Introduction

The Government-Community Engagement and Partnership Programme (GCEPP) espoused the idea that communities, even in the remotes rural areas, can organise themselves according to democratic principles and contribute greatly to their own social and economic development. The project was carried out in three districts – Vihiga, Meru and Mombasa as a pilot.  Its aim was to create a linkage and platform of exchange of ideas between local communities, the provincial administration and other actors as a way of building mutual trust and understanding to attain sustainable development.

Objectives

The overall objective of this Project was to facilitate dialogue, understanding and cohesion between government administrators and communities at the grassroots so as to build sustainable partnership and engagement in the quest for development.

Specifically, the Project achieved the following:

- Facilitated adequate and efficient engagement and partnership between government officers at the local level and local communities in the three divisions by providing them with conceptual and technical support during;

- The project raised capacity of local leaders and local communities to engage participatory processes of engagement;

- Further, there was increased understanding of the legal and policy frameworks that govern the rights of citizens vis a vis their interactions with local provincial administration officers; and

- The project enabled communities to resuscitate staled projects, begin new ones and generate more innovative and effective formulae for sustainable development.

NB: CLARION is still keen on carrying out similar activities through GCEPP and CEMDEF, which deals exclusively with awareness raising on management of decentralised funds.