NRCS Communications And Advocacy Officer/CEA FP, Mofe Amoma facilitating a session
The NRCS in its commitment to further improve its services and fulfil its mandate in alleviating human suffering recently held a workshop in Lokoja, Kogi State to develop a Policy on community engagement and accountability, CEA.
During the session, it was unanimously agreed that when the acronym CEA is mentioned, all the participants should chorus in response, ''Community voice is key''.
However, when the session reconvened after a 30-minute break, about 90 participants in the hall were thrown into laughter when a distracted participant shouted action in response to the aforementioned acronym.
Director of Programs. Adeyemo Andronicus, facilitating a session
We later discovered that the 'action participant' was distracted by an alert - money. Who says money no get power?
While the laughter lingered for a minute, I thought about the word 'action' nodding to myself. Indeed, it is high time, we took 'action' to develop a Community Engagement and Accountability [CEA] Policy - a document that would provide guidelines on how the NRCS engages communities.
It is time, and the time is now.
This workshop is in the right direction.
My name is Amoma Mofe Terah, Communication and Advocacy Officer/Community Engagement and Accountability, [CEA] Focal Point at the National Headquarters of the NRCS.
The three-day Training/Policy Workshop which is supported by the British Red Cross, [BRC] as part of the institutionalization process of CEA in NRCS, had in attendance participants from all parts of the country. This is to ensure representative deliberation and contributions.
National Communication and Advocacy Adviser, Victor Achugbule and Director Disaster Management, Benson Agbro addressing the participants
Kicking the ball rolling was the welcome address of the National Communication Adviser, Mr. Victor Achugbule, as well as the Director, of Disaster Management, Mr. Benson Agbro and Director of Programs Mr. Andronicus Adeyemo who admonished the participants to make meaningful contributions that would positively impact how they would engage communities, given that they are the executors of the policy.
The sessions covered an introduction to CEA, CEA in the program cycle, feedback mechanisms, NRCS Road map to CEA, psychological First Aid, case studies, as well as the development of the actual policy.
Shuffling the participants simultaneously into various teams at different times gave the sessions the Nigerian Jollof vibe watered down with cold zobo as described by the participants.
A cross-section of participants at the workshop
