From Tuesday, March 20 to Wednesday, March 21, 2018, the association Geneva Tiers-Monde paid a visit to Togo to the NGO ETD.

This visit was made in partnership between ETD and GeTM for the execution of PARDEL, the Support Project for the strengthening of Democracy and Local Economic Development.

Recall that PARDEL is a project implemented in the prefectures of Haho, Moyen-Mono, Est-Mono and the urban commune of Notsé.

Started in April 2017, PARDEL aims to contribute to the strengthening of democracy and local socio-economic development in order to produce and manage quality public goods and services for the populations and to support the implementation of local initiatives.

More specifically, the aims of PARDEL are:

1 Consolidate and disseminate participatory local democracy practices in the decision-making processes between civil society and local authorities with a view to ensuring a quality public service to the population;
2. By scaling up ESOPs, increase farmer involvement in local agro-food value chains and generate sustainable jobs for youth and women.

The mission of Genève Tiers Monde is therefore intended to record the progress and the concrete implementation of the project in the areas where activities are carried out. The association was represented by its Manager Alejandro Mackinnon and by Mrs. Monica, the former President of the Board of Directors.

The visits took place in three main stages, the first of which was a meeting with the CEO and the technical team of ETD dedicated to the project, on Tuesday, March 20, 2018. This meeting took place in a series of presentations and discussions to measure the level of achievement of the activities carried out under the project.

The second stage of the project consisted of the meeting of the local authorities of the Haho prefecture, starting with that of the Prefect of Haho Mr. TchanganiAwo, the President of Special Delegation (PDS), Mr. Sefenu Yawovi Laurent and the municipal team in presence of the PDS deputy, Mr Adadji.

The core concerns of GetM focused specifically on: (i) project implementation and its articulation in the everyday life of communities; (ii) ownership of the project by the local authorities; (iii) appreciation of women’s participation; (iv) the involvement of young people; (v) reflection on the inter-community and; (vi) dissemination of program achievements.
During these meetings, the stakeholders met, welcomed the strengthening of local democracy throughout their territory and thanked Genève Tiers Monde and ETD for their support. The prefect of Haho, Mr. Tchangani Awo emphasized the changes made in Haho with projects initiated by ETD. He said that it is much easier now to talk to people with frank collaboration with communities.

Along the same lines, the PDS of the prefecture affirmed that ETD trainings and activities provided a better understanding of the decentralization, needsidentification of the populations and provision of priority responses thanks to the existence of planningdocuments.Furthermore, to the question of knowing the effects of the project on the field, the improvement of tax revenues was quoted by the PDS with examples such as the building of premises and stores in the markets. That said, GeTM and ETD spoke about the need for more communication and dissemination of the SPDDs (Prefectural Sustainable Development Strategy).

In addition, this second phase of the GeTM mission was closed by the discussions conducted at the Town Hall of the municipality of Notsè. The municipal team highlighted their progress with other local authorities thanks to previous PAGLOC and PAGED projects. The Manager of GeTM expressed his interest to see the stakeholders help other communities to follow suit. He also expressed the wish to see them “empowered” to be more autonomous.

Finally, field visits were made to the beneficiaries. A fountain was visited in the Naolo district and discussions were held with the management committee and a group of women. A group of market gardeners were also visited by representatives of GeTM. Following this, trips were made to ESOP Sojanyo and then to the slaughterhouse of ESOP meat, in the village of Koglocope 4 km from Notsè.

In general, the partners were satisfied with their mission in Haho. They expressed the interest to disseminate program achievements in other territories.