CSOs in workshop
Over 100 CSOs came together, through the efforts of Northwest Association of Development Organization(NWADO), for a working session to understand the policies and procedures guarding Land Tenure and Public Contracts, to ensure that public contracts are properly executed in the Northwest region.
The training took place on August 5th, 2020 in Bamenda, bringing together CSOs to brainstorm on activities that will cause government to change some policies and set records on how civil society can constitute themselves and function, in the follow up on public Investment projects.
Participants give input on subject matter
Some of the participants were happy to have the stakeholders concerned with land tenure and public contracts present in their midst, while the CSOs sharpened their skills to get informed and be part of the follow up commission for projects to be implemented in the different communities in the region.
Coordinator, MBOSCUDA
Sali Django Program Coordinator for MBOSCUDA NWR as participant says the workshop is relevant, bringing Civil Societies together to Organize themselves and engage in a focused direction.
"CSOs coming together as one, has been a weak situation in the past, this is a laudable initiative, to come as one and act as whistle blowers to ensure bad practices are minimized and completely eradicated." He said.
"Challenges faced are general for many CSOs who never had acess to Information, those who are responsible to provide information are reluctant, probably because they are involved in the bad practices. Procedures were not very clear to CSOs and one cannot criticize without having knowledge on the subject matter, with this workshop, the picture is clearer" Sali Django said.
CEO, Light Africa
Mala Celencia, CEO of light Africa Cameroon, as a participant was void of knowledge on how projects or contracts were followed up but appreciated the workshop for the knowledge recieved.
"I have been able to get more knowledge on contracts, how it is awarded and the follow up needed to meet up with the demands of the beneficiaries. As a CSO we have need to play the role of follow up on what needs to be done, to deliver quality services while meeting the aspirations of the people. There is so much I didn't know untill now, and I thank NWADO for this initiative, bringing CSOs together for a common good" she said.
Coordinator NWADO
Tombir Stanley, The Coordinator of NWADO told Civiclens that it's a network of civil society Organizations of the Northwest region and the workshop is organized within the framework of the project funded by the Acting Citizenship Strengthening Program.
"The project is amplifying, civil society voices for quality services delivery in he Northwest Region; targeting 2 sectors, the land tenure and the public Contracts Sector. The objective is to help Civil Societies to master the procedures and policies guiding the land tenure and the public contracts Sector, so that they can monitor, step by step and do advocacy actions when there are is in those sectors" Coordinator of NWADO.
"Public investment projects envisaged should meet the needs of the beneficiaries, though there have been challenges, at the policy level and at the procedural level, road construction is part of contracts given to engineers to execute and are poorly executed, and with the realities we live today are quite challenging to go through these roads" he added.
He observed that there is need for youths to go enterprebeurial and the 1974 land tenure according to him sidelines the youths from having their land, certifying it and using it as capital for their entrepreneurial initiatives.
"With the rate of unemployment we are thinking that govt should relax the policies and procedures so that it benefits young people and CSOs by the end of the workshop are expected to restructure themselves and get informed, make our voices heard in terms of land tenure and public Contracts policies and procedures, while we come together to do a policy proposal to the state, revise and propose what is better to the populace" Tombir Stanley.
Facilitator, workshop
Shei William is the facilitator at the training for CSOs, he says the participants are expected to "develop and Implement advocacy strategy to influence the public contract sector beginning at local level, because there are instruments put in place, but many are not able to use them, so advocacy is also about knowing how to use these instruments to execute these contracts." Facilitator said.