05 October 2021

Representatives of various ministries, parastatal bodies, NGOs,

UNDP Colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am pleased to welcome you this morning for the HACT training organised by my office for all of our governmental, parastatal and non-governmental partners in Mauritius, Rodrigues and Seychelles.

Let me begin by thanking you all for responding positively to our invitation and the HACT team of the Country Office led by Mr Sameer Khudaroo for the efforts in organising this meeting.  I also extend my gratitude to Sakinah Morris, Regional Specialist from the Regional Bureau of Africa for her valuable inputs and guidance in planning this one-day training.

Since the signature of the Standard Basic Aid Agreement in 1974 for Mauritius and Rodrigues, and 1977 for Seychelles, the United Nations Development Programme has had a fruitful partnership with stakeholders from the three Islands, empowering them to meet their development goals.

Although both the Republic of Mauritius and Republic of Seychelles have made considerable economic progress over the past four decades, UNDP’s assistance continues to be sought to meet new challenges faced by vulnerable Small Island Developing States.  These challenges range from the adverse impacts of global warming and climate change to the socio-economic pressures witnessed by society in transitioning economies, and not to forget the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The UNDP Country Office has been a committed partner working with the Governments of Mauritius and Seychelles to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.  Without your collaboration, this will remain an impossible task to accomplish.

Today’s training on the HACT framework has been designed to help you, our partners, to better understand the different modalities through which they engage with UNDP on financial matters in the context of project implementation.  HACT, which stands for Harmonised Approach to Cash Transfer, was first adopted in 2005 following the UN General Assembly Resolution 56/201.  The HACT framework was revised in 2014 and is used by the UN Development Group Agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP.

The HACT is a risk-based management approach and represents a shift from assurance for cash transfers derived from project level controls and audits towards a method of assurance derived from risk/system-based assessments and audits.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Since 2016, UNDP Mauritius & Seychelles Country Office has been micro-assessing its partners from Government, Private Sector as well as NGOs/CSOs.  This framework provides a simplified set of procedures and principles guiding the disbursement of funds and reporting expenditures.

Today’s training serves as refresher course for some of our partners and will allow our new partners to familiarise themselves with the HACT framework.  The recent updates on HACT will be covered today. This training will help strengthen your understanding of the requirements of the framework and facilitate smoother project implementation.

I am making an appeal to all of you to fully engage with the HACT team during the training. 

Without further ado, I now hand over the floor to the HACT team to start the training.

Thank you for your kind attention.