Rural Community Development and Local Government Officers Participate in Training of Trainers Workshop

The Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour, and Local Government hosted a two-day Training of Trainers Workshop for Rural Community Development Officers (RCDO) and Local Government Officers (LGO) at Kiki Witz, Belmopan, from July 21 to 22, 2022.
The workshop will provide officers with the tools needed to effectively conduct training of village councils and local governments to increase management effectiveness and development outcomes. The training precedes a larger plan to create a manual with the various modules to build the organizational capacities of village councils, water boards and municipalities. The training program focuses on leadership, financial management, community development and proposal writing, among others. This new program will enable village councils to develop community development action plans, improve governance and become fully accountable to rural residents.
RCDOs are tasked with overseeing 194 village councils and 108 water boards while LGOs oversee the nine municipalities. Following this workshop, the officers will be better equipped to apply more appropriate and effective methodologies to train community leaders across the country.
This initiative falls under the Government of Belize’s focused approach to rural development as stated in Plan Belize. In his opening remarks, Mr. Valentino Shal, CEO in the ministry, affirmed, “We are doing this training to ensure that we are able to undertake the work in rural areas far beyond to ensure poverty reduction, resiliency of rural families and sustainable development.”
The training is being facilitated by Ms. Carolyn Hulse, an educator for more than three decades. Ms. Hulse has extensive experience in leadership and change management and has been a teacher at various schools in Belize, as well as principal of the Belize Christian Academy and the Shepherd’s Academy in Belmopan. Ms. Hulse has a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of North Florida and a bachelor’s degree from the University College of Belize.