UNFPA Angola bypasses the pandemic and moves towards online training

There are no boundaries when the meaning of a mission impacts our lives. Eneida Fortes represents the enthusiasm and capacity accomplished by UNFPA. Facing the pandemic of COVID-19 the acting operational chief, created an ambitious educational program online that ensured the continued training of our partners. Based on the E-Lounge Platform, the initiative reached a number never reached before of civilians members across the country. This success story makes Angola the only country in the region with an online training tool from UNFPA.

Eneida Fortes always knew that it is in times of greatest difficulty that people reveal their true worth. The “luck of having a strong and wonderful mother” helped her to “cope with” within her context in which is the youngest of 10 siblings. “During my childhood and adolescence, I saw some friends drop out of school because of teenage pregnancies; I also witnessed gender-bias violence daily at home. I could have been one of those pregnant girls or I could have dropped out of school for various reasons because I didn't have much access to information about sexual and reproductive health, both inside and outside.”, but that didn't happen.

This nonconforming spirit of someone who lived near the effects of educational exclusion and lack of access to information also shaped her character as a professional. In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic called into question the in-person training programs of UNFPA partners, Eneida had an innovative idea: “to create a virtual training space, where technology was the main ally”, she says.

With the “unconditional support” of the agency's former representative in Angola, Florbela Fernandes, and the hard work of UN Volunteer Diandra Costa, Eneida Fortes quickly got down to work. “I started investigating free online platforms and contacted UNFPA head of training, Markus Voelker, who invited her “to participate in a training on how to convert face-to-face training into effective virtual training”. In record time, with her team, she created and launched the course on the E-Lounge Platform, with content entirely in Portuguese and enabling partner organizations to learn at their own pace. It is the first project of its kind in the entire region of the continent and a source of pride for UNFPA Angola. “This project showed us what we can achieve when people unite around common and clear priorities and needs”.

The response from UNFPA partners exceeded all expectations. “Due to the costs of face-to-face training, we used to have two participants per organization, who travelled to Luanda, but with this online course, some partners even enrolled 10 elements”, she says. Of the 50 expected participants, the virtual course reached 123 people. The advantages of this tool are more than evident. “The virtual training will facilitate communication with partners and contribute to improving their performance and quality standards in response to UNFPA requirements”, she argues.

The new platform also required a strong commitment from every member of the UNFPA team. The limited access of many trainees to technology made this project especially “challenging”, recognizes Eneida Fortes. “From the beginning, it was crucial to establish a comprehensive line of communication with partners to help them along the learning path, so we were available by email, Whatsapp and by phone to respond to their needs,” she says. . All the team also organized ``webinars'' to give technical support, in particular on how to access and navigate the platform”.

The “openness to new ideas”, the “commitment to collaborative work” and the “commitment to listening to partners to better respond to their needs” were evident in this project. These values ​​that Eneida Fortes lists as essential-have always been important drivers in her career in UNFPA. The new interim head of operations joined the organization in April 2017, motivated by her “passion for working as a team and helping others”. She immediately fell in love with her work and the agency. At the time, she was six months pregnant. “I often say that my baby is a child of UNFPA”, she laughs proudly.