OPEN GOVERNANCE IS GOOD GOVERNANCE
Our visit to Manays to witness Hope Sakuma's first Advisory Board was both challenging and rewarding. A ram-packed meet saw more than 40 Chair Ladies and chairmen from 20 village farmer associations from across Sanda Magbolontor chiefdom gather under the Manays Mango tree.
To be truthful the first 20 minutes of the meet was tough with an unexpectedly heated dispute arising from a misunderstanding regarding a one million Leone deposit for honey and then a plea from the Manays Chair, who felt the first groups have not benefited enough for their work with only one farming group from Manays registered instead of two.
These were difficult messages to receive but Vidal and I helped Mr Williams calm the situation as he patiently explained in detail exactly how much money had been transferred for each project and for feeding and that with more than 7 million Leone's unaccounted for not every group wanting to join Hope Sakuma could be registered.
It was clearly something of a revelation to the village representatives to be given this level of information. Upline, things oftentimes go unsaid which can give the space for some people to take advantage with no consequence allowing rumours to abound. Hope Sakuma's transparent approach of discussing things openly and professionally, giving everyone a chance to have their say to arrive at a consensus is to be commended.
Also present Mohammed Turay observing from JICA who told us after the meet how impressed he had been by the professionalism of the "Freetown Team" and the level of transparency.
The Chair Ladies and chairmen then broke into their five working groups to eat and select their two representatives to Hope Sauma's Executive Board. The criteria for selection was the people they identified should be most honest and trustworthy and good at passing on information and questions from the teams to the Board.
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