Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Development Partners including the media Friday concluded a three-day capacity building workshop on the "Community Score Card" at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.

The three-day forum organised by Pro-Poor Advocacy Group (Pro-PAG) with funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) seeks to empower participants with knowledge, as the country scales up interventions to achieve the PRSP, MDGs and Vision 2020 objectives. The organisers stated that it is important to strengthen the accountability relationships between duty bearer and the rights holders by constantly monitoring of policies and programmes to ensure that we are on the right track.

According to officials of Pro-PAG, "managing for development", requires CSOs to play an active role in Citizens Based Performance Monitoring (CBPM) as part of their oversight responsibility. This CBPM, officials further believe, is one of several participatory strategies to hold the government accountable for the management of public resources. Within that framework, the Community Score Card is perceived as a powerful instrument for assessing public service delivery and can help empower development stakeholders and citizens to hold duty bearers and service providers accountable.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, participants thanked Pro-PAG for the initative noting that the knowledge learned during the forum will enhance their performance in their various work places. They equally thanked the facilitators for their tireless efforts during the course of the training, and urged the organisers to keep up the good job.

Omar Jobe, a facilitator, urged participants to make good use of the knowledge acquired during the training, noting that it exposed the participants to both the theory and the practical. Power presentations on key thematic issues were also dealt with at the forum.