A one-week training of trainers workshop on participatory planning to build capacity of district level staff to enable them respond to the needs of rural communities has taken place in Bole. In a speech, the head of the facilitating team of the workshop, Dr Sylvester Galaa of the University of Development Studies (UDS), said the workshop was organised by the Northern Regional Poverty Reduction Project (NORPREP) for 30 participants drawn from the Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Districts and funded jointly by the International Fund for agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Ghana. He explained that participants were taken through topics including overview of NORPREP, facilitation, community mobilisation and entry, community-led development planning concept and approaches. Other topics include gender and gender mainstreaming in development, disability and mainstreaming disability issues in development, advocacy and rights based approach, and development of community action plan. In an address delivered at the opening of the week-long training workshop, the Human Resource Development specialist for NORPREP, Mrs Amama Kaleem Habib, explained that the workshop was also aimed at building capacities of participants drawn from the decentralised departments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and civil society organisations to facilitate or animate planning and mainstream gender, advocacy and disability issues in planning. The participants would after the training, be required to also build capacity of sub-district staff at the Area Councils, who will in turn facilitate the development of community action plan in their respective selected communities. Mrs Habib noted that the training workshop will further operationalise the decentralisation process as well as ensure that the poverty reduction programme is pursued effectively. She further indicated that the training was concurrently being held in four other districts including Tamale, Bimbilla, Yendi and Zabzugu Districts; covering a total of ten districts in the Northern Region. Earlier, the Bole District Chief Executive, Madam Elizabeth Salamatu Forgor, remarked that the NORPREP, was established under the loan agreement in 2003, between the Government of Ghana and the International Fund for agriculture development, and aimed at improving the livelihoods and living conditions of poor rural communities with emphasis on women and other vulnerable groups. Madam Forgor noted that the programme would culminate in deepening and broadening rural services and community and individual self-help capacity and that it was specifically to build capacity of decentralised local government, civil society and community organisations to better respond to the needs of the poorest strata of the population. The DCE stated that the programme was supporting the institutionalisation of community demand-driven approach within the decentralised system of governance by improving the capacity of communities to express their demands effectively, and monitor and evaluate socio-economic development programmes. The Northern Regional Poverty Reduction Project was organising the initial training of trainers workshop in participatory planning to build the capacity of the communities to come out with community action plans that would reflect their needs and priorities. The community action plans would be harmonised into area level plans for approval by the various districts assemblies. All communities and Area Council plans, she noted, would be required to include a strategy for addressing gender, poverty and disability issue. Further more communities would be required to produce profiles for each proposed sub project, indicating the people and groups involved to ensure that all voices are heard. Madam Forgor therefore, urged participants to take the training seriously to enable them to acquire skills and knowledge they would be expected to impact to those at the lower structures to assist the beneficiary communities identify their felt needs and priorities for support by NORPREP. Source: GNA