Commonwealth Provides Grant to NESA Associates for West African Climate Change Action Symposium

A consortium of NESA associates, headed by Alpha Jallow, recently learned that their proposal to organize a three-day conference on climate change action has been approved. The West African Symposium on Climate Change Action will be the first large-scale conference held in West Africa to focus on concrete strategies and techniques for working with African rural communities as they struggle to cope with the changes that are upon them. Speakers and workshops will centre on what has proven successful at the community level in terms of practice, community mobilization and innovation adoption. A Designing a Curriculum (DACUM) session will be held at the end of the symposium to provide the basis for the development of a course for African development workers on climate change action.

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Don, former director of Okanagan University College's International Development Centre (IDC), has more than 15 years of field experience administering community-based development projects in West Africa and has acted as project director for several CIDA-funded projects in Ghana and The Gambia. His primary focus in these projects has been on researching principles of participatory community development and helping to build these into unique, experiential, culturally relevant programs (which he also co-facilitated with African counterparts) for the training of rural community development workers. These projects are summarized below:

Gambia Rural Adult Instructor Training (GRAIT) Program:
(ACCC, completed 1996)

GRAIT trained Gambian rural community development workers from non-government and government organizations in practical instructional and community mobilization skills.

Ghana Rural Animator Training (GRAT) program:
(ACCC, project completed 2000, delivery ongoing)

This project has developed unique, practical, culturally appropriate curriculum for the training of community development workers. Since its first delivery four years ago, it has graduated more than 200 participants from Ghana and surrounding West African countries.

West African Rural Development (WARD) Centre:
(AUCC, project completed 2006, delivery ongoing)

WARD is now a thriving Centre training community development workers from across West Africa. WARD has developed and is delivering 18 one-week modules in a variety of key development areas identified by African development personnel. Completion results in a Rural Community Development Practitioner Diploma. WARD also provides certificate programs and contract training services. WARD was a finalist in the 13th Annual Canadian Awards for International Co-operation and the subject of the award-winning Knowledge Network documentary, The Gambia: Communities in Action.

University for Development Studies Capacity-Building project:
(CIDA, completed 2005)

This CIDA bilateral project assisted UDS to create and operate a contract training department, improve administrative procedures, create a two-year diploma in development, and improve instructional quality.

International Youth Intern Program (IYIP):
(CIDA, 45 internships since 1998)

Selection, preparation, placement and support of young professionals for West African development intern placement.

Community Development Management Training:
(AUCC, began 2002, project ongoing)

Using extensive DACUM processes and consultative planning, this project is developing an intensive, practical program to train Ghanaian field workers attached to non-government and government development organizations in the skills and knowledge necessary to work more effectively in development management capacities. The project is a collaborative program of the University for Development Studies and the University of BC, Okanagan. (Management involvement ended in 2004.)

Training projects have been acknowledged by participants and NGOs sponsors alike as being effective, practical and innovative and that they have contributed to changing the face of development activity in the Wet African sub-region. Other NESA associates, including Wayne Lundeberg, Kellie Flynn and Alpha Jallow, have contributed to the success of these projects and have extensive experience in international development.

Don and his NESA colleagues can provide international development services in such areas as:

Project management DACUM facilitation Facilitator training Curriculum development training Intern preparation and orientation Community development training and    consulting

Project evaluation Proposal writing and editing Curriculum design Canadian development    presentations RBM reporting Cross-cultural training