Torres islands northern zone area council profiled

Torba Province has commenced work to consult with community members and formally document the most northern Area Council Profile.

In a Profiling exercise that took well over a week into four islands in the Torres group from March to April, a team comprising of 4 members conducted the Area Council Profiling exercise.

The four man team made up of Torba Provincial Planner, Area Administrator, Community Liaison Officer and the Area Council chairman also conducted community awareness on annual provincial events and consulted each community on the government’s decentralization road-map enabling the communities to envision how they will directly benefit by the government’s intention to avail key government services in designated provincial Area Councils. In addition, the visiting Provincial delegations had the opportunity of discussing issues that are of concern to the communities.

According to Provincial Planner for Torba Mr Stephen Kaveng, key findings indicate that setting up and strengthening pillar groups such as Chiefs, Women, Youth and Churches at island and community level is necessary.

In a report formally submitted to provincial authorities, he said “currently the Torres group has the representatives required by the decentralization structure. However, they need to be strengthened and reset at the island-community level and be empowered to actively function.”

The Area Councils profiling was done extensively in the Torres group particularly the Northern Zone Area on the islands of Loh, Hiu, Metoma, Tegua and Toka.

The process of Area Council Profiling is part of the provincial mandate to understand and document the profiles and needs of the communities within an Area Council.

 

 

   

Author: 
Tensley Sumbe