SEND-GHANA launches democratic governance project

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Ghana Dg For Web
Send-ghana Launches Democratic Governance Project

Ghana DG 1 for webA civil society organization, SEND ?GHANA has launched a governance project aimed at maximizing the participation of non-state actors in local governance for increased accountability, transparency and responsiveness in Accra this week.
At the inception meeting, John Alexander Ackon, the deputy minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs was quoted as saying, the meeting has created a platform to get active participation so that the civil society will help in shaping opinions in the right order.
The moment the shape is made right, it applies that, the agenda setting will also be right so that it will not become a blame game but how to make our people active in local participation to serve governance well, Ackon added.
According to Daniel Adotey, a Programme Officer of SEND ?GHANA, this process was initiated broadly to support government in the decentralization process and to implement some aspect of the decentralization action plan that has not been dealt with over the years. That aspect is the involvement of non-state actors in local governance.
Under the national decentralisation plan, government committed to develop guidelines that will help strengthen the relationship between district assemblies and non-state actors particularly traditional authorities and civil societies but up to date not much has been done in this regard, according to Adotey.
It is in the interest of civil societies to have a cordial relationship with state actors.
?We are facilitating a process to bring traditional authorities and other players come together to discuss how they want to engage with the Municipal, Metropolitan and Districts Assemblies as well as the sector ministries which include Local Government and Rural Development Ministry and Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs Ministry on governance issues, he added.
Ackon however suggested that, the sum total of state and non-actors should be adopted to promote active participation in local governance
Experts from the ministries, research institutions, academia, representatives of local governments, traditional authorities, Regional co-ordinating Councils, local and international Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other development partners involved in decentralisation and participatory democracy were present to make input.
The inception meeting also sought to obtain a common understanding and buy-in of the project objectives; review objectives and modalities of project implementation to provide advice and recommendations for more effective achievement of the project results; to foster team-building and establish working relationships and lines of communication and facilitate dialogue among wide stakeholder groups including state agencies, national experts, local governments, Civil Society Organisations, other development partners working in the area of participatory democracy in Ghana.
SEND-GHANA, is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), and a subsidiary of SEND Foundation of West Africa.
It is implementing this project in partnership with the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) and the Local Governance Network, with funding from Star-Ghana.
Story by Makafui Delalie

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