Dear Ms Veltauri,

withthis mail I want to give you an update on the current activities and send you a few documents on some recent issues.

Logframe and planning of upcoming activities

I would like to come back to the request of David Handley from 14.04.2020 regarding the adjusted logframe. The project needs the feedback from the Ministry on the proposed changes. These changes need also to be incorporated into our progress report which is due to be submitted to the EU Delegation. (Attachment ‘Revised Logframe’)

David also suggested that we hold a Skype conference with the Deputy Minister, Ms Barkalaya, to discuss the changes to the timing and implementation of affected activities due to the current Covid-19 lockdown. It would be good to agree on the upcoming tasks soon to structure our cooperation. (I include a preliminary Activities Schedule for this purpose.) This would be also very important for finalizing the progress report. Would it be possible to hold such a conference some time soon?

Annex 2 – Performance Indicators

I made a few remarks related, however, only to your comments, since this document needs to be discussed and agreed between the Ministry and the EU Delegation. So we can only give our opinion.

All adjustments which merely update information or adjust names (like SESA instead of ESS) are certainly unproblematic.

In my view, the most urgent issue is the reformulation of Indicator 2.1 which has become obsolete in this form, since the SESA will apply the New Service Model from the very beginning in all of its units. The emphasis should now be on the quality of implementation of the NSM. Another issue is the accessibility of SESA services in remote regions. I assume that the EU Delegation will propose to reflect this topic in the formulation of the indicator. A stepwise approach, as suggested in my recent reply to this question, seems to be most advisable. (Attachment ‘SESA Local Services’) This approach could foresee an initial phase for consolidating the application of the NSM in all regional offices, followed by a sequenced roll-out of the services to the local level, customised to the different local conditions and based on an institutional development plan.

Working with local businesses and provision of local services

I drafted some basic considerations on the topic of working with local businesses. Since it will be more convenient for reading, I attach them on a Word file (Attachment ‘Working with Local Employers’). I also made some minor changes to my previous remarks on the roll-out of SESA services (mail of 16.04.2020) and attach it to this message as well as a Word file (Attachment ‘SESA Local Services’)

Draft Employment Law, training topics

Our interpreters translated the draft Law on Employment and we will send our comments asap. Further, my search for relevant training topics in documents of previous projects is still ongoing.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe and best regards,

Heinrich