Civil Society Actors Discuss New Partnership Avenues

/By Macdonald Ayang Okumb/

   Actors of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, in South West Cameroon recently brainstormed on possibilities of establishing fruitful Public/Private partnerships as a veritable avenue towards fostering community development.

Esther Omam: Reach Out Cameroon Director

This was during a two-day workshop organised on 4^th and 5^th June 2015 by one civil society organistaion, Reach Out Cameroon, in collaboration with the  Civil Society Strengthening Programme, known by the French acronym PASC.  The workshop was within the framework of a subvention granted by the latter.

     It rallied members from over twenty civil society groups who, inter alia, made exhibitions of some of their products and services during the two days. The workshop, apart from availing participants of the opportunity to listen to exposés from resource persons, also took a participatory approach as the attendees broke up into groups from time to time to ponder on and share ideas relevant to topics related to the theme.

   The panel discussions and exposés for the two days touched, among other things, on; the corporate social responsibility of CSOs as a gateway to community development, their role as development actors, how to engage councils, companies and government agencies as well as building corporate partnerships, understanding what Public/Private/CSOs partnership is all about, how CSOs can attain legitimacy and difficult government and donor requirements, communication as well as building relationships, to mention just these.

   The Executive Director of Reach Out Cameroon, Esther Omam Njomo, while addressing the opening ceremony of the workshop, stressed its importance. She said it sought to “create a platform for developing a culture of information sharing and eliminating existing barriers between CSOs, the public/private sectors, as well as promote sustained and resourceful interface between communities, corporate bodies and government services for development and improved governance practices, through the use of dialogue spaces and opportunities for experience sharing and capitalisation of best practices.”

   Mrs. Oman went on that the end results of the project were tailored towards the improvement of livelihood conditions of the local people. Hear her; “…this effort is geared at bringing new light to development organisations in our region… we all have a responsibility to do our part, but we cannot do it alone...partnership is critical, governments-national and local, private sector and civil society groups need to join hands in order to promote social actions that will ensure sustainable development…”

   The Governor’s representative (the Social and Cultural Affairs Division Head at the Governor’s Office), representative of the Regional Delegate for the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, together with the 4^th deputy Mayor of the Buea council, who spoke at the event, were all unanimous that civil societies play a critical role in community development. They thus lauded PASC as well as the relay organisation (Reach Out) for organising such a workshop which, they sustained, was a veritable template towards such development efforts.

   At the close of the workshop, some of the participants who spoke to the press held that their time spent was worth the salt as they had gathered adequate ideas to enable their respective organisations establish and maintain such rapprochement with corporate entities with the attendant goal of enhancing community growth.