So long, farewell

The last few days in Cameroon - finishing up my work and saying goodbye to all the lovely people I've met here.

On Tuesday morning I sat in on my last TAP committee meeting. The Transparency Accountability and Participation committee was set up as part of the Santa Council partnership with VSO, and comprises some councillors, staff members and VSO volunteers. I've been working with them throughout, and I'd suggested using this meeting to review their one-year action plan, 6 months after it was developed. It's all very well to create action plans, but the real challenge is to make sure that people implement them - just like back home in Wales!

The meeting crystalised some of the problems faced in organisational development here - people came and went so we started an hour late, only 2 people had brought their copies of the plan so someone had to walk over to the council offices to photocopy it again, some actions had not yet been costed, outcomes not specific enough, monitoring not built in securely. But we smartened it up, and I think my presence helped to reinforce the long-term volunteer's approach, emphasising the effective methods but leaving the decisions on content up to the local people, whose plan it is.

This VSO approach was clear when we organised a 2-day workshop on the Local Economic Development Plan. Originally devised in 2005, the plan hasn't been effective since 2006. A review late in 2009 had restarted the process, and the workshop in April aimed to set it off again with a new 5-year plan and a LED committee to implement it. This time the Council has already allocated 2.5 million francs in funding, so there is a better chance of effective work with the broad aim of raising income levels.

A mixed group of about 35 people included councillors, members of village development associations, common initiative groups (mainly farming), representatives of central government departments and finance groups. We presented methodology like action learning and SMART planning, which many have experienced already. The TAP committee facilitated small group work, reflecting on the lessons learned from past experience and deciding on the way forward, making outline plans for 5 economic areas. For me it was very interesting to see the outcomes. Some of the goals look rather unrealistic but it is definitely their plan, and they will need to get expert assistance in each area of economic activity in order to tune it more finely and get it to work.

My main task here was on helping the council to engage more with the community, so I ran a workshop last week for the councillors. There were some lively small group discussions, devising strategies for dealing with issues and problems they face in trying to interact with the community. It is much more emotionally political here - hostility towards councillors of an opposing party, rivalries with traditional rulers, some village organisations not letting the Santa councillor speak!

Some input from Wales was well received, ideas like having community champions, using local radio, publishing councillor allowances and developing a code of conduct for councillors. I've already had good feedback from the workshop, as the First Deputy Mayor used some of my material when he spoke to a village association on Wednesday, telling them what their councillor should be doing for them!

So, on Tuesday afternoon came my send-off. Speeches, presents, photographs, a late lunch - I was fine till the 3 council boys gave me a framed certificate with thanks for their training in Excel! Overwhelming. The Mayor invited me round to his home afterwards for a glass of wine and his wife gave me a jar of her ground-nuts. They proudly showed me their pigs out the back - very cute piglets.

The Mayor had been busy all day with the Senior Divisional Officer, as there has been serious trouble between 2 villages over a land dispute (fighting with guns!) What a mixture of responsibilities here, the Mayor sorts out stuff like that, getting all the traditional rulers in together, but then he has to ask the SDO for permission to fill 6 vacant posts as revenue collectors and the like. Imagine if the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council had to ask permission from WAG to fill a clerical post?

Ah well, I could stay here years and not understand it all. I would like to stay longer, or at least, come back and see how they are getting on. I'm hoping for emails and skype to keep me in touch with what's happening here, with other volunteers, local people, action plan updates...