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Category: News

Published on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 12:08

Written by Brenda Onyino

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CDF Board conducted a sensitization and awareness campaign programme in Coast Region that covered three main stakeholder categories which are crucial to the successful implementation of the Fund and these are: Members of the CDF committees, the CDF implementing Partners and the Local media.

The training sought to provide the framework that enlightens and guides the three groups on important issues such as the CDF’s role, mandate and scope; leveraging the media as special partners in the programmes implementation; public procurement; decentralization and local governance, the role of community leaders and members in the planning and execution of CDF Relationship between CDFC’s and other development partners within the constituency

Specifically the training sought to;

• Promote positive interaction and relationship building among key CDF stakeholders for sound management based on proper knowledge of CDF’s mandate and objective
•  Propagate relationship building between the various CDF stakeholders and other agents of development at regional levels;
• Empower the CDF-Cs to communicate CDF issues in a more integrated and knowledgeable manner through training, knowledge sharing, awareness building and the adoption of best practices;
• Increase knowledge and awareness and build support for CDF among key stakeholders
• Provide forum for public debate on policy matters relating to CDF and CDF issues
• Engaging media through training to increase their level of awareness of, and reporting on CDF and CDF issues.

The support by all stakeholders is critical to the success of all programmes. Such programmes are often exposed to great risks when the institutions that steer them do not put in place adequate mechanisms to secure all round support among stakeholders. Such mechanism include adopting a strategic approach to educate both the internal and external stakeholders of the programme to guarantee full participation, informed by the stakeholders’ clear understanding of the program’s mandate, goals and scope.

It is understood that the CDF is a new concept and perhaps the biggest and most comprehensive form of fiscal decentralization that has been initiated by the government of Kenya since independence. It’s greatest achievement therefore is the shifting of project formulation and implementation from line ministries to communities thereby encouraging local initiatives, ownership, participation supervision, the offshoot of which, it is expected greater accountability and enhanced sense of ownership among the local communities

 The current CDF strategic plan identifies the following issues as part of the challenges facing the implementation of CDF:

• Weak governance structures
• Lack of capacity among CDF committees and project Management Committees
• Low participation of local communities in project identification and management due to lack of awareness
•  Non adherence to Constituency Strategic Plan
• Low technical involvement form line ministries
• Weak compliance to procedures and regulations such as those guiding procurement of services and goods
•  Negative publicity

The strategic plan has, thus, recommended extensive public awareness initiatives to ensure that there is proper understanding of the CDF by all members of the community. Consequently, the Fund’s Board has, given priority to:

• Capacity Building
• Improvement of Governance, and Efficiency
• Strengthening of Linkages and Communication

The general lack of capacity among those charged with the day to day running of the Fund, coupled with lack of knowledge among the members of the communities of their role in the conceptualization planning and implementation of development projects financed through the CDF therefore necessitates the training and other forms of awareness creation to among the things;

• Equip the fund’s managers/ committees with the necessary skills to manage the Funds in accordance with the existing legal structures
•  Close the existing knowledge within the citizenry and enlighten the implementing partners/ community leaders on their duties and rights as set out in the CDF Act 
• Create synergy among all the diverse stakeholder groups for smooth and speedy implementation of the CDF projects

Expected Outcomes of the Campaign

•  Increase levels of awareness of CDF and its projects
•   Increased participation of citizens in CDF
•  Decreased misconceptions about CDF
•  Decreased negative publicity
• Increased positive and analytical media reports of CDF and its programmes
• Increased understanding and relationships between members of the CDF –c ommittees and implementations partners
•  Improved understanding of media and how to involve them in creating positive image for CDF and CDF programmes
• More efficient planning and implementation of CDF
• Reduced controversy over project prioritization
• Enhanced efficiency in project implementation

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