VisionRI organizes webinar for ongoing project in Kenya

The webinar was a part of an ongoing project entitled 'Consultancy Services to Review and Update Oil and Gas Standards in Kenya' and was organized through the Webinar module of VisionRI's web-based project monitoring and evaluation tool Idea M&E.

VisionRI, a global development consulting firm, recently organized a webinar for an ongoing project entitled 'Consultancy Services to Review and Update Oil and Gas Standards in Kenya'. The workshop was organized through the Webinar module of VisionRI's web-based project monitoring and evaluation tool Idea M&E.

In about two hours of the 'Webinar-Validation Workshop-II', Team Leader Dr. Narendra Vashist addressed the workshop from VisionRI Headquarters in Sonepat (India) while Mr. Vincent Mokaya, Standard Specialist of the Project joined from Kenya. The workshop was attended by about 50 participants including several officials of the Kenyan government from various places in Kenya; and VisionRI personnel from India. The project is being implemented by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, Republic of Kenya.

"COVID-19 may force us to stay indoors but we can not allow it to halt development and economic activities. There is a great need to minimize the impacts of lockdown on economy and development. Our project monitoring and evaluation tool Idea-M&E boasts several features including a Webinar module, online meeting rooms, task management, team management, survey tool, and a cloud-based document system that can help in ensuring business continuity and seamless transition to the new normal," said Mr. J. P. Singh, Managing Director of VisionRI Connexion Services Pvt. Ltd. who himself is an eminent economist of international repute. "We hope the team will come out with more technological innovations to help the world to wade through the repercussions of this pandemic," he added. In the leadership of Mr. Singh, VisionRI has also recently launched an initiative Center of Excellence on Emerging Development Perspectives (COE-EDP) which aims to keep track of the transition trajectory of global development and work towards conceptualization, development, and mainstreaming of innovative developmental approaches, frameworks, and practices.

"The Idea-M&E Webinar Module can host up to 2,000 participants from throughout the world," said Neeraj Singh Mehta, Technical Lead, VisionRI. He further informed that the product Idea-M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation) is already being used in several ongoing projects across Asia and Africa.

Manoj Soni, Project Manager and Coordinator, of the 'Webinar-Validation Workshop-II' said, "It was a great experience of hosting a webinar through the Idea-M&E Webinar Module. It is excellent in terms of voice, video quality, and moderation features. All the participants appreciated the technological innovation of VisionRI,". The objective of the workshop was to present Draft Final Report as well as Action Taken Report on the comments and suggestions received in Validation Workshop-I which was organized by VisionRI at Continental hotel, Nairobi on January 20, 2020.

The workshop commenced at 9.30 am (Kenyan time) on August 14, 2020, with a welcome address by Manoj Soni from India followed by opening remarks by Mr. Benard Nguyo, KEBS Head of Quality Assurance on behalf of Mr. Bernard Njiriaini, KEBS Managing Director. Subsequently, Dr. Narender Vashist and Mr. Vincent Mokaya made presentations. After presentations, the participants were invited for the 'Question and Answer' session, make suggestions, and comments. The workshop concluded with closing remarks by Mr. Nguyo. Besides, the participants were also asked to submit their comments and suggestions through email to be incorporated in the Final Project Report.