Mr Buba Khan, the Africa Advocacy Advisor, Action Aid International, made the recommendation on Tuesday at a three-day planning meeting in Accra for partners implementing the project.

It was dubbed: Mobilizing Civil Society Support for Implementation of the African Governance Architecture (PANAF) Project.”The AGA and ACDEG are provisions motivated by the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU), which sets out international standards of good governance, democracy and elections.

They include issues of ensuring human and people’s rights, consolidating democratic institutions and culture and ensuring good governance, the rule of law, free and fair elections, while condemning unconstitutional changes of government.

The PANAF Project, being funded by the European Union and implemented by a 13-member consortium, led by Action Aid Denmark, seeks to improve governance across the Continent, opening space for more inclusive participation in political decisions by ensuring that the AGA and ACDEG provisions were implemented.

Mr Khan noted: “It is an open secret that corruption is rampant in Africa, and if something is not done it will further sink the Continent… …that is why we are championing the Charter as a tool to combat corruption.“When people know their rights and responsibilities they can hold governments accountable. Also if governments get to know they have limits and are supposed to be accountable to the people they will be more open and transparent in their dealings,” he said.

Mr Khan urged leaders to go beyond the rhetoric’s and domesticate the AGA and ACDEG provisions to create jobs for the youth and make the Continent prosperous.As a major achievement for the first year of the project execution, he disclosed that partners had held meetings with various institutions that had strong stakes including high-level political personalities and officials of the African Union.

Ms Margaret Brew-Ward, the Advocacy and Campaigns Manager of Action Aid Ghana, said as part of the project implementation more than 130 youth and journalists selected from Volta, Greater Accra, Upper East and Brong Ahafo regions had been equipped with information and campaign resources on the AGA and ACDEG to engage in advocacy initiatives in their respective regions.

Touching on other up-coming activities, she said the Project would use a scorecard developed on key aspects of the provisions of the AU Charter to measure the level of implementation at the district, regional and national levels.

Ms Ward-Brew said relevant agencies would be schooled on the PANAF Project to deepen their understanding of the AGA and ACDEG provisions.