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Where are the Community Development Officers?
2008-07-20 11:25:41
By Correspondent Theonestina Kaiza-Boshe
The Community Development Policy (CDP) refers to them as development catalysts. I also call them a key to development.
I am referring to the Community Development Officers (CDOs), a cadre of civil servants that in the two decades following Tanganyika`s independence were known as Bwana Maendeleo or Mama/Bibi Maendeleo in Kiswahili, depending on whether the officer was male or female, respectively.
Development Officer (DO) was the English title for these officers.
This was the cadre of civil servants that did a lot to mobilize people for development activities and was highly visible at community level from the 60s to the 80s.
It is the civil service cadre that held the key to development at community level and that has since been misplaced.
Indeed, today, whether we are talking about the CDO or the DO of the 70s, to the average Tanzanian, this cadre of public servants is no longer there!
Unfortunately, it is not only due to title change that people are perceiving the absence of the DO, but mainly due to not seeing public servants doing what Bwana/Bibi Maendeleo used to do in communities.
The reality is that we still have Bwana/Bibi Maendeleo in the name of Community Development Officers that are provided for by the Community Development Policy of 1996 to carry out the activities that used to be carried out by the Bwana/Bibi Maendeleo of between the 60s and 80s.
Today`s Community Development Officers are professionals trained to mobilize the people to utilize natural and other resources, as well as technology to bring about community development, just as was the case with the erstwhile DOs.
The difference between then and now is that then DO cadre was considered by the society to be, and empowered by the Government to serve, as the key and catalysts for community development, as well as development in general.
Whereas today, in spite of the Community Development Policy recognizing CDOs as catalysts of community development, they are left out of community development plans and activities!
This is a serious and surprising omission!
This is especially so considering all socio-economic development reforms, strategies, policies and plans are designed to be people centered and aim to mobilize the people in order for them to relate Government`s development efforts to their own.
For, it is the CDOs who have the necessary professional training to make this happen. They are the key to ensuring participatory development planning at community level, and a catalyst in carrying out development decisions and activities at that level.
Ideally, as provided by the Community Development Policy, every village should have a CDO, and where one is not available, the policy provides for extension personnel such as agricultural extension officer to undergo induction training to acquire the necessary basic skills and fill the role of the CDO.
Contrary to this important Community Development Policy requirement, there are no CDOs at village level, and the few that are available are posted at the ward level to do jobs they are not trained for, such as collecting levies and duties for districts and municipalities!
This is gross misallocation of this important development manpower resource.
It is time the anomaly was redressed so as to allow CDOs to exercise their professional capabilities and play their role, and once again open the door for development strategies such as the Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (popularly known by its Kiswahili acronym, MKUKUTA) to truly bring development to the people.
Email: tkaiza@gmail.com
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