JOURNALISTS UP NORTH TO GIVE SUPPORT TO PSOs, FBOs, ETC

The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, a donor funded project with the aim of improving the business environment in Ghana to facilitate private sector development and growth, has organized a day’s workshop for journalists in the Northern Region.

The objective of the workshop was to elicit the support of journalists or encourage them to seriously consider the numerous business challenges in the nation’s private sector and create awareness through effective and sustainable media reportage that would bring positive results to the sector in terms of growth and development either in a short, medium or long term.

The private sector which involves mostly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and employs over 70% of the Ghanaian population is often referred to as the ‘engine of growth’ to every nation’s development economy.

However, numerous teething problems and challenges including difficulty in access to credit schemes, lack of or inadequate market availability, unfavourable government policies/local bye-laws, lack of infrastructure, high interest rates by financial institutions and among others, continue to hinder the development and expansion of the private sector in a country like Ghana.

Thus, recognizing the important role that the media plays in development advocacy, the organization urged practitioners to focus more attention on bringing out the challenges confronting the private sector by amplifying the voices of actors in that area in their frequent advocacy programmes.

Dennis Puorideme, Tamale Office Chief of BUSAC Fund responsible for the SADA operational areas in his remarks, said the Fund sought to build capacities of Private Sector Organisations (PSOs), Business Associations and Famer Based Organisations (FBOs) to enable them identify, analyse and research into business environment challenges and constraints which hinder their development and growth and bring them up for redress by the appropriate state agencies and institutions.

According to him, there is a need for serious advocacy for the private sector because there is a limited or no effective dialogue between the public sector and the business sector.

Besides, he said while majority of Ghanaians disregarded the private sector, the public sector also has limited understanding of the needs of the private sector. “The need for a strong private sector has been widely recognized as key to national development and growth; one of the vehicles for poverty reduction, and a key to removing constraints to doing business and increasing revenues, in Ghana and elsewhere can be achieved through advocacy”, Mr. Puorideme stressed.

Meanwhile, the BUSAC Fund setup in 2004 ended its first phase in February 2010. Three hundred and sixty-two (362) grants were provided to business groups and associations spread over all ten regions of Ghana to undertake advocacy activities aimed at improving the business environment.

A second phase of BUSAC Fund designed with lessons drawn from BUSAC phase I is being supported by DANIDA with other support coming from USAID and European Commission totalling US$20 million. The second phase also, is a five year extension to the first phase which lasted for six years, and is intended to consolidate the gains made in BUSAC Fund I and to further spread the concept and practice of advocacy to all sectors of the economy in all regions and districts of Ghana.

Emerging and established PSOs particularly in the area of business are eligible to apply to the Fund. These include business associations, trade unions, business media, small business associations of micro, small and medium enterprises, and FBOs. But, individuals and individual companies other than media houses are not eligible.

STAKEHOLDERS URGED TO PROTECT NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The Project Officer of Grameen Ghana, Adam Abdul- Razak has appealed to stakeholders in the natural resources and environmental sector and community leaders to enact bye-laws to safeguard the environment from extinction.

Speaking at a workshop organized to build the capacity of community leader’s at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region of Ghana, Mr. Adam said the negative impact of human beings on the environment was too devastating and that only a long period of sustained behavioral change education on such negative effects could change the attitude of people towards environmental mismanagement.

The workshop, which was organized by Grameen Ghana in collaboration with ActionAid-Ghana, brought together stakeholders and community leaders from the Nanumba North and South Districts to discuss among others, the role of forest in sustainable ecosystems, effects in land degradation and contribution of vegetative cover to soil.

Mr. Adam, therefore, called for the adoption at community and district levels, policies and actions that would ensure sustainable environmentally compatible development.

The Nanumba North District Environmental Health Officer, David Bayel, noted that persistent bushfires, bad farming practices, indiscriminate fuel and wood harvesting and overgrazing among others, were contributing excessively towards land degradation and eroding of the natural resources.

Protection of the environment, he said, should be treated as an issue of national priority along with poverty alleviation and climate change, which has gained so much importance in recent times.

According to Mr. Bayel, human factors such as poverty, population growth, poor economic growth, poor living standards of farming communities and over-dependence of forest and woodlands hinders the realization of the full potential and benefits of dry land and forest.

