civilSierra Leone News: CGG Empowers CSOs
By Emmanuel Okyne
Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) has ended a two-day training for Forty Civil society Organisations (CSOs) in the Western Area on the theme: Building an active society for improved gender responsive public service delivery especially for women and girls to attain Sustainable Development in Sierra Leone
The two days training which was held on July 1–2, 2019 at the Grassroots Gender Empowerment Movement Hall in Freetown, is part of a three-year project funded by European Union.
The project is being implemented by three organizations in different region (CGG in the Western Area, Actionaid in Bo and Centre For Coordination of Youth Activities in Bombali). It targets five sectors: Health, Education, Agriculture, Water Resources, and Social welfare. The project focuses on the Local Government Act and goal 16 of the SDGs — inclusiveness and participation, among others. The first year of the project ended in June this year.
The Project Coordinator of CGG, Ibrahim Sesay said the objective of the training was to equip CSOs with the required skills on how to solicit funding from donors.
He said the training would help CSOs to effectively build their network in fundraising, noting that many CSOs operate in the country, but they lack funding to carry out their functions. “Lots of CSOs do exist but cease operation due to lack of funding,” he said.
He added that the training will empower women and girls to access the right information that will bring about organizational change.
Princess Yambaso of Women Initiative Development Network (WINDO) thanked CGG and partners for building their capacity, adding that they have learnt new approaches to seek funding, pointing out that this was the first opportunity for training accorded to her organisation.
She gave the assurance that when they get back to their various organisations they will implement the methods learnt during the training. “The project is gender friendly as it took cognizance of women and the disabled in the different communities,” she said. “I am happy that over 400 women activists will participate in this three-year project.”
She pointed out that the three expected outcomes are a demand for policy change, shared experiences and participatory approach.
