As part of their joint program Solidar Suisse and Labo-Citoyennetés initiated a training workshop this Tuesday, November 28, 2017 for members of partner associative networks in Zorgho. Techniques for drawing up and managing the communal budget it was on this theme that participants exchanged this morning in the conference room of the Zorgho high commission.
“Supporting the strengthening of local democracy and citizen participation in the Central Plateau” is one of the activities of this program. The workshop in question is led by two consultants, using a participatory approach involving brainstorming, presentations followed by exchanges, group work and plenary sessions. Participants include four (4) members of each network’s coordination team (Fédération Vénégré des Associations pour l’Action Citoyenne, Coalition des OSC pour la Promotion de la Démocratie de Méguet, Comité d’Actions Citoyennes de Zorgho), as well as a representative from each town hall, radio station and regional council.
The general aim of this training course was to enable participants to reinforce their knowledge and skills in the techniques for drawing up and managing communal budgets. For more than three hours, participants exchanged views with their trainers on various budget-related topics, including budget types, components, budget preparation and management techniques, and implementation procedures. At the end of the course, participants praised the workshop’s initiative.
Albert Tarpaga: “This training session is most welcome. As a communicator, this knowledge will help me raise awareness on the radio, so that people will embrace this idea for more effective and efficient management of our communes”
Like Albert Tarpaga, Ousmane Sawadogo affirms “This training has enabled us to familiarize ourselves with the techniques for drawing up and executing a communal budget. Thanks to the workshop, we know what a budget is. Everything we learned will be very useful to us as a member of a civil society organization. Not only does it enable us to really know what is provided for in the budget, and the procedures for its execution; we will also be able to monitor the activities planned in our communes”.
While training in techniques for drawing up and managing the communal budget was taking place at the Haut-commissariat, at Zorgho town hall it was the communal consultation framework that was being held. In 2017, the commune of Zorgho undertook to update its communal plan. To this end, Labo-citoyenneté and Solidar Suisse are providing financial and technical support to the commune. The commission in charge of drawing up this CDP is made up of fifty-five (55) participants, including the mayor, municipal councillors, CSOs, projects and programs and department heads. It met today to draw up a plan. On the agenda was the presentation of the commune’s vision through the elaboration of the CDP, the gathering of the needs of certain structures that had not been able to be transmitted during the clusters, and finally the planning of priority actions.
During the discussions, the committee decided to set out a vision for the commune of Zorgho for the next five (5) years. To make Zorgho a commune capable of ensuring access to and quality of basic social services, and of boosting growth sectors by relying on virtuous local governance – that is the title of the commune’s vision for the period to 2021. To make this vision a reality, the commission proposes a number of priority actions to be carried out. These include improving access to basic social services such as education, health and drinking water, creating jobs, extending housing estates and developing unbuilt plots, strengthening citizen participation in the commune’s development, etc.
According to Ludovic Sanou, deputy mayor of Zorgho, “all development sectors have been taken into account, not one has been omitted”. The consultation framework ended its first day of meetings with the planning of priority actions for the implementation of the communal development plan. A date has therefore been set for Wednesday November 29 for the continuation of the activities of the consultation framework.
