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Empowered
Lives.
Resilient
Nations.
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Amakuru ki i Rubavu?
OMT Special Retreat on One UN Business Operations Strategy
Internal Newsflash, 24-27 March 2013
Editorial
Amakuru ki i Rubavu? Literally means Lessons from Day 3
“What are the news in Rubavu?”. This is a
special newsflash produced by UNDP
At the beginning of the
Communications Office as a means of
session, Helen Elangwe,
internal One UN communications during the
Finance and
Operations Management Team’s 25th-27th
Administration Officer at
March 2013 Retreat. This is a unique
WFP summarized the
opportunity for Operations Team to recap
activities done by the 5
and openly discuss with RC’s presence on
WGs during Day 3.
the challenges and lessons learnt over the
past UNDAF cycle and to make a roadmap in
support to the One UN Programme Team and
UNDAP process. During the last day of the
retreat, the participants discussed on the
2013 Annual Work Plan, on the way forward
to the drafting of the BoS and a team-
building activity took place.
Enjoy!
We need to play the game together
it’s important to reflect on how we can monitor our
results through the use of M&E tools such as DI
Monitor, which would help us monitor progress of our
outcomes set during this retreat. It’s important also to
be very realistic in that we have five deliverable years,
so we should split all the deliverables over that period
of time. The coordination of the One UN operational
department’s work starts at the bottom at the supplier-
level to the various working groups, and from the WGs
to OMT, and OMT reports to the UNCT. The work of WGs
cannot be carried by some people alone. It’s important
that we all contribute. There is a beauty in getting
inputs from everybody and there is an added value to
that. It’s important that head of agencies appoint
representatives from their respective agencies to each
WG.
“We
need
to
play
the
game
together”.
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2. Finalization of OMT Annual
Plans
The WGs sat together for an hour to discuss
and prepare the individual Annual WGs’ for
2013-2018.
Wrap Up of the Retreat WGs Work
Sessions by the Facilitator
Anders Voigt commended all the participants for their
active contributions during the 4 days of the retreat
and officially closed the retreat’s working sessions by
introducing the last two activities: Janvier’s Hypnotism
Session and a teambuilding exercise. He said that WGs
that had not had enough time to finalize their work
during the retreat were invited to finalize it back in
Kigali and share their resolutions with the OMT.
Janvier’s Leadership
Inspirational Session
As all the participants were asked to sit on
the floor, relax and close their eyes, while
playing a background music and reciting a
poem, Janvier asked them to remember
the learning process they had during the
retreat and their contribution to the DaO in
Rwanda.
“Imagine the increasing number of poor people for whom we committed to work
for! Imagine the impact we can make by being more relevant, reducing
operational costs and saving more resources to fight poverty! Imagine the
incredible network that we built during this retreat! Imagine the renewed
commitment to work better, operating as one and contributing to effective
programme delivery! Imagine the incredible result that our OMT will be
reaching at the end of 2018! Imagine yourself as an agent of change in your DaO
environment!” said Janvier to the participants of the 2013 OMT Retreat. He
urged each of them to better support, participate, and collaborate more in their
respective WGs. This exercise was organized for all the participants to
remember everything they learned and recall all the important information from
the 4-day retreat.
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3. Learning to Work Together Better Through Team
Building
The OMT Retreat 2013 was concluded
with a teambuilding exercise, which
brought delight to the OMT 2013
participants. During this exercise
participants learned different team
values, namely communicating, listening
to each other; and working on a project
together as a team, through making the
right decisions, anticipating together
risks, suggesting creative solutions, and
promoting participation of all members of
the team.
During the first exercise, each
participant was given the name of one of
two animals, the cat or the chicken. They
were then asked to blindfold, then to
imitate the sound of the animals they had
been given, and to mingle with the other
participants who imitated the same
sound in order to create 2 groups.
In the second activity, each group was
given a bucket full of polluted water and a
rubberized ring held by six cords. They
were then given instructions by chosen
group leaders, Helen and Happy, that
they had to carry the bucket to pull the
water in an empty bucket, which was
positioned a bit further, without pulling it
down. In bringing the polluted water to
that empty bucket, they had to go
through two difficult situations. They
could only pull up the polluted water
bucket with the use of the rubberized ring
held by 6 volunteers. The two groups
were very creative in finding the
solutions to their enigma before starting
the exercise, and they both succeeded on
the first trial.
As Janvier Wussinu had promised during
the opening session, the retreat turned
out to be a success on the overall!
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