Project News

In the Project on Self-Sustainable Community Empowerment Network Formulation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Province, capacity building of local government staff is one of the important components as well as community empowerment. NAD Province has lost many of its competent local government staff due to prolonged conflict and earthquake/tsunami disaster in December 2004. Thus, capacity building of local government staff is important so that they can support the development of communities.

photo:Participants in Financial Management sector taking pre-test

In Phase I, 3 training sectors; Financial Management, Civil Engineering, and Public Health were selected after discussions with local government and investigation of past similar trainings. Trainings were conducted from the end of July to August, 2007 at Provincial Training Center (DIKLAT) in Banda Aceh City.

Training modules were made by Indonesian, mostly Acehnese experts for each sector. Many group works, discussions, field trip were included for the trainings to be participatory.

In Financial Management sector, 30 financial management officers and treasurers participated in. The objective of this training was to be able to manage the financial matters at each office in accordance with the new Ministry of Interior Regulation enacted in 2006. In Civil Engineering sector, the focus was put on the maintenance of roads and bridges, and 32 people took part in. This is because many roads and bridges have been reconstructed after the 2004 disaster and maintenance of these infrastructures will be more important than ever. In Public Health sector, 30 participants were invited; mostly the heads of health centers (Puskesmas). The training was to learn how to design annual plan for health center.

photo:Participants in Civil Engineering Sector checking the condition of a bridge in the field trip

After training, participants said; “Now I know the new regulation for financial management, so I’m confident in conducting my daily work.”, “It was the first time for me to attend the training focusing on maintenance. It was directly related to my daily work. I learned what kind of treatment is needed to what type of damage.”, “I knew we have many problems in our health center, but I didn’t know how to plan activities to solve them. When I come back to me health center, I want to make our own annual plan.”

It is expected that training participants will utilize the skills and knowledge they gained through trainings and improve their daily work.

photo:Participants in Public Health sector making a problem tree before designing annual plan