Democratic governance project in the krobo area enters implementation phase

A democratic governance project launched by Youth and Women Empowerment (YOWE), an NGO, to ensure a more effective participation of traditional rulers and vulnerable groups in local governance in the Manya and Yilo Krobo traditional areas has entered its implementation phase with capacity building clinics for the identifiable groups.

The workshops provided in-depth education on the local government concept. Participants were specifically taken through the legal provisions behind the Local government system, the structure as well as the functionaries and key stakeholders of the municipal and district assemblies.

The project which is sponsored by the DANIDA, European Union, USAID and UKAID through STAR-Ghana is targeted at increasing by twenty percent (20%) the number of representatives of minority groups appointed to the Yilo and the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assemblies as well as the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly. It also aims at bridging the information gap between the traditional councils and the assemblies and promoting a more effective collaboration between the two units.

Representatives of vulnerable groups including Persons with Disability (PWDs), women groups and also of traditional rulers in the Upper Manya Krobo district as well as the Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo municipalities have already taken their turn at different clinics held at Asesewa, Somanya and Odumase respectively.  

The Programmes Coordinator of YOWE, Mr. Emmanuel Nuetey Siakwa said “Our aim is to make the concept of local governance practically meaningful to the people at the base particularly the women and PWDs whom we have come to describe as vulnerable groups. As part of our plans, we will first build their capacity through comprehensive education on how the system operates, whip up their interest to keenly participate in the process and support them to make them an active part of the whole systems”.

He said, YOWE also intends to provide support in all forms for women in particular to actively contest the various seats in the upcoming district assembly elections which is a major component of the larger plan to shore-up the representation of women in the various assemblies.

Through the efforts of YOWE, Persons with Disability in Lower Manya Krobo have already gained their representation in the recently constituted assembly in the Municipality, he indicated.