Volta, Oti journalists train in public service delivery

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, has organised a two-day regional media training workshop for some selected 28 journalists from the Oti and Volta regions in Ho in the Volta Region. 

The workshop was held last Friday and Saturday 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, including the Oti, Volta, Western, Western-North and Central regions.  The rest are the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, North-East and Savannah regions.

The workshop also brought together CSOs and district assembly officials who interacted 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, stated that due to the importance of media practitioners in championing the advocacy of quality and accountable public service delivery, it should be properly equipped.

Quality services

She said through this, the media would be able 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.

A Facilitator of the 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.

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

He said the workshop aimed to provide the media practitioners with the right tools and knowledge to educate the citizenry on their roles in demanding responsive service delivery, efficient service delivery and adhering to quality standards for their benefit.

Topics treated included identification of service delivery advocacy issues, introduction to advocacy, collaboration challenges in advocacy reporting and best practices for effective advocacy.