The skills of village council clerks to effectively write projects for submission to funding agencies have been significantly enhanced through a series of ongoing capacity building workshops.
The workshops which began last week in Rosalie are being spearheaded by the Dominica Association of local Government Authorities (DALCA).
On Friday May 24th clerks from the South and South East regions of the island met for day two of their session at the Flamboyant Hotel in Roseau.
Recently appointed administrative Manager of DALA Junella Trotman in an interview with the Government Information Service (GIS) on Friday said these training exercises are important as efforts are continuing to assist village councils across the country to become more efficient.
“The objective of the training is to teach them skills in strategic planning, leadership, lobbying, project writing” the DALCA official said.
DALCA recently received funding from VNG International through the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA) areal project to enhance the capacity of Village councils on the island.
Ms. Trotman reported that participants have been embracing the training exercises wholeheartedly.
“You could see the participation of everyone, they are really happy about this training because for a long time they felt like they were neglected. Now that DALCA is becoming a force, the organization is really looking out for them” remarked Trotman.
The DALCA official confirmed that as a result of the training the clerks will be able to go back to their respective communities to help build their councils.
Assisting the village council clerks in developing strategic plans is newly appointed field officer Vincienne George.
Ms. George has promised to work with the councils to ensure that these plans are developed in a professional manner to attract funding.
“I am the person assigned to visit the village councils on a regular basis to oversee their projects and to advice on how they can be developed”.
Ms.George noted that it’s important that the projects identified by the village councils are sustainable.
“There are certain requirements which the donor agencies look for and I will use the opportunity to assist the councils in meeting those requirements to enable them to receive funding for these projects” she stated.
A similar workshop is planned for village council clerks of the North and North east regions next week in Portsmouth.