The population of Donga Mantung has answered the clarion call to fully participate in championing peace building and development in their respective communities.
This was during the official opening of a two-day Capacity training seminar organized by the North-West Regional Assembly on Peace Development Initiatives (PDI) and Community Decentralized Activities (CDA) in Donga Mantung Division. The seminar that brought together all important stakeholders in the Division, took place on February 24, 2023 at the Nkambe council hall.
Speaking to the over 500 participants that turned out for the seminar from the 5 sub divisions of the Donga Mantung (Ako, Misaje, Ndu, Nkambe and Nwa Sub Divisions), the Divisional coordinator for PDI, Donga Mantung, Hon. Kalak Flavius Boteh highlighted that,
"Peace and development are crucial prerequisites for the maintenance of human dignity and as stakeholders, we all are called upon to collectively put hands on deck and join the band wagon of building peace and driving development in our Division, Region and Nation at large".
"It has always been the vision of the President of the North-West Regional Assembly, Prof. Fru Fobuzshi ANGWAFO III to ensure, commitment and continuous interaction and involvement of all stakeholders in peace talks towards the construction of a new North-West Region where everyone counts and is counted. Not only shall no one is left behind; but we must all move ahead together as in our proverbial slogan “U na Mi, Mi na U, Wi bi Wi” He added.
It should be noted that, since the putting in place of Regions, the North-West Regional Assembly has been able to sit and deliberate nine (9) times in plenary sessions arriving at a total of 44 deliberations. The primordial of all the deliberations were those with the vision to build peace in the North-West Region through community driven decentralized activities, a way to rebranding a new North-West. Some of the deliberations resulted in the inscription of peace building mission in the Assembly's budget and the putting in place of peace and development committees in the 34 Sub Divisions of the North-West to champion the peace mission. In this spirit, the North-West Regional Assembly seeks to drive peace and local development in our communities.
To achieve this, citizen participation is key, as it is statutory and enshrined in sections 40 and 41 of the Bill to Institute the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities, providing individuals (the Citizens, inhabitants, the public of the NWR) the opportunity to influence public decision making with regards to peace and development. We must use local solutions to local problems to drive peace and development in their respective communities.
Hon. Kalak also urged the stakeholders to through their representation, sensitize and mobilise the entire population of Donga Mantung to actively participate at all stages of the Regional development cycle (planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting) etc. "Your Regional Executive Council has been trying in its own ways to ensure that the "no one is left behind" principle is observed through this Citizen Participation". He added.
He further called on all members of Sub Divisional and Divisional Peace Development Committees, to be peace ambassadors leading by example so that one day we live in a Division and a North-West Region free of hate, jealousy, gossip, backbiting, envy, threats, verbal abuse, physical abuse of any kind, assault, battery, kidnapping, murder etc.
The North-West Regional Assembly peace building mission in Donga Mantung Division has been ongoing through concertations, consultation, award of scholarships, distribution of didactic materials, distribution of MEDSHARE PPE, organization of sporting activities, meetings etc.
And the one day capacity training seminar was organized to equip Divisional and Sub Divisional peace and development committee members on their respective functions and to highlight procedures and guidelines on how they are goingto implement the peace development initiative (PDI) through Community Decentralized Activities (CDA) using the bottom top and human intensity labour approaches (HILA).
The earmarked projects for Donga Mantung under the guideline of the Regional Executive Council, that were costed by the competent technical state service concerned (the Delegation for Public Works) include:
- The manual maintenance of 6.6km of the AKO-Dumbo Berabe road (6,000,000FCFA),
- The manual maintenance of 3km of the communal road Moh-Tchina and the leveling of the court yard of the youth empowerment center in Misaje (9,000,000FCFA),
- The manual maintenance of 6.6km of the ring road Kakar-Mbiyeh(6,000,000FCFA),
- The manual maintenance of 6.6km of the communal roads new market junction – GBHS Nkambe – Binju, Grandstand junction – ST RITA‟s college Nkambe(6,000,000FCFC).
- The manual maintenance of the first 10km of the Communal road Nwa-Ntong (9,000,000FCFA)
These projects are expected to employ about 500 targeted youths for this year and may be increased in the years to come.
During the seminar, technical guidelines and terms of reference for the implementation of human high intensity labour approach were presented. Selected experts also drilled participants on key topics like communication during crisis period, active and creative peace building activities for long lasting peace, citizen participation in peace building etc.
Worthy of note is the fact that, the North West Regional Assembly's PDI consist, a holistic approach, that brings on board evrryone in the communities - Fons, Ardos, Religious authorities, Quarter heads, Municipal Councillors, Representatives of women and youth groups, commercial bikes drivers unions, Vigilante groups/lay security agents, registered beneficiaries etc.
Joining his voice with that of Hon. Kalak, the Mayor of Nkambe, Shey Nfor Musa highlighted that, as individual citizens, we all have to keep playing the lead role of engaging on constant mass sensitization for behavior change activities in our immediate communities, with the view to; De-radicalize our youths, stop hate speech and abusive use of social media, reject violence as a means of obtaining political gains, promoting a mind shift that embraces peace and giving one another a chance to live by accepting and tolerating differences in opinion etc. "Let's Refuse to spread any inflammatory information that may jeopardize peace, denounce all those who stand against peace and local development etc. Encourage the respect for State and personal property, public institutions, emblems, and promote initiatives aimed at institutionalizing dialogue and reconciliation among members of our communities. Peace and Development Committees formed in every Sub Divisions should mediate and bring healing among afflicted persons". He added.
The next phase of the project that follows consists of field work proper where in the communities will engage in these community Decentralized Activities for peace building and development.
Source: North West Regional Assembly
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