The county government of Busia has signed an MoU with Dhamira Moja, a CBO, with a view to establishing proper channels of engagement to improve service delivery in the area.
Speaking during the signing of the MoU, Busia County Secretary, Oscar Juma underscored the critical role partners play in helping the county government in the execution of its mandate, adding that signing of the documents, meant formalizing and appreciating their contributions.
The cooperation is going to help in complementing the county government’s mandate of service delivery to our people, since 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, and community-based ventures among other areas, added Juma.
Additionally, the County Secretary lauded the role the organization has been playing through their participation in policy formation.
“In 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.
However, Martha stressed that despite the partnership, they will continue executing their mandate of holding county officials accountable.
“Our mandate as the CBO 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, pushing the same agenda of better service delivery for our people,” she said.
Furthermore, Martha 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 said.
Meanwhile, the Director pointed out the key role her organization has played 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 months in making sure we come up with initiatives that ensures, we involve them in direct implementation of our programs towards environmental conservation,” said Martha.
by Salome Alwanda & Rodgers Omondi
