Promoting active citizens participation, inclusion and accountable governance at the local level

As part of efforts to increase citizens’ participation and improve service delivery at the local level, CEDEP and its associate local partners rolled out the local governance project in the Asante Akim South and the Bosomtwe districts with support from STAR Ghana. The project sought to build on the gains made by local governance initiatives in the districts by focusing on inclusion of vulnerable groups, transparency and accountable governance and effective service delivery at the districts. 

The key project strategies focused on providing spaces for active engagement between citizens and duty bearers through town hall meetings, community interface meetings, meetings in alternative spaces with women, youth and Persons with Disability (PWDs). The project also focused on building the capacity of citizen groups on the use of community scorecards to assess the performance of their respective district Assemblies, the Planning and Budgeting processes, monitoring of capital projects by citizens among others.

The project also employed the SMS platform which aided the project in identifying issues relevant to be discussed on the wider platform like the town hall meetings as members who are outside the project beneficiary communities had the opportunity to engage with duty bearers on development issues. 

Over Two Thousand Eight Hundred (2800) citizens were directly reached with development information across the districts while over Five Thousand Seven Hundred (5700) citizens were indirectly reached. 

The key strategies that worked for the project included:

• Community stakeholders owning the process of nominating people to serve as volunteers for capacity building and monitoring of capital projects

• The active involvement of key Assembly staff in community outreach activities, monitoring and fora ensured ownership of the process by the Assembly

• Working through the leadership of groups (women, youth and PWDs) to invite their members to participate in project activities ensured full and active participation of citizen groups

• The use of community information Centres to disseminate DA development information was useful in reaching out to a wider audience especially in market and lorry stations