EDITIONS: | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |   [ MANRECAP ] Bulletin No.16 January 2007 - March 2007 No. 16 Article #1: MANRECAP Seminar on Community Participation and Strengthening of Community Based Organizations   MANRECAP has accumulated lessons learned on Community Participatory approach and working with CBOs in the Northern region since the inception of the Project in 2004. Those experiences and lessons learned are thought to be useful for relevant officers working at a field level, who are officially responsible for strengthening and supervising Community Based Organizations (CBOs). In order to share the above mentioned experiences and lessons learned with the field level officers such as Rural Development Officers, Social Services Officers, Cultural Officers and Project Assistants, a one-day seminar on Community Participation and Strengthening of CBOs was organized by the Project on 12th February at Mannar District Office. This seminar was aimed at facilitating the field level officers to understand the importance of Community Participatory approach and to acquire knowledge about rules and regulations, and financial aspect regarding CBOs. The participants as well as District Rural Development Officer (DRDO), who is the supervisor of those officers, appreciated this seminar very much since they had realized the necessity of training programs but couldn’t do it due to lack of fund. Both DRDO and the Project agreed to continue dialogues in relation to capacity-building of CBOs as well as the field level officers.   Article #2: Micro Finance Activity   Due to deterioration of the security situation in the Northern region, the Project couldn’t invite the Women's Bank advisors from Colombo to Mannar to conduct the follow-up programs on Micro Finance activity for more than a year. Although the activity itself has been continued with a local resource person, a further support and advice is necessary to strengthen the capacity of the leaders of local Women’s Saving Groups and Regional Banks (see No.15 for further information about Regional Bank). For that purpose, the Project has organized a meeting with leaders of Regional Banks in Santhipuram and Vaddupiththanmadhu and the Women’s Bank advisors from Colombo in Tirappane, one of the nearest towns to Mannar out of North East Province.   In the meeting, some mistakes in keeping records in the Regional Banks’ passbooks were pointed out by the advisors and the practical instructions were given to the leaders from Mannar accordingly. Through this meeting, the Project could also realize the strengths and weaknesses of each Regional Bank in our focal villages and how to support them. This program will be continued once in two months.   Article #3: Rehabilitation of Village internal roads in Manthai West AGA Division   In the 3rd year of the Project, construction of village internal road was initially planed for Sewa Village, Ganeshapuram and Pali Aru in Manthai West AGA Division. The road work in Sewa Village was completed. Part of the culvert work, however, will be carried over to the 4th year due to unavailability of cement although concrete pipes were delivered at the site. As jungle clearing after reallocation of the official land in Ganeshapuram and Pali Aru was delayed, only side ditch excavation and filling was carried out in the 3rd year. These works will be continued in the 4th year. It is worth mentioning that even in the adverse security situation in the Manthai West AGA Division, MANRECAP has continued Community Managed Rehabilitation (CMR) works with CBOs to some extent, although most of rehabilitation and development works by international organizations and NGOs in the area have been interrupted. Such MANRECAP activities are very much appreciated by the people and the officers concerned as they have secured an income source when people had no other income sources. Village internal road under rehabilitation at Sewa Village     Article #4: Follow-up training program in financial management   Although leaders of CBOs have learned a basic knowledge on financial management through CMR works and other MANRECAP-supported activities, there are still some flaws in documentation and procedures in transaction. To address it, a one-day follow-up training program targeted for treasurers, presidents and secretaries of CBOs was conducted in March 2007 by the Project to confirm a basic knowledge on financial management such as documentation, maintenance of documents and monitoring of financial transaction in order for them to manage their finance in a transparent and accountable manner. 11 participants attended the program.       MANRECAP BULLETIN Editor and publisher: MANRECAP All correspondence should be addresses to: T. Saisho, MANRECAP / JICA, District Secretariat, Mannar, Sri Lanka Phone: 023 – 2250029, Fax: 023-2250067, Internet address: http://www.manrecap.com  Comments and Suggestions: info@manrecap.com  PREVIOUS MONTHLY BULLETINS | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |