NGO leaders trained in management

A management-training course for 100 leaders of local NGOs intervening in the health sector has ended in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui.

The course, conducted from 13 to 14 February, was on leadership, good governance and management. "This workshop aimed at reinforcing the capacities of NGO leaders as well as the partnership between NGOs and the government," Louis Namboua, the director of public health at the health ministry told IRIN on 14 February.

Up until now, he said, NGOs had lacked the capability to manage grants efficiently. Most specialise in issues of vaccination, mothers' and babies' health, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and sanitation. He said 80 NGOs dealing with health issues had been registered so far.

The secretary-general of Jeunes en mission pour l'avenir (JMA), Benjamin Dopi, told IRIN, "Our NGOs are facing problems of management linked mainly to havong no notion of good governance."

"From now on, we know how one must run an NGO without confusing one’s own properties with those of the NGO," he added.

When rebels invaded Bangui on 25 October 2002, local NGOs contributed greatly to the exhumation and reburial of corpses and the disinfection of wells situated near to where corpses had been badly buried or not buried at all.

The two-day workshop was technically and financially supported by the UN World Health Organisation, which disbursed 2.2 million francs CFA (US $3,000) towards the effort.