By Anthony Apubeo, GNA
Bolgatanga, April 9, GNA - Stakeholders at a local governance forum held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region have expressed concerns about the low representation of women at the various Municipal and District Assemblies in the country.
They said women played critical roles in the development of the country, and yet had over the years recorded low involvement in the affairs of the Assemblies across the country and advocated strong collaboration among Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Traditional and Religious Authorities to tackle and reverse the menace.
The forum organised by “TEERE”, a Non-Governmental Organisation and sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Senior Experten Service both from Germany, SAVE- Ghana and STAR-Ghana, was the second in the series of the Regional TEERE Local Government Forum (RTLGF) aimed at empowering the people at the grassroots to participate actively in the decision-making process at the District Assembly levels so as to contribute effectively to the implementation of the decentralisation process.
The stakeholders from the 15 Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Region included; Civil Society Organisations, Traditional and Religious leaders, the Ghana Health Service, Workers of trade Unions, Women Groups, the Youth, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), the Security Agencies, the Media, Technocrats among others.
The stakeholders who spoke on the theme; “The Role of Stakeholders in Local Governance” further called on the central government to desist from awarding contracts meant for the Assemblies and empower the Assemblies to do so since the projects were under their jurisdiction.
“We cannot understand why in this period of Ghanaian’s decentralisation, the Central Government after disbursing the District Assembly Common Fund will always still dictate to the Assemblies that they should use certain percentages for the agriculture, health, education and other sectors instead of allowing the Assemblies to address issues of priority”, some of the participants indicated.
The stakeholders expressed worry about low citizen involvement in the development of some MDAs Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) which they attributed to inadequate resources, and indicated that some of the substructures of the MDAs were ineffective and affected the implementation of the local governance systems and the country’s decentralisation programme.
“Many of the Substructures at the Assembly levels including the unit, area and town councils throughout the country are not functioning.
“Several of them have become white elephants and dysfunctional in nature. This is seriously undermining the effective operations of the decentralization concept since most citizens in these areas cannot actively participate in the decision-making process of the Assemblies.” They stressed.
The Stakeholders suggested that the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) meant for the strengthening of the capacity of the substructures of the Assemblies and also proposed that such funds should be put into good use to achieve the intended results.
The stakeholders who proposed that any Assembly that failed to make its substructure function effectively should be denied of the District Development Facility Fund, further stated that some of the funds should be directed at building the capacity of Assembly members, Unit, Area and Town Council Members to enable these structures function effectively.
Professor Avea Nsoh, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TEERE, explained that the TEERE Local Government Forum (TLGF) focused on community sensitisation, districts, regional forums, round table discussions, engagement with CSOs and national forum and round table discussion at the national level.
He added that through the collaboration with the MDAs, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, CSOs groups, the Local Government Service Secretariat (LGSS) and the National Association of Local Government Authorities (NALAG), and his outfit organised series of programmes including; district and regional forums all geared towards complementing government’s effort in the implementation of the decentralisation concept.
Professor Nsoh indicated that apart from some of the medical supplies donated to the Bong District Hospital, his NGO was working to roll out projects in the Bongo and Nabdam districts to empower groups, especially women to start commercial production of guinea fowls, pigs and local smocks to improve on their livelihood and to help curb the spate of teenage pregnancy and alcoholic abuse among women in these areas.
GNA
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