BMDA
Membership Fee
Bench Maji Development Association (BMDA) has come into being as a legal person to assist the development agenda of the people together with government and other stakeholders who have similar goal basically of the region in particular and the nation in general. Therefore, BMDA has set a clear vision of what it wishes to visualize, its mission on how to state and set goals and activities to meet the desired goal and the means which basically is the resource aspect also clearly defined and ensures its sustainability too. Hence, in the case of BMDA four defined sources are put in practice: the major and in fact sustainable source is membership contribution. Despite its apparent limitation, the funds raised from funding organizations, investment returns and local branch mobilizations are given paramount considerations. The membership structure of BMDA has different clusters based on economic classification that includes employees of various organizations, residents, farmers, private sector, students of primary and secondary schools and other higher educational institutions. To put in a nut shell, the ownership of BMDA obviously is the people themselves. The mode of membership depends on the free will of individual citizens. Of course, the inspiration goes to BMDA organizers. Due to this, BMDA has a task force` at directorate level to coordinate and enhance membership and accelerate the contribution amount of the people. Therefore, due to the tremendous effort made so far within and beyond the region, BMDA has over
34,000 registered domestic members in Bench Sheko one.
As a membership based organization, BMDA organizes annual conferences and general assembly to discuss on implementation of development programs and strategic and annual plans as well as set next strategic priorities. While board members, BMDA staff, development partners and representatives of government offices participate in annual conference , the general assembly that takes place every three years draws representatives of BMDA members elected from all chapters and sub-chapters within Ethiopia and abroad.
The general assembly confers on plan implementations, sets strategic priorities of government and local priorities and elects board of directors and members of audit commission.
Since its establishment in 1997 G.C., BMDA has implemented more than 170 projects that have addressed development and social problems of the Bench Maji Zone community. These achievements have been recorded through self-help efforts of BMDA and grants made available by various donors. Members have also played pivotal role in contributing to self-help projects in kind and in cash. Hence, the achievements of BMDA in winning members; and some of the major donors and projects that have been implemented over many years are briefly presented as follows.
Members are considered as the back-bone of BMDA. Membership of BMDA is classified into two. The first one is individual membership; and the second one is institutional membership (platinum, gold, silver and regular). Unswerving efforts have been made to win thousands of members and it was possible to win over 34,000 members until recently. Institutions that have become platinum members in 2018, by paying ETB 25,000 to ETB 20,000 respectively are: Mizan Correction Center, Mizan-Tepi University and Bench-Maji Forest Coffee Union. Bench Maji zone administration and Mizan Agriculture and Vocational Training College have become gold members each paying ETB 10,000.00. Some woredas such as Sheybench became a regular member by paying ETB 1,000.00. BMDA highly appreciates individuals and institutional members that have supported its development activities in those years. It is BMDA’s plan to strategically and vigorously work in winning more thousands of members to continue supporting its self-help development projects.