Training the community committees to follow up infrastructure and service projects in marginalised local communities
Within the Marginalised Local Communities Development Project in seven municipalities in the central and southern Gaza Strip, implemented through the Municipal Development and Lending Fund (MDLF) with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution held a training course for the third group of community committees at Al-Qarara Club, targeting some 32 members of the committees of Al-Bureij and Al-Qarara.
Each committee consists of 11 to 14 active members (young men, young women, community activists, representatives of institutions and persons with disabilities) to help follow up the implementation of the infrastructure and service projects identified with the target communities last January, and to resolve any problem that may arise using alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms. This reflects the Centre's principles and its belief in community participation in the development process, considering people both the means and the goal of development, and increasing citizens' sense of belonging, responsibility and commitment towards their community, which strengthens their sense of ownership of achievements and of the need to preserve them.
The community committees that have been formed are the first fruits of applying community participation, and the link between citizens in marginalised communities and the municipality within the Marginalised Local Communities Development Project.
