In a bid to sharpen members of its partner Community-Based Organisations’ (CBOs) capacity development skills, the UK Department for International Development’s Mobilising for Development (M4D) programme organized a train-the-trainer workshop for several CBOs from across 3 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state of Kano.
The train-the-trainer workshop brought together members of various CBOs from Sumaila, Garun Mallam and Dawakin Tofa LGAs to Kaduna state, for a three-day hands-on capacity building training which harped on the various stages of capacity building with the view of getting the trainees organise similar trainings for members of their CBOs in their various communities.
The all-round training workshop delved on issues as diverse as conducting pre-training needs assessment or survey, to ascertain what potential trainees’ expectations are; and development of training objectives including topics, outputs, and contents. Other stages of capacity development covered by the capacity development workshop were development of training schedule and agenda as well as designing of session plans.
Zahra’u Bayero, a member of the CBO Dawakin Tofa Initiative for Progress (DATIF), is one of the trainees who said she organizes capacity building trainings for women in her community adding that as a result of the skills she acquired at M4D’s training, she could now carry out such trainings more effectively.
“My capacity has been developed around key issues like the facilitation of training exercises,” said Zahra’u Bayero, from Dawakin Tofa LGA of Kano state. “I have learnt what like a facilitator should be and also learnt how a facilitator should facilitate trainings; I now understand that a facilitator should be able to carry everyone along to be able to get the total attention of their audience. I have also learnt to adopt different approaches when facilitating trainings for adults and children, respectively.”
Another trainee, Awaisu Usman, who is the chairman of the CBO Garun Mallam Youth Progressive Movement, GYPM, said the workshop had helped sharpened his capacity development skills adding that he would now be able to effectively offer similar training to members of his CBO to be able to better serve their communities.
Adamu Abdullahi is the secretary of the Garun Mallam LGA chapter of the Joint National Association of People With Disability (JONAPWD) who said the skills he had acquired in the course of the 3-day workshop meant he could organize better capacity development trainings for members of his organization while ensuring that everyone, including women and children, were given the opportunity to actively participate, which would ensure they were carried along.
JONAPWD is the umbrella body of all associations of Disabled People’s Organization (DPOs), as well as civil society organizations working on disability issues in Nigeria.
“M4D has no doubt set our CBO on the path to progress,” said Galadima Adamu, chairman of Rimi Community Development Association, a CBO in Sumaila LGA of Kano state. “As a facilitator, I have learnt how to accommodate my audience’s inputs and opinions during meetings because this is the only way we can internally generate solutions to our challenges and be able to move our community forward.”
The representatives of the Community Based Organisations also acquired skills around monitoring and evaluation, developing action plans as well as carrying out follow ups to ensure the successful implementation of such plans. M4D expects the trainees to organize step down trainings to members of their CBOs so as to pass on the knowledge they have acquired to them.
