The third session for the formation of civil society organizations, members of the EITI committees, opened yesterday April 13, 2015 in Yaounde. During the session, civil society organizations were schooled on democracy and good governance. The session which is currently ongoing will run until April 17.
This was part of the training organised by the German cooperation accompanied by Cemac through strengthening governance of contents project first in Central Africa (Remap), the third of its kind.
The aim is to contribute to advancing the implementation of Initiative for transparency in the extractive industries (EITI) implementation in Member States.
The training aimed at providing executives and actors of the civil society organizations members of the EITI in Central Africa committees (Cemac), members of the EITI committees in the Member's capacity to contribute, as actors in civil society, to good financial governance, the rule of law and democratization riches of the subsoil, awareness or strengthening of other actors of civil society in what concerns the objectives, the EITI's requirements as well as the implementation and exchange of examples of good practices, the formation of other actors of civil society on the management of projects, advocacy, communication, mobilization of funds.
In the area of governance of extractive industries, the project of strengthening the governance of raw materials in Central Africa (Remap) has as its objective the strengthening of good governance, as well as in the promotion of transparency in the area of extractive industries in Central Africa for a better integration of the actors of the civil society in the process of strengthening the governance of raw materials in Cemac zone to enable them to carry out their role in awareness and advocacy.
According to Cemac representative: "very few people know what is the content of civil society: it is a very vague term that seems convenient." It is talked about without too much understanding.
We want to build a real civil society in the context of Cemac and citizen commitment to ensure that our citizens learn everything pertaining to management of their States. This should aid them to develop dynamics that could allow them to influence the decisions of the State as many complexes seem to grow in the sub-region.
We are led to believe that democracy and good governance are not the concerns of Cemac, and that they are imported values. It is therefore, necessary for us to ensure that civil society in Central Africa are vibrant and proud of their contribution to the state to some extent.
