3 Bodies hold social accountability workshop for assemblies
Three organisations working on a social accountability project, CARE International in Ghana, IBIS in Ghana and Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), have held a two-day workshop for representatives of district assemblies (DAs) and civil society organisations (CSOs).
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The Communication Specialist for the project, Mr Mohammed Nurudeen Salifu, who doubles as the Communication Officer for IBIS-Ghana, in an interaction with the media, said the three organisations would be implementing the five-year governance project.
Dubbed “Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) Project”, it began in November 2014 and was expected to end in November 2019, he noted.
That, he said, had become necessary after the DAs and CSOs in the country completed a training programme in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and social accountability tools to improve transparency, accountability and performance of local government authorities.
He indicated that the $9.3 million project was being funded by USAID.
Opening of the workshop
The workshop was held at Ejisu in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region.
The Chief of Party for the project, Clement Nana Tandoh, said in an interview that there were over 100 participants from 50 DAs and 27 CSOs across the country.
He also said the participants would be trained in how to use community scorecards and citizen report cards for citizens to evaluate the performance of their local government authorities in the provision of capital development projects and to demand accountability and improved performance.
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The project sought to increase the availability of accessible information on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies’ (MMDAs’) capital development project performance in 100 districts.
Strengthening CSOs and citizens’ capacity to monitor MMDAs’ capital development project in 50 districts and increase the use of citizen-generated information on MMDAs’ capital project in those districts are part of the project’s objectives.
He mentioned four cardinal areas of social accountability system as far as the project was concerned as “Initiation of the project, procurement and contracting, execution process and evaluation” to illustrate whether a capital project embarked on by an assembly was beneficial to the people in the area.
He added that town hall meetings, focus group discussions, project performance bulletins, radio broadcasts and transparency boards were important to the planning and implementation of capital projects in the district.
The Assistant Co-ordinating Director of the Bole District Assembly in the Northern Region, Madiha A. Radhama, who represented the participants, emphasised the need for social accountability.
She said accountability and transparency would put many assemblies on their toes and that apart from ensuring that the money spent was beneficial, it would also enable the assemblies render quality services to the people.
The Project Advisor at Hopeline Institute, Susan Nunoo, said the training programme offered many CSOs the opportunity to serve as an interface between the assemblies and the people.