The UR-Sweden is implemented in several sub-programmes each contributing a part to the overall programme objectives. The establishment of an overall Program Coordination Office (PCO) within the existing institutional and administrative structures allows for the grouping of all the different project implementation units within the Programme under one single umbrella.
Rather than organizing at each sub-programme a financial and monitoring office, the support to the PCO addresses the issue of monitoring beyond individual sub-programmes, unified reporting to Sida and the UR (both activity based report and financial management), better work coordination and alignment, as well as retention of staff expertise and institutional memory and expertise will benefit as staff turnover will be reduced. The operations of the UR-Sweden Programme are spread wide across the colleges and various UR locations, which is naturally a challenge, but the existence of a central Programme Coordination Office ensures a proper interface between the UR and the funder and thus the Programme is represented as a whole and becomes bigger player for the University than an individual sub-programme would be.
The PCO is custodian of the overall Programme and serves as an interface between the funders (Sida) and the University (UR) and as the interface between the Swedish partner universities and the Rwanda implementing sub-programmes.
General objective
The core objective of the Programme Coordination Office is to ensure the implementation of the UR-Sweden Programme and its effective delivery to the overall Programme objectives. It is therefore one of the sub-programmes contributing to the creation of a university management and administration environment, which is conducive to research and postgraduate training at the UR.
