‘Include civil society in policy dialogue’
The Director in charge of Research, Statistics and Information Management (RSIM) at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ms Mary-Anne Addo, has said there is the need for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to be included in public policy dialogues to ensure effective monitoring of implemented policies.
She also expressed concern about the lack of political interest in the activities of CSOs and urged politicians to take keen interest in their activities.
Ms Addo was speaking at a meeting which was organised by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), in Accra on Wednesday.
The meeting, held on the theme “Monitoring Post Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation Implementation in Ghana: Progress, Challenges and Next Steps,” was to create awareness of progress of Post Busan.
Busan partnership
The Busan partnership was the 4th high level meeting held in the city of Busan in the Republic of Korea from November 29, to December 1, 2011 to negotiate on the “global partnership for effective development cooperation” document among the partner countries.
The conference was a milestone for CSOs as it was the first time they had participated in negotiations as full and equal participants alongside other development actors.
Post Busan progress
Addressing the gathering on the progress of the Busan-Partnership, Ms Addo said “even though the purpose of the Busan-Partnership has not been realised yet, the vision was not dead”.
“In Busan, there was an agreement to have a global partnership. This is because it was getting too expensive for development partners to continue funding meetings in Paris The meetings could be held through radio conferences,”she said.
She added that “how to handle the time between Korea and Columbia, for instance, was a big problem.”
Ms Addo attributed the delay in the implementation of the agreement in Ghana to political leadership, saying “the Ghana Aid Policy is yet to be passed by Parliament and that was another hindrance to the implementation”.
In his remarks, a Senior Research Fellow of IDEG, Mr Kwesi Jonah, said the objective of the meeting was not only to create awareness of the post Busan progress but to determine the scope of implementation in Ghana and to collect inputs from the discussion to feed into preparations towards the next high level meeting.
African report
Speaking on the African Region Report, the Executive Director of IDEG, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, said the Busan-partnership focused on effective development co-operation by focusing on a results-oriented approach, inclusive development partnership, transparency and accountability.
Africa, he said, was grouped into four regions with the hope of creating other regions in future.
He said the four regions were Central Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa and Western Africa.
However, Dr Akwetey said there were difficulties in getting the enabling environment for effective coordination.
