Linpico News and Job Opportunities

We are proud to note that Linpico has made the top 10 list of EuropeAid service contractors for the year 2015. Linpico is ranked in 9^th place in the annual list compiled by DEVEX. Over 50% of the value of service contracts implemented by Linpico is funded by EuropeAid. Other important sources of funding of our service contracts are the World Bank and the French Development Agency.

Business growth is set to continue in 2016 with an important € 4,495,000 EuropeAid funded contract signed in January to provide State Building Contract Complementary Services in Public Finance Management in Sierra Leone and a recently signed USD 2.5 million World Bank funded contract to provide procurement facilitation services to the Government of Afghanistan. In addition new business in 2016 includes the provision of services in key focal countries such as Somaliland and Nigeria.

Linpico will be providing € 4.5 million of Technical Assistance over the next three years to support the Government of Sierra Leone with the implementation of its Public Finance Management Reform Strategy. Specific support will be provided for:

• The implementation of the Government’s Public Finance Management Reform Strategy.
• Monitoring and implementing National Development Policy.
• Advice and coaching for improved macroeconomic and fiscal policy formulation, the Accountant General’s Department, internal and external audit, budget planning and formulation and sector budget analysis.
• Specific support to the Ministry of Education for policy development, M&E, budget planning and formulation.

In September 2014, Linpico was awarded and began implementing the EU funded ‘Support to the Management and Coordination of Development Cooperation in Lesotho’ with the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning. The project, which will be implemented until 2018, seeks to improve transparency and effectiveness of policy orientation of the budget through strengthened management and coordination of development cooperation. Part of this project involves improving the coverage and reporting of externally financed programmes.

Last semester, our team has prepared a report providing an overview of aid flows to Lesotho, one of the highest consumers of donor funding in Africa. The report concluded that there is a recognition within the Government that an effective system and tools for management of development cooperation are of paramount importance to increase harmonisation and transparency. It emphasised the utility of the Public Sector Investment Database (PSID) instrument, (which our team have been developing within the MoDP), by both Government and Donors is essential if tangible development results are to be achieved.

Following this report, on 14th September 2015, Linpico organised a meeting with Development Partners who discussed the overview of aid to Lesotho, from which there was a renewed commitment to achieve better management of aid for a greater impact.

The local paper reported the event. The Minister of Development Planning, Mokoto Hloaele, gave an interview, during which he stated that Lesotho’s socio-economic development was largely due to the generosity of its donor partners. This, he said, has helped to “register achievements in maintaining macro-economic stability and economic growth preserving the debt/GDP ratio to remain below 40%”. But he also stressed the need for availability of reliable data on development cooperation as a critical factor for effective management and coordination, as previously mentioned in the report. This PSID that our consultants are providing technical assistance for, is meant to be used as a tool to monitor domestic and external allocations to national development priorities. Also, its aim is to enable the government and development partners to analyse aid flows, facilitate planning processes, mobilise resources and institutionalise transparency and accountability. Mr. Hloaele was very positive about the work of our team as well as the improvements that the PSID will help to bring the MoDP. They hope that “by jointly improving the management of development cooperation, Lesotho will be able to achieve good results in the key properties of the National Strategic Development Plan”.

For more information on our project in Lesotho, please contact Mr. Laury Incorvaia [email protected] 

In September 2014, Linpico was awarded and began implementing the EU funded ‘Support to the Management and Coordination of Development Cooperation in Lesotho’ with the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning. The project, which will be implemented until 2018, is funded by the European Union and seeks to improve transparency and effectiveness of policy orientation of the budget through strengthened management and coordination of development cooperation.

This month, our team celebrated Europe Day with the European Union Delegation in Lesotho on the 9^th of May, by contributing to the theme of “Women in Resistance”. In conjunction with the Alliance Française, Ellen van der Heijden of Linpico helped organize an exhibition to display pictures of 14 prominent Lesotho women which had been taken by a French Photographer.  A specific EU contribution to the exhibition addressed the theme “Women Artists in Resistance to Poverty” and permitted village start-up women painters, who took lessons in painting in the village Morijja , to bring their first paintings to the public in Maseru, Lesotho’s capital.

Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho opened the exposition and spent much time looking at the displayed paintings. Guided by Ellen, the Queen took great interest in the paintings that were exhibited. She bought one of the paintings, which stimulated other visitors, which included the EU and US Ambassador as well as Members of Lesotho’s Cabinet, to purchase paintings.

The main objective of the painting exhibition was to launch the work of talented village-level women painters to the public in Maseru and market their paintings and generate income from their art work.  Linpico is proud to report that this objective was successfully achieved, and the results were promising for the future of the women painters concerned.

For more information about our project in Lesotho, please contact Mr. Laury Incorvaia at lincorvaia@linpico.com

Linpico is supporting an exciting initiative to attract investments to the yachting sector designed over time to transform the Eastern Caribbean into a major hub for mega and cruising yachts.

The project involves a Regional Assessment of the infrastructure and services available for yachting in the Eastern Caribbean from the USVI to Trinidad and Tobago. The study will provide information on the movement of yachts through the region, identifying main hubs, the linkages between private jets and the yachting sector, best practices and common challenges across the region with respect of standards and the delivery of ancillary services.  It will provide key recommendations for the enhanced capacity of the region as a whole to attract greater numbers of cruisers and mega yachts, and strategic information to the four member states with respect of the amenities available within the region. The report – the first of its kind in the Caribbean – will be a rich and invaluable addition to the body of knowledge on the yachting sector in the Caribbean and will be of particular benefit in regional policy formulation.

The second component will be a Plan for Investments in the yachting sector tailored to the specificities of  Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica and St Kitts & Nevis. The gaps in services and infrastructure identified in the regional analysis will be transformed into investment opportunities and presented in each of four Investment Plans. These will identify investment opportunities in infrastructure and services in both new and existing facilities, and will also focus on the value chains: youth skills, training and certification requirements of the industry and linkages to the agricultural sector through provisioning. It will add value to the macro-economic and policy framework of each country and provide the basis for new flows of FDI.  Public and private sector stakeholders will be consulted in the process of producing both the Regional Assessment and National Investment Plan.

Preliminary results of both the Regional Assessment and National Investment Plan will be presented at another Flagship initiative of the ECS Embassy – The Eastern Caribbean’s First Annual International Yachting Event hosted in St Vincent & the Grenadines on 28-29 April, 2015.  The event to promote the attractiveness of the region for yachting and provide enhanced investment opportunities for the sector in the Eastern Caribbean, transforming it into a hub for mega & cruising yachts, is designed to attract investors, super yacht owners, insurers and others, and will rotate annually among the four member states.