During a recent inception meeting at the Regional Education Directorate in Brikama, stakeholders expressed optimism that the partnership will forge more cooperation and experience sharing between the local government structures for robust community development.
Famara Buli Sanyang, the chairperson of the meeting, encouraged VDC members to show strong commitment to the partnership. He said bringing together all the VDCs within Kombo would provide the much needed collaboration towards the development transformation of communities.
Establishment of Village Development Committees is sanctioned by the Local Government Act 2002. Members of the committee are unanimously elected by community members to lead their development. As mandated in the 2002 Act, VDCs are the entry points for development into communities with alkalolu serving as advisers.
“We consider it important VDC members within Kombo to come together and network to complement common efforts toward the development of Kombo,” Secretary General of Kombo Yiriwa Kafo, said at the meeting.
He said KYK was conceptualised as early as January 2017 with the first meeting held in Brufut, Kombo South in February 2017 and registered with the Attorney General Chambers as a Charity in June 2017 after drafting a constitution. “According to constitution, KYK is a non-party political and will work with the government and all relevant stakeholders towards the development of Kombo.”
Section 92(1) of the Local Government Act 2002 sanctioned the establishment of Village Development Committees for each village or cluster of villages which shall be determined by the local council. Subsection 2 of Section 92 also (2) also empowered every council to determine which cluster of villages may together form a Village Development Committee, in accordance with such criteria as it shall specify.
Launched on 7 October 2017 by former Vice President Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajang, KYK held its first and second annual general assembly meetings in 2018 and 2019. However, the subsequent meetings were delayed due to Covid 19.
