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WP.10
ECONOIllC COMlVIISSION ?OR AFl'GCA
Workshop: Extension of
Family
and Child Welfare Services within Community Development FrogrmmesAccra (Ghana) 21 November - 3 December 1960
Provisional Agenda Item No.VI
Corrmission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara Statement
on
TEC'lNICJ\L A3)1:)T;\;,IC2 FOVm,D BY CCTA/FAJllA IN TIn COJif"UUTY DZVSLOPl'LIT FEW
60-933
WP.IO
Agenda Item VI: International AS5i5t~nce in the field of family &nd child welfare and corrnnunity development.
Technical assistance provided by CCTA/FAY~ in the community development field.
The Commission for Technical Co-operation in rtfrica
South of the oahar-a (CCT,~) has long be an closely enr"~ed in tl\le promotion of cO-bpera tion be tHe en the countries of nf'r-Lce
in their progr2mmes of community development.
To this end CCTA organised DNO Inter-~frican Conf8rences on !1ural .eIf are , t;1e first held at. Lourenco ;",arques in
1953
and the second at Tananarive in1957.
Mor-e recently CCT!\. has contracted with the Community Development Clearinr House of the University of London's
Institute of Zducation, the services of which are now ava i.LahLs to all countries in the region with which CCTA is concerned.
It can provide information on all aspects of correnuni ty development, establish bibliographies, bive advice, etc. This Interafric~l
cl.gency also issues to CeTA'S Member Governments a quarterly bulletin, in tho dlglish and French Lanruage s , on community development.
In
1958
CCTA vras expandeitby
the addition of a technical assistance organ to whi ch was given the name Foundation for Mutual Assistance in Africa South· of the Sahara, or FAI'IA forWP.lO Page 2
short. This is a scheme of mutual bilateral technical aosiotqnce, with a Clecretariat (integrated in CCTA's .secretariat in 'Lagos) which
provides a central c.LearIng house for requests and offers.
In view of CCTA' s close concern with community developnent it wasn'atural t.nat, FAli>A should, from itsi'1ception, re!,ard community development as being a field eminently suitable for an exchange of technical assistance between countries in ~frica.
knd one of the first offers which the Founctation received was that made by the Ghana Government of six fellowships and scholarships for practical training in community develoi[11lent of six months and a year respectively. The specially arranged training pro gramme started in Nay, 1959 with an orientation and briefing course in corrrrnunity development principles and techniques at the head office in Aocr-a of the ilepartment of »oci aL ielfare and Community
Developmcnt , 'I'his was followed by a three-week tour of observation of field work in threa regions of Ghana. Then, after a further brief course of lectures and discussions in Accra, the participants were posted to field stations for practical supervised training.
Tney worked until mid~OctoOer, alongside officials of the Ghana Government, on specific' problems to gain experience and training.
Thereafter they returned to Accra for a few days to attend the closing part of the course.
The fellowships were intended for officials with already
some experience in conmunity development work while the scholarships were intended for those who had recently compLted their educat ion
- - - r...
..
tWP.lO Page 3
and vAw possessed no practical experience. In practice, all six a-rai-ds took tho form of'. .I'eLl.owsh.ips thcugh , as the result of a special request, the duration of one of these 1IJaS extended to a Y~::lr. They were awarded to applic~nts from ;~gola, EthioRia, the Ivory Coast, »ier-r-a Leone and Togo.
In view of the great value of the training provided in 1959 and of 1!Jidespread interest expressed in obtaining further t rami.ng of this type, the Ghana Government decided to offer through F'A1WA another six awar-ds for com.unity deve.Lopmcnt training on simiLar lines this year. The six successful candidates come from
,:':astern l'!igeria, Ethiopi2., jlJorthern Nigeria, Northern ,,'lodesia, oomaliland Qnd Tan~anyika. They are all officials in government departments concerned with rural welfare or community devclopnent.
I t is hoped that. the Ghana Government will be willing again', to make six or lnore aw~rds available in 1961 for trainin[ in commurri. ty developnent under the FiU"iA scheme.
hnother type of tr~ining which CCTA/F!~ has helped to promote is t.ie s tune' tour. In 1959 CCTA/P,UtA cooperated with the Bureau cfoocial Affairs of the United Nations Orrani.z.at.Lon in organizing a study tour to four countries in ~frica (described in U.N. report N.59-32ll5). 'I"ne countrie s visited wer-e the tt8public of the JUdan, U~cmcla, Ghana and the 0udanese nepublic:
the participants CC\Jl\e from Ghana, the ouclanese l"lepublic, the
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4
throe regions of
Nigeria and
Liberia ..A
similar
study tour, designed princip:111y for cQuntT'ies of ~~st andCentral Africa,
is being pl~~edfor 1961.
Par-tdcd pant.e wouLd visit tINa countries in,'!estern Africa, one in Central Africa, one in 2astern ,urica.
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