Mr Mohammed Awal, the Project Lead of Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Wednesday called on civil society organisations to get involved in local governance to help improve development and accountability.
He also urged them to ensure that there was equitable and inclusive development.
Mr Awal made the call when he opened a two-day capacity building workshop for their “I Am Aware” southern partners, a non-partisan citizens empowerment campaign led by CDD-Ghana in Accra.
The 45 participants were drawn from La Nkwantanang Madina, Kweabebirem, Ekumfi, Gomoa West, Kadjebi, Adaklu and Shamaa districts.
The two-day workshop is to build the capacity of participants to get more involved in the District Assembly concept and share information with the citizenry.
“Citizens will only be active if they are well informed, and ensure that there is equitable and inclusive development,” Mr Awal advised.
He urged the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to regularly update citizens on areas in which the Assemblies Common Funds were being invested.
The Project Lead advised them to ensure that their budgets and developments were pro-poor.
He stated that citizens should be made aware of what was being done at the local level to improve their educational, health, water, sanitation, roads, security, and agricultural needs.
Mr Awal urged all to lend their support to help strengthen democratic principles starting from the communities.
He appealed to the media to sensitise the citizenry on their roles and responsibilities and create a platform for them to discuss their developmental needs.
The Project Lead told the participants that they were being equipped to be agents of change in local governance participation, implementation and accountability adding “don’t go and bury what you are being taught in the ground.”
Topics to be treated at the workshop included: how local governance works and where citizens influence, accessing and interpreting government data, introduction to pro-poor, gender and disability response policy analysis and examining social accountability and ethical data collection and evidence.
The others are working with media for social change, coalition building and movement strengthening and crafting compelling advocacy stories using simplified technical data and AI tools for public consumption.
