Twenty-four participants, including six women, took part in a TrainForTrade/UNCTAD Port Training Programme in Côte d'Ivoire and were awarded the UNCTAD Certificate in Modern Port Management in Abidjan on 3 September 2015.
Participants from Abidjan's port community successfully completed the UNCTAD/TrainForTrade course in Modern Port Management after presenting dissertations focusing on challenges within their area of work including statistics, port congestion, talent management, environmental pollution and port security.
The eight-module course on Modern Port Management took place over a period of a year and comprised 240 hours of lessons at the training center of the Port Authority of Abidjan (PAA).
Juries on the dissertation panels were made up of representatives from partner ports in the French-speaking network of the UNCTAD/TrainForTrade Port Training Programme, as well as two experts from UNCTAD and two observers from a potential member port (Port of Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo).
The Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance of Côte d'Ivoire awarding the UNCTAD/TrainForTrade Certificate in Modern Port Management
PAA General Director Hien Yacouba Sié hosted the certification ceremony at the Golf Hotel of Abidjan. Guests of honor included the Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance of Côte d'Ivoire, the Secretary General of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), and the General Director of the Ports Authority of Dakar, Senegal, Cheikh Kanté.
Dr. Kanté described the difference the programme was making in Dakar, where it has been running for more than ten years. He also expressed his best wishes to the graduates of this cycle, highlighting the importance of staff development for competitive ports.
The second training cycle was launched the following day by the UNCTAD/TrainForTrade team. Twenty mid- and senior-level managers from PAA, including five women, are taking part in this training cycle, which is expected to run over a period of two years.
PAA officially joined the UNCTAD Port Training Programme in 2013 and launched its first training cycle in April 2014. The local instructors previously participated in various Training-of-Trainers workshops organized by UNCTAD/TrainForTrade in cooperation with its European partner ports. For the French-speaking network these are Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port and Marseille Fos Port.
The French-speaking network of the Port Training Programme consists of nine active members: Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Senegal, and Togo.
The programme is financed by the member port communities and benefits from the support of the Port of Marseille-Fos and Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port in France.
