North West : Councils To Better Respect Rights In Programming

The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West Region, one of whose missions is to ensure fairness in the relationship between councils and the users and beneficiary populations, has empowered Regional Assembly officials, Mayors and Secretaries General of Councils to better render services. This was during a capacity building workshop for Regional and Council services that took place at the headquarters of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator on October 26 and 27, 2023.
Talking on the motivation of the workshop, the Public Independent Conciliator Tamfu Simon Fai raised violations and morose relationships between councils and service users. He explained that, “In two years of operation, the Public Independent Conciliator has discovered from the survey we conducted in 2022 that the populations perceive Councils in the North West Region as violators of their rights and freedoms. The people also accuse Councils of gender-based discrimination against women, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and marginalized populations.”  The workshop was therefore organized to fill the gap by enhancing the knowledge of the council’s officials on human rights and freedoms, educate them on rights-based programming and mainstreaming inclusiveness and gender equality in council functioning and to provide them with tools to monitor, protect, enforce, respect and promote rights.
The officials head services and are duty bearers to serve the populations of the North West Region by involving them in their council’s activities.  The Public Independent Conciliator Tamfu Simon Fai summarized...