North-West PIC drills Community-Based Volunteers on Good Governance Campaign, 2025 Survey

The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator of the North-West Region has strengthened the capacities of its Community-Based Assistants, SEEPD, and Safety Net agents in a 3-day workshop within the context of a 3-month campaign to promote good governance in Regional and Local Authorities.

Selected from all seven divisions of the North-West Region, these Community-Based Volunteers had their capacities strengthened from August 20th to 22nd, 2025 in the Auditorium of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, Upstation Bamenda.

The training aimed to equip community-based volunteers with tools to accompany the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator in a bold and inclusive campaign to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in regional and local authorities.

To be frontline ambassadors of good governance, these Community Based Assistants, SEEPD, and Safety Net agents are expected to uphold core values like Informed Consent, Privacy and Confidentiality, Integrity, Do no Harm, and Transparency while collecting data, for the Office, from the field.

To ensure that these participants, community-based volunteers can disseminate campaign messages, display campaign gadgets, and communicate in a way that ties with the local realities on the field, in a way that people in the rural areas will have access to information, the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, selected experts for the training.

Mr Ndi Nelson, Research Officer no. 1, did a briefing on the 2025 Campaign on Good Governance and briefings on the PIC 2025 survey.
Dr. Tilarious ATIA, Research Officer no. 3 presented on the Key Concepts/ Principles of Good Governance and in another presentation, shared knowledge on the Techniques of PIC information gathering, Treatment, and Reporting.

Barrister Yang Francis and Blaise Ndam Mbah, Research Officer no. 2 and Complaint Management Officer no. 3 respectively, dwelt on the Legal framework enforcing Good Governance in Regional and Local Authorities.

Ephraim Banda Ghogomu, Communication Consultant for the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator presented on Ethical Messaging and Communication while Dr Alfred Wuku Kudi, Research Officer No. 4 did a presentation on the Role of Community-Based Volunteers in the Promotion of Good Governance in Regional and Local Authorities and introduced the Survey Questionnaires.

External experts like the Regional Coordinator for Safety Net, North-West Region, Mr Kanjo Elvis, and a resource person from SEEPD, Mr Kongyu Emmanuel both presented on the Code of Conduct for field agents, sharing their experiences to boost the morale of participants.

Commissioner Kwinjeh Dairuh presented on safety and security measures for field agents.

These presentations provided information needed for community-based volunteers to be morally armed before embarking to do the task that is required of them, with some practical exercises like role play on how to communicate campaign messages and field testing of questionnaire administration being part of some key activities carried out during the training.

The Public Independent Conciliator cautioned Volunteers to be mindful of the challenging security context and asked participants to refrain from using the PIC Good Governance campaign gadgets or messages for any political activity or gains and should uphold ethics that will keep them away from harm.

Community-Based Assistants, SEEPD and Safety Net agents are expected to harness their experience on the field, do some mapping to cover areas that were not covered in the previous years, to get credible information in line with good governance principles from the surbs in all seven divisions of the North-West Region.