The Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Suleman - Ibrahim, fsi, has reaffirmed the readiness and willingness of the Federal Government to work with the World Bank on the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP). She stated this during the formal launch of the certification Portal of the Procurement Node of the SPESSE project. This was launched at the universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Digital Hub at Kado Kuchi, Abuja recently.
Honourable Hajiya Imaan who listed the project objectives to include; initiating strategic programmes that maps out requirements, identifies training/academic institutions, prepares appropriate curricular, carries out capacity building programmes also said it establishes necessary monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure impact analysis and sustainability of the project.
The Minister reteirated that with the SPESSE project, Nigeria will be addressing existing capacity gaps in Procurement Environment and Social Risk Management.
Also, "the Ministry of Women Affairs is coordinating the social development component of the project alongside two implementing partners of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development" She stated.
According to Hajiya Imaan, the Bureau of Public Procurement is commendable for successfully developing a robust certification framework, training platform and certification portal that seeks to address issues of limited procurement professional capacity, weak institutional framework and deficiencies in training that have greatly undermine the efficiency and effective procurement expenditure management in the country as well as certify practitioners in the procurement profession.
The Minister further remarked that the Sustainable Procurement Certification Portal is aimed at providing certification for practitioners who register and undergo the SPESSE Procurement online training platform to become certified in line with global best practices. She urged all qualified and interested candidates to use this opportunity to get certified.
Honourable Imaan also noted that the Social Standards Node of the SPESSE project coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with her implementing partners such as Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Lands Department of the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development) have successfully developed its own certification framework and protal which is aimed at conducting an online certification and capacity building programme to certify Social Standard professionals who have acquired academic qualifications either from the SPESSE Centres of Excellence or other institutions. She said the social standards certification Framework and portal will also be launched in no distant time.
According to the Minister, the certification framework and portal seeks to bridge the gap of existing limited
Social Standards professional capacity and weak institutional framework in the area of social safeguards which include; labour and working condition, gender issues, Social Inclusion, compensation and resettlement.
Hajiya Imaan noted that the due to the importance of the SPESSE project to the country, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs is ready to comply with all SPESSE project requirements on the Environmental and Social Committment Plan (ESCP) and the social Standards team have also been working in unison for the successful implementation of this project within it's stipulated life span.
She stated that the launching of the SPESSE Procurement Certification Portal will provide the needed environment and platform for NIGERIANS both in the public and private sectors to be trained and get certified to practice globally, standardised and acceptable procurement services. The Minister commended the World Bank for their laudable support and guidance towards the project and urged them to continue.
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