The Swedish International Development Agency, SIDA has supported a newly released Human Resources Development (HRD) plan for Lao’s National Centre for Environmental Health and Water Supply (‘Nam Saat’). The plan and a related report calls for a broader approach to the development of skills for staff
The plan and associated report is based on a series of questionnaire workshops and interviews with Nam Saat staff and officials from the chosen sample province, Bolikhamsay.
While most organizations in Laos value skill development for staff, the report suggests that specialized training for selected staff and especially ad hoc training, which are both common practices, have their limitations.
The current approach fail to take advantage of the widespread desire to learn a range of topics important for communities and organizations, the report says.
The report suggests that HRD planning can address these weaknesses as a critical step in building organisational capacity. This is done by a systematic analysis of organisational and staff performance, needs and aspirations, dialogue with and training of staff on HRD principals, as well as a full range of cost-effective proposals for raising staff skills, knowledge and understanding.
The plan outlines strategies for developing the skills of Nam Saat officials including the establishment of new units or sections, support for locally directed learning, an on-campus integrated training-research centre, integrated and specialised training involving central, provincial and district staff, overseas training and occasional study tours and workshops.
The importance of an integrated systems view of work processes is generally underrated and currently the current system fails to take advantage of other learning methods. Specialised and ad hoc training do not, by themselves, address the needs of the staff as a whole and thus the potential to raise the whole organisation or communities, states a press release.
