NE rural development officers' workshop concluded

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 September 2005, 18:13 GMT]
Four-day residential training programme for district and divisional level Tamil medium rural development officers (RDO) in the Northeast province, held under the auspices of the Provincial Department of Rural Development in the Provincial Guest House in Trincomalee, concluded Monday. RDOs from all the districts in the province participated in the workshop.

Mr.S.Rangarajah, Chief Secretary of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC) inaugurated the training programme by lighting the traditional oil lamp.

Ms Psyche Kennett, Human Resources Development Consultant of the German Development Co-operation' (GTZ) Performance Improvement Project (PIP) participated as a guest.

Mr.Rangarajah said the first priority under the rural development in the northeast should be to ensure livelihood assistance to the villagers. Rural development officers are considered the front-line managers in the implementation of the livelihood assistance programme.

"We are not using the available opportunity to serve the rural people. Capacity building is the crux of the problem. Officers should adopt inspirational management technique," Mr.Rangarajah said.

Mr.Rangarajah added that managers should have a clear vision and the vision should be shared with others for effective implementation of projects.

"The purpose of the training programme is to improve the skill and knowledge of the officers and to upgrade the activities of the department," said Ms. D.D.Wijeludchumy, Provincial Director of the Department of Rural Development in her opening address.

The objective of the formation of rural development societies is to formulate and implement development schemes to uplift the living conditions of the rural people, she added.

Currently most of the 2,500 rural development societies in the province are not functioning properly due to lack of proper supervision by experienced officers and shortage of cadres, she said.

"We need expert advice to support our capacity building training programme. We have now sought the assistance of the GTZ in this regard," said Ms Wijeludchumy.

Ms Psyche Kennett of GTZ also spoke.