Bukavu, 16 April 2011 - A civil society delegation, with the support of MONUSCO Civil Affairs Section, travelled to Kavumu, in Kabambare Territory, about 35 kms from Bukavu on Saturday 16 April 2011 to assess progress made in the voters registration lists operations as well as to explain the participative budget approach.

At Kavumu, the delegation of the South-Kivu Coordination Office met with the civic leaders of the Bugorhe community. The purpose of the visit was double fold: to collect the population's views on the current operations to update the voters registration lists and to explain the role to be played by the civil society organizations in respect to the participative budget.

Bugorhe civic leaders took the opportunity to bring out some of the challenges faced by the population: the slow speed in the registration process of future voters and the long distances that must be covered by the population of Bugorhe to get to the registration centres. The civil society delegation admitted the reality of the complains but nevertheless encouraged the population to massively register in order to have more representatives in the Parliament. The delegation also promised to convey their grievances to the Provincial office of the National Independent Electoral Commission.

Concerning the participative budget, the civil society delegates explained its relevance as well as its validity and called for the population's involvement in the local development by contributing to the maximization of the Government revenues.

After Kabare, the civil society leaders are planning, with MONUSCO support, to continue to hold this type of meetings in seven more territories of the Sud-Kivu province by 11 May.

Alain Likota/MONUSCO