A four-day workshop holding in Edea ends this Friday.

Mayors and Council development staff are undergoing a four-day Training Of Trainers workshop to reinforce their capacity on maintaining structures realised by the National Community-driven Development Programme, PNDP in Littoral Region.

Opening the workshop in Edea in the Sanaga Maritime Division, the Senior Divisional Officer, Abah Abah Prosper Alain, said it comes to attest of government’s willingness to ensure effective decentralisation. The Littoral Regional PNDP Coordinator, Bekack Olivier Hermann, said a lot of projects had been abandoned because people do not know who is doing what. He said most projects are not being handled, so trainees have to be trained to train others so that together they work to ensure that they are efficiently executed.

The main objective of the workshop is to give council development agents the know-how and tools to help them run project management committees. The workshop involves 23 mayors and 23 Council development staff from most councils in the region.

An official in charge of infrastructure, Nkolo Essimi Marie Jeanne, said in 2010, they launched a micro project in Manjo and 10 projects are still to be realised while two have been endorsed. She added that the other 22 councils are still carrying out feasibility studies which will soon be over, after which Senior Divisional Officers will validate the council plans. Councils will then sign agreements with PNDP to co-finance the micro projects.

The company that wins the bid will be followed up by the management committee and maintain the infrastructure realised. Each project will have one management committee with members living where it is executed. It is for this reason that the workshop is organised to give participants knowledge on how to maintain the structures.