Coalition Trains Chiefdom Development Committees

Coalition Trains Chiefdom Development Committees

Since the introduction of the DACDF, the Coalition has been monitoring the Fund to ensure it is utilized for the intended purpose as well as for promoting democratic and transparent behaviour in the management of community resources.

Key activities of the Coalition have been sensitizing the beneficiary communities on the sources, rationale, purpose and amount of DACDF money received so far by the chiefdoms, monitoring community projects undertaken and training of members of the Chiefdom Development Committees the real managers of the Fund on finance management, leadership skills, human relationships, needs assessment, mining licensing processes, etc.

Between June and August 2003, the Coalition (NMJD, CRS, the Ministries of Mineral Resources and Local Government and Community Development) undertook the training of CDCs in a total of 15 beneficiary chiefdoms of the DACDF in the Eastern and Southern regions. The training exercise was preceded by the development of selection criteria, which amongst other things included: the presence of a CDC in the chiefdom, the amount of money the chiefdom gets and the number and status of projects undertaken with the DACDF resources. Similar training exercise was done in Barri and Malen chiefdoms in Pujehun district last year.

The training sessions were useful in promoting dialogue between ordinary community people and their chiefdom authorities on an issue that was already beginning to fragment certain communities DACDF money.

Although the training was highly appreciative, it could not cover all the beneficiary chiefdoms mainly because available resources to organise the training for all the chiefdoms limited the coalition.