An active and engaged citizenry is the key to a successful democracy.
(Photo’d Above Participants in ORG’s International Youth Day Focus Group in partnership with the United National Country Office in The Bahamas)
In our last update, we would have shared that we launched three community surveys to gather feedback from citizens around The Bahamas on their perspectives on community challenges, solutions and actions needed to build progress. As a part of our Active Citizens Bahamas, ORG is seeking to build a solid foundation of citizen feedback on community and national issues and to help members of the community gain an understand of how the government, private sector civil society and people of The Bahamas can work together to build stronger communities.
This month we launched our Community Focus Groups to gain a deeper insight on the data we’ve been collecting on citizen perspectives on the development needs of their community. So far we’ve had two focus groups for residents of New Providence. The first focus group brought together youth between the ages of 18-29 to discuss matters of development impact young people and the second session was open general to residents of New Providence to delve into community-specific issues, proposed solutions and stakeholders needed to encourage progress.
(Photo’d Above, ORG Assistant Director Steffon Evans presenting during New Providence Focus Group Session)
Over the next three weeks, we will be hosting sessions open to members of all Family, with a session for Grand Bahama, Abaco and regional sessions for the North Central, South Central and Central Bahamas.
The goal is to gain perspectives from Bahamians that will be regularly updated with community feedback and to share that information with all sectors to help guide community-centric decision making.
Steffon Evans, ORG’s Assistant Director commented “Citizen participation is a pertinent part of good governance. It is not a courtesy or convenience, just as accountable governance within the government is known to be one of the primary mechanisms of national development, active citizen participation is another of those mechanism that we need as push toward a brighter future for all Bahamians”
Over the next several years, ORG hopes to build a database of citizen perspectives, feedback and data to guide policymaking, public education efforts and communty-led projects.
To join a focus group, click here; to take a community survey, visit click here.