On November 19 – 21, 2012, Tostan trained 90 Community Management Committee (CMC) members from 30 different communities in Mauritania on project management in order to provide them with the skills to manage community development funds. At the end of the training, each CMC received a community grant of 250,000 ouguiya (approximately $835) to implement community development projects.
The training began with conversations on the human right to work, discussing how every community member has the right to benefit from the funds by creating his or her own income-generating projects. These discussions also firmly grounded activities in a human rights framework, which is essential to all Tostan programs. Participants learned how to manage various types of income-generating activities, how to conduct project feasibility studies, how to manage financial and human resources, as well as microcredit principles for managing the fund itself.
Participants of the training expressed their excitement to learn about project management and implement income-generating projects to support their communities. They enjoyed exchanging experiences with CMC members from other communities.
Training on project management is a part of the Aawde, the final phase of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP), and follows trainings on democracy, human rights, hygiene and health, problem solving, literacy, and mathematics. At this point in the program, the CMCs are experienced in managing community activities, such as community clean-ups and vaccination campaigns. With skills in project management, communities are able to use their knowledge and training to raise funds for community development initiatives and use resources efficiently.
Read more about the recent CMC training (in French) in the Mauritanian online newspaper CRIDEM. Journalist Abdoulaye Dia provides an overview of the training, and Abou Mohamedou Diop interviews Tostan trainer Cheikh Diouf.
