“The RSCE is an extension of the MONUSCO mission in Entebbe, and an efficient cooperation between both entities is crucial for an end-to-end service to our clients. There is no way we can work without collaborating to find solutions to our issues. Some of the solutions may touch on skills, training and other requirements from both teams”. These were the remarks from the Director, Regional Service Centre Entebbe (RSCE), Mr. Paulin Djomo, as he opened the Client Engagement Meeting with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on 17 November 2022.

The RSCE holds regular Client Engagement meetings with their client missions to discuss strategic and operational issues, identify challenges and resolve them.

Speaking at the same meeting and as the co-chair, Mr. Ebrima Ceesay, Director of Mission Support in MONUSCO reiterated Mr. Djomo’s sentiments while encouraging his staff to provide honest feedback to the team from RSCE.

“It is vital for you, as a service provider, to have this engagement. I say this because apart from us being able to give feedback and have discussions with you where things could be improved, it also provides the opportunity to perhaps learn a few things from RSCE on client service which is your forte”, he said.

The meeting presented an opportunity for Chiefs of Human Resources, Budget & Finance, Supply Chain, Service Delivery, Senior Administrative Officer, and Procurement to provide feedback to the RSCE on the service they receive.

Mr. Ebow Idun, Chief Human Resources Officer, MONUSCO acknowledged the regular conversations his office holds with RSCE colleagues and the support from the Centre. He also pointed out some of the pain points that his office experiences and one area highlighted was on onboarding.

“As part of our daily deliberations, we look at how optimally we can function so that we don't have these trivial issues. Specifically, when we come to, onboarding where we have some issues”, he said. “We are trying to address them, and it is taking some time, but I see some clear focus to make things happen, so we are grateful for that and hopefully, over time, things will come back to normal”.

In response to this, Mr. Djomo advised the meeting that strides had been taken to ease the pressures in onboarding in the recent past and he also assured MONUSCO that he had employed extra staff to respond to the staff rotation affecting the offer management team and progress has been made.  

The meeting also concluded that with the full implementation of the Client Service Delivery Model as designed and rolled out in 2019, processes in query management would be streamlined and resolved much quicker.

“These are some of the things the Client Support team in MONUSCO has been trying to do. Based on all the statistical information in the report that RSCE team sent to us and from some of the discussions I've had with them, we will coordinate with a view to ensuring that whatever bottlenecks we have identified, we can resolve together”, said Mr. Idun.

“So, we want to believe that we can continue this level of cooperation and the teams can work together to avoid escalating operational issues to management which can be resolved at the working level to the satisfaction of the clients”, he concluded.

The Chief Budget and Finance, Ms. Sabina Colpa lauded the good rapport and support from her counterparts at the RSCE and as such had no issues to raise as issues are addressed as they arise during their regular interactions with the RSCE.  These sentiments were echoed by the mission colleagues in Supply Chain, Procurement and Aviation.