The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator and youths of the South West Region have discussed patterns of collaboration aimed at enhancing service delivered by the Regional Assembly and Local Councils to users. This occurred during a one-day Concertation Seminar organized by the Office on Wednesday 26 October 2022 at the Buea Mountain Hotel.

The purpose of the seminar organized under the theme ‘‘The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator and Youths of the South West Region: Examining Prospects of Collaboration to enhance Services Delivery to Users of Regional and Local Councils’’,  was to engage youths drawn from the six divisions of the Region on the path of fruitful collaboration intended to enable them sell the Office and it’s missions to their peers  and the population at large.

Addressing participants during the opening ceremony, the Public Independent Conciliator Mme Telelen Dorothy Atabong spouse Motaze, stated that  youths as the most vibrant segment of the community, are major stakeholders in efforts to enhance local governance and guarantee the delivery of quality services. As such, she invited them to use their creativity, resourcefulness and energy to become a strong partner in the execution of the missions of the Office.  The decision  to engage the youths she said, hinges on government policy that attaches importance to youth participation in local development and nation building.

The Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai while opening the seminar hailed OPIC for providing youths the platform to contribute to local governance, commended the efforts of the South West Youth League for promoting peace in the region.

After learning about the missions of the Office, the youth leaders took the engagement to sell the Office through various WhatsApp groups, outdoor sensitization campaigns and sports and cultural activities. Most of the youths who were discovering OPIC and its missions for the first time expressed satisfaction for the information and knowledge acquired concerning the settling of disputes with the Regional and Local Councils. They promised to relay the information their peers and the community as a whole.