Citizen’s participation in local governance low – CDD
Mr Paul Abrampah Mensah, Programmes Officer at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), has urged the media to educate the masses on decentralization to increase their understanding on governance issues to enhance transparency and accountability.
He said a baseline survey conducted by the CDD in 17 selected districts across the country to identify social accountability gaps, revealed that citizen’s participation in local governance was low.
Mr Mensah said this on Friday at a capacity building workshop for the media on social accountability in decentralization in the country, funded by the European Union (EU).
He said the survey revealed that radio continues to be the most important source of information to citizens on local government issues and that between 61 to 73 per cent of the responses think the Metropolitan, Municipal, District and Chief Executives are not responsive in the delivery of public services.
Mr Mensah said the CDD, with support from the EU delegation to Ghana, is implementing a 3-year project on promoting social accountability through citizen’s participation in local governance.
He said the objective of the project is to increase citizen’s understanding of and participation in the governance process in their communities with special focus on traditional authorities, opinion leaders and organized groups such as youth associations and women’s group.
He explained that decentralization is a process where functions, powers, skills, competence and resources are transferred from central government to the lower levels of governance.
Mr Mensah said the objective of decentralization is to adopt measures to build the capacity of local authorities to plan, initiate, manage and execute policies.
He said section 16 clause (1) of the Local Government Act (Act 462) requires (MMDAs) to be in close contact with citizens on issues and decisions that are likely to affect their lives.
Mr Mensah said capacity building training workshop will be organized for the youth groups, traditional rulers, political activists and opinion leaders from August 5 to 9 in some selected five districts across the country.
For government to be responsive, capable and accountable, it has to decentralize because it provides opportunities for citizen’s to better exercise their influence over the local government in ensuring good governance.
Dr Patrick Osei-Kufuor, Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, who made a presentation on social accountability: Meaning and Practice, said social accountability consist of persons initiated by citizens group to hold public officials and service providers accountable for their conduct.
He said social accountability helps improve governance and increases development effectiveness through better service delivery and empowerment.
He said the media acts as a social accountability tool by providing a forum for debate for a plurality of actors to establish who should be held accountable, what should be held accountable for and how they should be held accountable.
Dr Osei-Kufuor said social accountability seeks to build on the gains of democracy by involving citizens in initiatives, geared towards enhancing accountability of public officials, reducing corruption and leakage of funds as well as improving public service delivery.
Source: GNA