PIC NW STAFF embark on a training, drilled on practical modalities in handling cases
Staff of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator Northwest Region have taken part in a 3day workshop on Information Gathering and Management to help them enhance their skills in human rights approach in doing their work.
The training had power point presentations on different modules, taking place in Limbe from August 28th to August 30th 2023. Workshop activities engaged participants in some brainstorming as its content was in line with the mission and vision of the Office of The Public Independent Conciliator.
Modules handled by experts had participants exposed to knowledge on; The Amicable Settlement of Disputes – Alternative Dispute Resolution, Techniques of following up on the implementation of recommendation and conciliatory agreements, Techniques of monitoring and reporting violations, Techniques of investigation, fact finding, conducting interviews, verification and confirmation of issues, Techniques of strategic communication; gathering, treating and managing information.
Human Rights Expert Christopher Tiku Tambe shared experience on Techniques of Information Gathering and Management in a Human Rights Context. He did a power point to end the first day of Staff Training in Limbe. Participants learned about Alternative Dispute Resolution from Prof. Irene Sama-Lang, Head of Department of Law, University of Buea, who was resource person for the 2nd day.
The venerated communication expert, Prof. Kingsley L. Ngange – Deputy Vice Chancellor i/c Research and International Cooperation in University of Buea, dwell on Information Gathering and Management but delved more into handling the Communication aspect of the topic. The training in Limbe ended with this module, leaving participants in more group work/discussions.
With plenary discussions, group work, brainstorming, participants shared best practices. It is expected that after the workshop, participants would have strengthened their capacities to realize the missions of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator and that staff performance will be improved leading to effective realization of The Public Independent Conciliator’s missions, better service delivery to the population by the councils.
Ndi Nelson is Researcher in the Office of The Public Independent Conciliator Northwest Region, gave a brief on the mission of the office he represents.
“The work of The Public Independent Conciliator is about; amicably settling conflicts, receiving complaints, verifying and confirming them, carrying out investigations, carry out surveys on council functioning. All of this demands that information is gathered and treated in a standardized manner”.
Nina Ambuban, Executive Officer Number 2 at the Office of The Public Independent Conciliator Northwest Region and participant at the workshop in Limbe, was peculiar about the fact that the workshop provided more knowledge on conflict resolution, more specifically on conciliation.
“In order to settle disputes, we should know the nature of the dispute. We should listen to the parties and we should also make sure that we understand if the parties have an option. For a dispute to be resolved successfully we should carry out our investigations to see that the parties don’t always have an option because the will always feel that they can fall back to an option”.
The 3day workshop comes to and end with hopes that complaint treatment mechanisms of The Public Independent Conciliator is accelerated to enable the authorizing officer deliver satisfactory outcomes and that staff of the institution can be able to better receive, treat complaints, reach amicable settlement with disputing parties.
