With the participation of institutions – partners and beneficiaries of the Resilient Tourism and Development of the Blue Economy and Human Capital Projects, this Wednesday, July 20, a meeting was held in the city of Praia, entitled “Mini Country Portfolio Performance Review”, between representatives of different national institutions and the World Bank team, with the purpose of presenting and discussing the activity plan of the two projects, scheduled for the next six months.

This meeting, coordinated by the World Bank in partnership with the Special Projects Management Unit, took place in two parts: the morning part was dedicated to the Resilient Tourism and Blue Economy Development project, and the afternoon part to the Human Capital project.

On the occasion, important topics were discussed, such as the activities proposed for the next six months, the disbursement foreseen for the current year, the priority activities for the launch of contests, the status and institutional arrangements to accelerate the implementation of the project, with special emphasis on the contracting processes for key activities (works and large Technical Assistance contracts).

Following the presentation of the project activity plan proposals, the constraints were presented by the beneficiaries as well as the complexities of the acquisition processes, and the need to jointly establish commitments and new deliberations for the acceleration of the activities foreseen within the scope of the implementation of the two projects.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that the proposals for the plan of activities will later, after being adapted, be shared with the World Bank for approval.

The Special Projects Management Unit was represented in these two meetings by a multidisciplinary team led by the Coordinator, Nuno Gomes, and which was composed of the Financial Director, the managers of the aforementioned projects, as well as two technicians from Procurement and one from Monitoring and Evaluation, and two environmental and social specialists.

It should be noted that the project Resilient Tourism and Development of the Blue Economy, already underway, seeks to increase diversity and resilience in the tourist offer and the participation of SMEs in value chains related to tourism in specific destinations, and the Human Capital project aims to improve access to basic services and training relevant to the labor market in Cabo Verde.