Community participation vital, says manager

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday 3rd May 2013

 By ABIGAIL APINA 

ACTIVE community participation is the key to building and empowering people, Bukaurban council manager Brenda Tohiana says.

“It should not only be seen as a pre-requisite, but also accepted as critical to the success of development project,” she said.

She said community participation safeguarded local commitment and was crucial for effective development projects. 

“Experience also shows that communities with high credit ratings of participation apply for and receive more funding,” Tohiana said.

She said an equally important factor to allow for effective practical community participation was to ensure projects achieved their objectives and benefits go to community groups.

Tohiana said community participation was crucial to the success of projects at the district level. 

“It is also important to work with community leaders at LLG level at the planning stage of a development project right through to the implementation stage so that the issue of ownership is not questioned,” she said.

Tohiana said the structure and systems of government in the districts were good. 

“It’s the people who man the systems who must re-define their approaches to doing business at administering service delivery in the districts,” she said.

Tohiana said partnering with community stakeholders was one approach to overcome capacity constraints.