By Rodgers Omondi, Busia
The county government of Busia together with the Dhamira Moja CBO, a community-based organization, have signed an MOU to establish proper channels of engagement and collaboration to better service delivery in the county in different areas of engagements.
Speaking during the signing of the MOU, Busia County secretary Oscar Juma indicated the critical role partners play in helping the county government in the execution of its mandate adding that the signing of the documents is formalizing and appreciating their contributions.
“The cooperation is going to help in complementing the county government’s mandate of service delivery to our people. They have been important partners in various activities and engagements and this agreement makes our partnership better. We have agreed to collaborate in areas such as education, budget implementation, community-based ventures among other areas.
The county secretary further lauded the role the organization has been playing through their participation in policy formation.
“Many policies that we have formed and adapted as the county government; they have been great contributors. In regards to the signed document, they are going to help us in policy designing and various governance instruments so that we can have better service delivery to our people” he said
Dhamira Moja executive director Sarah Martha said the partnership will see them engage and collaborate with the county government for the benefit of the citizens.
“We have agreed to work with the county government through pulling resources together in cash and time so as to help our people. In our MOU we will collaborate in several fields including education, skilling and mentorship, community health and wellness, advocacy and good governance, environmental conservation and climate action and economic empowerment.” She said.
She further stressed that despite the partnership, they will continue executing their mandate of holding them accountable.
“Our mandate as the CSO is to hold our duty bearer accountable and that will continue despite this agreement. We will extend the capacity building and strengthening initiatives to the county government officers so that they understand that as we serve the people, we are pushing the same agenda of better service delivery for our people.” She said.
She further noted that the agreement will help to open the space that promotes proactive activism into promoting mobilizing support.
“We are no longer engaging in reactive activism, nor competing with the government; we are committed to complementing their work because we serve the same people. We are going to do our oversight role strategically.
She further indicated that they have played a bigger role in environmental conservation and climate action through disaster risk reduction, stating that they will continue to work with young people.
“We have engaged 5250 young people in the last four month in making sure we come up with initiatives that help us and ensures we involve them in direct implementation of our programs towards environmental conservation.” She said
