By Mariam Williams
The National Council for Civil Education (NCCE) in partnership with United Nations Population Fund Agency (UNFPA) office in Banjul, on Tuesday commenced a training on the Local Government Act, for 320 Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Ward Development Committees (WDCs) in four regions of the country.
Participants from the Lower River, North Bank, Central River and Upper River Regions would be taken through the Act and the role of women and youths in the decentralization process as well as Covid-19 prevention. Being held on the theme, Strengthening Decentralized Structures for Improved Local Government Administration, about 40 VDCs and WDCs would be trained in each region, according to officials.
Mr.Yusupha Bojang, Programme Manager of NCCE, explained the training is geared towards strengthening VDCs and WDCs decentralization structures in the regions. He said they have observed that there are gabs in terms of capacities of some grassroots structures, and that it’s critical to strengthen them in terms of decentralization because they are the foundation.
Bojang noted that some of them find it difficult to implement their functions or fulfill their mandates, which sometimes result to problems between them and village heads. He believed the misunderstandings are mainly as a result of these committees not knowing were their mandate and responsibility stop.
“Both have to work together to improve the wellbeing of their communities,” the NCCE Programme Officer stated, as he informed that the training is to give the participants the necessary tools to be able to effective do their work, in order to bring harmony among themselves, for enhanced and sustained community development.
The training, he went on, is to also remind them about the roles and responsibilities of youth and women in decentralized structures.
Bojang pointed out that the target is “inclusive participation” as voices of women and youth should count in decision-making processes to ensure there is peace at grassroots, ward and even regional levels.
He observed that some of them did have access to the Local Government Act but reading to understand it, is another issue, reasoning that some of them are elderly and not fortunate to be literate, with the Act written in English.
The Programme Officer called on the participants to disseminate the knowledge gained during the training as well as be prepared to put into practice what they learned.
UNFPA National Programme Associate, Mr. Bakary Juwara, said their mandate is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person realized their potential.
This was why they found it important to include VDCs and WDCs in the implementations of decentralized programmes because they believe most vulnerable women are found within local communities, explained Juwara.
The VDCs, he reminded, are meant to bring development to communities and as such, it’s important that they are trained to know their mandate, stressing that youth and women inclusion in VDCs is critical to sustainable development.
Mr. Seedy Bah, Councillor of Kwinella Ward [Kiang Central, LRR] described the training as timely, revealing that some VDCs and WDCs are not effectively functioning with some communities even without VDCs. He is optimistic that that if village heads, VDCs and WDCs know their rights, responsibilities and mandates then their communities would develop easily.
During the group-work, a civic educator highlighted the conflicts between the Alkalolou and members of the Village Development Committees(VDCs), urging that participants should look into such matters and work on them.
A native of Kwinella Village, Mr. Momodou Manneh accuses some Alkalolou whom, he alleged, would think that the community belongs to them. He, therefore, held that the civic education training came on time–as most of their village need so much sensitization on the subject matter.
While acknowledging that some of their village heads are “committed and capable”, Manneh maintained that other Alkalolou want to take their communities as their own [properties].
“We have a big problem in Alkalos,’’ he further asserted.
