The Upper East Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, Mr Peter Hastings Mensah has called for a socially stratified national platform to plan modalities to hold duty
bearers at the local government level accountable for the promotion of the development of rural communities.
He noted that such platforms would compel duty bearers to appreciate the need to give equal impetus to the development of rural Ghana where the majority of the people lived but had no access to simple social necessities such as water, electricity and schools.
Mr Mensah was addressing a day's stakeholders meeting in Bolgatanga, organized by the NCCE to obtain inputs from the participants, on how the
local government system could be improved after it had been in existence for 21 years, to meet the social needs of the citizenry especially rural communities.
He said the meeting, which had as its theme; "The Local Governance System and 2010 District Assembly Elections" was to equip participants with the knowledge to determine the needs of rural people as players in the development goals of the country and how their contribution could fit into the policy framework of the local government authorities in their areas.
The theme was further segmented into, 'The Electoral Process'; 'Social Auditing'; 'Women's Participation in Local Governance': 'Lower Structures of the Local Government System' and 'Government Appointments to the District
Assemblies'.
Mr Mensah observed that women's participation at the local governance level was very poor and said in spite of the several attempts made by advocacy groups to get them into the mainstream local level politicking, little results had been realized.
He said it was, therefore, time for all to sensitize the people to understand and get a dozier of knowledge about the local government system and make quality choices by pushing for women who could help to put some impetus into the system at the various district assemblies.
The Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the NCCE, Mr Avolim-Wini Sambila, said the NCCE per its mandate had been charged to organize the workshop to sensitize stakeholders on the general local government system and come out with suggestions and clues as to how best the system could be reformed to get better results.
Mr Sambila noted that it was the wish of the Government that the various assemblies relied on their structures to speed up development of the
various rural communities under their jurisdiction and said the workshop was
to pool opinion from all segments of society to get workable and efficient local government system in place.
Participants were drawn from the Electoral Commission; Unit Committees; Nongovernmental Organisations; District Assembly Members; Religious Groups, various associations and the Media.