Abdul-Hamid launches national town hall meetings

The Minister of Information, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has announced plans by the Information Ministry to hold town hall meetings in all the 152 metropolitan and municipal districts in the country in 2018.

The aim of the meetings is to adequately inform the citizenry on major government policies, programmes and initiatives and to bring governance closer to the doorstep of the people.

It will also serve as a great source of feedback for many of the government policies being executed.

Major policies

According to the minister, the government had embarked on major policies and social interventions aimed at restoring and maintaining macroeconomic stability,  enhancing fiscal and monetary discipline and a comprehensive industrial transformation.

Those programmes, he noted, must be explained to the citizens in order to get them involved in the development agenda.

Dr Abdul-Hamid disclosed this at the maiden launch of the town hall meeting held at Dzodze in the Ketu North District in the Volta Region last Monday.

According to the information minister, the country would be moving towards an inclusive society with opportunity for all if the town hall meetings were successful.

Key issues

Key among the issues to be discussed in the various town hall meetings are the free SHS programme and its related issues, optimum health and health services, nutrition and food security, population management, poverty and inequality, water and sanitation, among others.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, in his speech, noted that there could not be good governance if the people at the grass roots were not well informed about major development  initiatives being undertaken by the government.

He said the town hall meetings were a strategic part of the development communication machinery of the government to ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision making process at all levels.

Town hall meetings are a decentralised means of giving the citizens and opinion leaders of the various communities nationwide, the opportunity to get together to discuss the progress and emerging issues of the central and local governments.

The town hall meetings are also in line with the Sustainable Development Goals  (SDG’s) 16 and 17.

The national launch of the town hall meeting was attended by Members of Parliament, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives , ministers and a host of dignitaries