Nakonde, Zambia

Community leaders undergo skills training.

The NADCC
The Nakonde Area Development Co-ordinating Committee (NADCC) is responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating community development projects. Eventually it will be formally registered as a community-based organisation in Nakonde.

The committee comprises people from all walks of life, including teachers, medical staff and local residents.

“We have come to understand why we should be fully involved in project activities,” says the current chairman of the NADCC, Mr Davies Sichula. “It is because the development programmes in our areas belong to us. They are for the benefit of our community. As leaders, we have a responsibility to educate our community [about this] because when World Vision leaves this area, the management of all the activities will remain in our hands.”

The community plans to build a hall in Mwenzo zone for NADCC meetings, office space for the committee’s executive and a guesthouse. Accommodation will be free for NADCC members attending meetings, many of who have to travel long distances on poor roads to get there. However, the guesthouse will charge other visitors, to raise money for the NADCC’s operation.

The hall site was donated and the community moulded the bricks for construction. A hospitality committee has been formed and will be responsible for providing catering services to people visiting Mwenzo zone.

Sector committees
‘Sector committees’ have recently been established in all six zones to cement the concept of community involvement and capacity building. The committees participate in identifying community needs, and assist in planning, budgeting, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programme activities.

The committees specialise in sectors such as health, education, agriculture, micro-enterprise development, gender, child survival and sponsorship.

Children’s committees
Each zone has also formed a Children’s Committee, which is a sub-committee of NADCC. The committees’ chairpersons represent their child peers at NADCC meetings.

Children have welcomed the committee idea, happy that their needs can now be heard at all meetings conducted in the district.