By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of the implementation of the Building Accountability Systems Through Empowered Communities (BASE) Project, which is funded by United States Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL), one of the five local organizations implementing the project in the country, has on Friday 1st March, 2024 concluded a two day comprehensive training for CSOs, media practitioners, local council staff and traditional authorities at the Western Rural District.
The training, held at the Western Rural District Council Hall in Waterloo targeted CSO representatives, media practitioners, local council staff and traditional authorities from six project districts and focused on identifying service delivery bottlenecks, fostering collaborative CSO/media advocacy, facilitating social accountability processes as well as on how to establish local development and accountability groups at the district level.
Addressing participants, the Project Officer, of the Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL), Alie Timbo, pointed out that the project is geared towards supporting Councils to improve on transparency and accountability with a feedback system geared towards improving service delivery and increasing trust in citizens’ perception on the delivery of services.
He said within its framework, CARL is committed to contributing to the achievement of two key outcome indicators which include increased participation of citizens in local government, political processes and promotion of transparency in local revenue management, fostering responsiveness among Local Councils and Chiefdom Authorities to citizens’ needs.
Alie Timbo further stated that the project’s focus spans six district local councils including Western Rural, Karene, Falaba, Karene Tonkolili, Kono and Moyamba.
He pointed out that the training sessions in all the project districts encompass various critical areas, including identifying bottlenecks in decentralized service delivery, collaborative CSO/media advocacy for enhanced service delivery, facilitating collaborative social accountability processes and Establishing District Local Development and Accountability Groups.
The Project Officer also disclosed that one of the primary activities within the training initiative focused on understanding the institutional landscape responsible for decentralized service delivery in Sierra Leone as participants delved into the roles and responsibilities of key institutions involved in decentralization and community service delivery across the country.
On her part, the Resident Technical Facilitator at the Western Area Rural District Council, Elizabeth Beah, expressed appreciation to the Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law for the training which she described as very important towards supporting Councils in order to improve on transparency and accountability with a feedback system to increase trust on service delivery and citizens’ perception on the delivery of services.
She maintained that the training will improve local revenue mobilization within the Council, adding that during the training they looked at identifying bottlenecks affecting them which includes late disbursement of funds to the Council, difficulties posed by Councillors especially on transparency and accountability but said with this training it has equipped them to address those bottlenecks.
Chief Muctar M. Sillah, Section Chief, Waterloo, also applauded the move by Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law in addressing some of the bottlenecks bedeviling Councils and by extension the people.
He said even as traditional leaders they also have an obligation to their people in terms of service delivery of which he stated that the training has equipped him to know the various areas which he said will improve service delivery in his community.
The training made provision for group discussions among the participants on various areas related to identifying service delivery bottlenecks, fostering collaborative CSO/media advocacy, facilitating social accountability processes and establishing local development and accountability groups at the district level.
