382 trained to drive community-led SOCO projects
THREE hundred and eighty-two Community Facilitators (CFs) from the five northern regions have undergone a three-day training to equip them to work directly with beneficiary communities under the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) Project.
The training, held in Tamale yesterday, was organised by the SOCO Project to equip the facilitators with the skills to mobilise and sensitise communities, support planning and implementation, and monitor and report on project activities to the appropriate authorities.
The participants were drawn from beneficiary Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the SOCO implementation areas in the northern part of the country.
Of the 382 participants, 64 were from the Northern Region, 120 from the Upper East Region, 48 from the North East Region and 50 from the Upper West Region, with the remaining participants drawn from other SOCO beneficiary areas.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training, the National Project Coordinator of SOCO, Madam Elizabeth Ohenewah Agyei, said the training was designed to enable communities to play an active role in determining their development priorities.
She said the communities would be organised into clusters and, through their representatives on Community Project Implementation Committees (CPICs), would identify and prioritise eligible interventions based on their needs.
Madam Agyei said the training covered the roles of CFs and CPICs, community mobilisation and sensitisation, the sub-project implementation process, environmental and social safeguards, grievance management, monitoring and reporting.
She said particular attention would be paid to ensuring the inclusion of women, young people, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in community discussions and decision-making across the SOCO beneficiary areas.
According to her, the training would prepare the CFs to help ensure that community priorities were heard, project information reached the people, activities on the ground were properly reported, and communities remained involved from planning through implementation and monitoring.
She said it was important for communities to be part of the project selection process so that they would feel a sense of ownership and participate fully in their development.
“Now the real essence of the project is not about the sub-projects, it is about the process through which these sub-projects are selected,” she stated.
The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Ali Adolf John Mburidiba, commended the community facilitators on their selection to support the implementation of the SOCO project in their respective communities.
He said their selection placed them in a unique position to work closely with the communities where the project was being implemented.
Mr Mburidiba said their responsibilities included interacting with traditional authorities, women, young people, persons with disabilities and other community members to champion the work of SOCO.
• Participants after the training
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FROM YAHAYA NUHU NUHU
NADAA, TAMALE
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