Stakeholders validate national HR development strategy |25 August 2017

Principal secretaries, senior managers and relevant stakeholders gathered at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference room this week for a half-day workshop to validate the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) strategy, and a revised human resource development policy.

The documents have been formulated by the Agency for National Human Resource Development (ANHRD) with the expertise of South Africa and sponsored jointly by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the government of Seychelles.

The strategy together with the revised policy of 2005 which has been amended due to new developments, provide a set of principles, guidelines that can guide human resource development in organisations and in the country.

It outlines what is required to tackle persistent challenges and to identify how the ANHRD can effectively work with partners on key responses.

The aim is to ensure that Seychelles can transform and build the knowledge and skills base, diversify economic activity and address the skills and expertise gaps.

This is at the heart of the strategic plan, which is also reflected in the Seychelles Development Strategy.

Also present at the validation workshop were Dr Linda Barallon, principal secretary for human resource development in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development who officially launched the workshop; Nadia Lauricourt, acting chief executive of ANHRD who introduced the strategy and foreign consultants Dr Marcus Powell and Peter Short.

“Human resource development is at the heart of Seychelles’ development strategy and focuses on a better national economy for tourism, fisheries, fresh food supplies, agriculture, health, education and recreational activities. The government of Seychelles recognises that the capacity constraints in human resources present a serious challenge to sustained medium-term and long-term growth,” said Dr Barallon in her opening remarks.

She added currently the need for qualified and competent human resources to achieve the targeted objectives for continuous economic development are not presently fulfilled especially for middle and high level echelons.

She said the human resource development department and the ANHRD are the main entities for human resource development strategy. While the human resource development department’s role provides strategic leadership for the development and police direction to the national policies, the agency on the other hand has a role of coordination and implementation  in the HRD. Therefore, she added, the revised policy provides certain principles and guidelines that enable the government of Seychelles and partners to achieve the vision of human resource development.

“The new strategy outlines issues facing the sector, provides suggestions on how the challenges can be tackled,” she said, adding it is expected that all organisations will make an active use of the human resources to be more committed to life-long learning,” she said.

Mrs Lauricourt gave an overview of the revised strategy, how it was conceptualised and the various components involved.

Lead consultant Dr Powell said he had undertaken such a project in some countries of the southern African region. But what strikes him most about Seychelles is the political commitment on behalf of the Seychelles government.

“What the HRD policy is doing is trying to bring everything together in a framework,” he said, adding it is a set of principles, guidelines, protocols and arrangements that can enable the government of Seychelles, together with partners, to achieve agreed vision of human resource development.