Unit committee members acquire communication skills

Tamale, July 13, GNA - All the 136 Unit committee members in the Tamale Municipality have benefited from an elaborate programme by Actionaid Ghana, a British Non-Governmental Organisation, to strengthen their communication skills and community participation in decentralised planning.

The programme, supported by the Department of Community Development, also aims at exposing the beneficiaries to techniques of assessing potentials in the rural areas for development, project monitoring and plan implementation.

The first batch of 48 Unit Committee members drawn from Kalariga, Dohanayilli, Bunglanfong, Vittin, Changni and Dabokpa ended a four-day workshop in Tamale at the weekend.

Mr David Langa, Community Development Officer for Actionaid, told the closing ceremony that the workshop was part of the broad objectives of Actionaid's Tamale Urban Development Programme aimed at poverty alleviation as well as water, health, sanitation, education and capacity building programmes.

He said exposing the Unit Committee Members to techniques of mobilising their communities to ensure the success of the programme would facilitate the development objectives of the Municipal Assembly.

Mr David Nsor, Tolon-Kumbungu District Director of the Department of Community Development, urged the participants to increase community participation in the implementation and management of development projects.

Mrs Ayishetu Yakubu of Actionaid asked them to be gender sensitive in all their development activities since without the active participation of women, they are bound to fail.