed through ever-smiling faces. The hotel managers and staff superbly assisted the Secretariat, including in overcoming a challenging situation that demanded last-minute adjustments. I also appreciate the hard work of the APO Secretariat staff to ensure that the meeting ran smoothly. I am pleased that the observers could spare the time to be with us during these two days. Last but not least, I would like to express my deep appreciation to the heads of NPOs, agriculture delegates, and advisers for their active participation and valuable contributions that enriched this workshop meeting.
I thank you all once again and wish everyone a safe journey home.
