Project to integrate socially excluded in local governance underway

The Global Action for Women Empowerment (GLOWA), a rural-urban integrated non-governmental organisation (NGO), in partnership with the Volta Educational Foundation (VEReF) and Voice of People with Disability (VOICE Ghana), has embarked on a social inclusion and accountability project in the North and South Dayi districts of the Volta Region.

The project, dubbed: "Integrating Socially Excluded in Local Governance (ISELG),” is expected to afford socially excluded groups, especially marginalised women, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and youth in the North and South Dayi districts, the empowerment for mobilisation to actively engage their respective district assemblies for increased access to government's pro-poor services.

The pro-poor services include Enterprises and Skills Development (LESDEP), Microfinance and Small Loans Centre(MASLOC), Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency(GYEEDA) and the two per cent District Assemblies Common Fund for PWDs.

In an interview, the Chief Executive Officer of GLOWA, Ms Enyonam Kugbeadzor, said the project came about as a result of views gathered from focus group discussions conducted in 2012 among marginalised women, PWDs and unemployed youth located in hard-to-reach communities in the targeted districts.

She said the results had indicated that these marginalised groups were unaware of the government’s pro-poor services, the modalities for accessing them and  did not possess the knowledge, skill and voice to demand for those services.       

Ms Kugbeadzor added that the project was specifically working on both supply or duty bearers on one side and demand or marginalised groups/ citizens on the other of the local governance for a balanced social accountability in the provision of public goods and services within the framework of the National Decentralisation Policy and Action Plan.

She called on the key duty bearers, especially the district chief executives, district coordinating directors (DCDs) and administrators of government pro-poor services to make the packages accessible to women, PWDs and unemployed youth to support the project to achieve its objectives.

She also indicated that the project was being implemented with funding from Strengthening Transparency Accountability and Responsiveness (STAR) Ghana and its donor partners such as the Department for International Development (DFID), Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The 12 months’ ISELG project is targeting six hard-to-reach communities in the two project beneficiary districts, namely, Tsyokpokofe, Agordeke, Tsiyenu  in the South-Dayi District and Awate, Tsyome- Sabadu and Tsorxor in the North- Dayi District).

For his part, the Executive Director of VEReF, Dr Deodat Adenutsi, said the GLOWA partnership with ISELG project primarily targeted the specific socially excluded groups, such as rural women, market women, Muslim women, women associations, cooperatives, widows, pregnant women, teenage mothers, peasant farmers, PWDs and youthl and their self-help groups, including in-school, out-of-school/unemployed youth aged 18-35.