GCR TAKING PART IN A ONE DAY PRACTICAL WORKSHOP TO DEVELOP A MONITORING SYSTEM FOR HOUSEHOLD PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE, CIVIL RIGHTS AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AT JUSTICE AND PEACE SERVICE, ARCHDIOCESE OF BAMENDA
This program was organized by Justice and Peace Service of the Archdiocese of Bamenda and it took place at Justice and Peace Service conference hall, Big Mankon, Bamenda-Cameroon on Friday 8th May, 2026. This workshop brought together over 13 participants [Civil Society Organizations, Consultants/educationist]. This program was facilitated by the Mme. Raphaela Kianda [Administrative Service Coordinator of JPS], Mr. Rinda Khaweb Banluem [MEAL officer]. For other support staff we have: Miss. Mai Maria
[Administrative Assistant] who gave media support, Miss. Tohnain Veronique [Access to Justice Officer] who gave aid to the facilitator during teaching, Miss. Ngom Tabitha [House keeper] supported in the kitchen.
Background
The importance of developing a monitoring tool to tract an indicator or activity cannot be overemphasized. However, this also requires an excellent coordination, documentation and reporting of data collected. Equally, collecting data for incident or baseline data on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice [KAP] on a certain aspect is equally very essential since it helps people to understand if peoples’ knowledge, attitude and practice on a particular subject is acceptable by the Society or the State. For example, getting
married below 18 years is not legal but however, you may still have some communities or families that find nothing wrong with that [early marriage]. Furthermore, you may have other families that consider it okay not to send their children to school. This workshop was trying to bridge this gap to develop a tool that will collect data in the household on aspects like abuse, exploitation, deprivation of child rights, GBV, coordination in the household and decision making. This is very excellent because cases like rape in the community will easily be reported in this tool: hence immediate response or referrals. The data
received will also be used for advocacy and as a baseline data by other partners.
Objectives
The over-all objective of this practical workshop was to develop a monitoring system for household participation in governance, civil rights and community participation.
Methodology
This workshop adopted an interactive method wherein participants contributed strongly on household participation in governance, civil rights and community participation. There was equally group work on:
- Designing the monitoring framework [session 1]
i. Key indicators for household participation, governance and
civil rights
ii. Data collection methods
iii. Frequency and reporting structure (quarterly focus) - Tools implementation strategy [session 2]. i. Development of simple data collection tools (templates, checklists)
ii. Proposed questions on template. Result
The objective of this training was met. However, a WhatsApp group has been
created comprising of the participants and JRS staff. This group will equally
review the monitoring tool when its has been established [this does not mean
that they are the only ones to review the tool] before being deployed. Conclusion
The program was excellent and the main goal was achieved.
