USAID trains media on public service delivery advocacy

The media has a major role to play in the advocacy for quality and accountable public service delivery. 

This is through reporting effectively, emphasising such sectors as education, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), fisheries and agriculture.

As a result, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the government of Ghana, organised a two-day regional media training workshop for  28 journalists from the Oti and Volta regions in Ho last Friday.

The workshop was organised under the USAID/Ghana Performance Accountability Activity (PAA) on the theme: “Strengthening media-civil society partnerships for effective public service delivery advocacy”.

The PAA is a five-year project funded by USAID in collaboration with District Assemblies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and agencies of state to ensure the delivery of high-quality and accountable public services across the country.

It is being piloted in 70 districts across 10 regions. They include Oti, Volta, Western, Western-North and Central regions.

The rest are Upper West, Upper East, Northern, North-East and Savannah regions.

The workshop also brought together CSOs and District Assembly officials to interact with the journalists to enhance their performance at the district and community level.

Opening the workshop, the Chief of Party for PAA, Linda Ofori-Kwafo, said due to the importance of the media in championing the advocacy, they should be properly equipped  to ensure that quality and accountable services were offered by Assemblies and CSOs to the citizens they served.

“An informed media is essential for promoting accountability in public service delivery.  By bridging the gap between journalists and CSOs, we are laying a strong foundation for sustainable and accountable governance at the district and community level,” Ms Ofori-Kwafo said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the media consultancy firm which facilitated the training, Trans-Media Network, Charles Yao Mawusi, emphasised the importance of advocacy by the media to ensure social justice and public involvement in all activities aimed at the improvement of the standard of living of the people.

He said it was the duty of the media to provide advocacy to ensure that the local assemblies performed their duties for quality local public services across the country.

So the workshop, Mr Mawusi said, was to provide the media practitioners with the right tools and knowledge to educate the citizenry on their roles in demanding responsive and efficient service delivery from the assemblies and for them to adhere to quality standards in the discharge of their services.