Whilst appealing to the District Assemblies to include household toilet facilities in their building plans to ensure good sanitary practices, he also stressed the need for all to support and be conscious of the environment and protect it for the future generation.

CSOs IN NRE SECTOR CALL FOR COMPREHENSIVE MINING POLICY

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) sector are calling for a comprehensive national mining policy through democratic and participatory process that would be effectively used by citizens and most especially the media to advocate for sustainable mining practises.

The CSOs observed that, the absence of a comprehensive mining policy suggests inadequate articulation of national aspirations and principles for mining.

In a ten-page communiqué issued at the second annual CSO review of the NRE sector in Ghana organised by the Kasa Initiative with support from DANIDA, CARE and ICCO in Accra recently, participants also registered their stiff stands against mining in forest reserves and protected areas (sacred groves).

The communiqué further stressed that there should be clear policy backed by legislation for a particular portion of Ghana’s landmass to be under permanent protection for its ecological significance.

Additionally, it advocated that the media should be mainstreamed and resourced with human and financial resources so that they could report effectively on Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (NREG) activities, saying “An NREG Media Centre should be created to serve as resource pool for media personnel and a National Media Awards should be instituted to encourage reportage on NREG issues”.

It further called for the development and implementation of a national communication and media strategy on NREG. “For a start, the state owned media should as a matter of policy, develop and implement at least, weekly programs on strategic natural resources and environment issues”.

The communiqué stated that social, environmental, cultural, political and economic cost associated with any mining projects should be considered or internalised in determination of the value, and cost-benefits analysis of such mining interventions.

The framework and administration of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), it noted should be reviewed to improve accountability of mining companies and state institutions as well as the meaningful participation of the public, especially the communities and individuals affected by the proposed projects.

The communiqué advised that, stability agreements in the extractive sector should be abolished; and government should ensure that development agreements that it signs with companies do not violate the laws and regulations on mining in the country.

On the oil and gas sector, the communiqué endorsed all the issues raised by the civil society platform on Oil and Gas in the report ‘Ghana’s Oil Boom: A Readiness Report Card, April 2011’, adding, “We entreat the relevant government agencies and other stakeholders including parliament, donors, private sector, civil society and among others to address the issues in that report”.

However, it urged government to suspend signing further agreements with oil and gas companies until after the passage of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Bill into Law. “We also call on Parliament and the Ministries in-charge to accelerate action on the Local Content Bill; Review of Petroleum Income Tax Law; Regulations and Operationalization of Petroleum Funds; National Gas Commercialization Policy and Gas Master Plan”, the communiqué emphasised.

Participants at the program were also concerned about the very slow pace of developing the National Climate Change Policy Framework (NCCPF), calling for its early completion since this will be a pillar of climate change response action and mainstreaming concerns.

Meanwhile, they appealed to government to start broader consultations to gather citizens’ inputs on Ghana’s position on Climate Change as part of preparations for COP 17 in Durban, South Africa this year. Adding that, government’s priority should be more on local adaptation mechanisms and not too much of the mitigation agendas being pushed by some developed countries.

CDD ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH FRIENDLY PROGRAMS

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has advocated for youth friendly programs and the mainstreaming of the youth development initiatives in the planning and development programmes of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies towards developing good governance and democratic culture among the youth.

The Centre has therefore called on local authorities to strengthen the public relations and complaints units in MMDAs and the office of the Presiding Member (PM) who occupies the critical position of Chairperson of the assembly’s public relations and complaints committee.

This they believe would promote state-society relations and strengthen the feedback mechanisms in the assemblies which play a pivotal role in the decentralization process.

The CDD enumerated this during a day’s decentralization workshop under the theme: Strengthening the role of civil society in decentralization and local governance in Tamale.

Mr. Paul Osei Kufuor Programs Manager of CDD-Ghana, Tamale noted that although decentralization has been a key development goal since the 80s, the process has been problematic.

According to him, its progress over the years has also been burdened with an enduring discrepancy between what governments decentralize by law and in reality.

Depending on the context, this divergence Mr. Kufuor indicated can be explained by the limited resources, the need for attaining economies scale of capacity, constraints, lack of political will and the influence of bureaucratic politics.

He said it was in view of addressing these gaping challenges that a new decentralization policy and action plans had been developed and launched in 2010 under the theme” accelerating decentralization and local governance for national development”.

The new policy framework provides conceptual clarity and relevant reforms on decentralization and local governance within the national development strategy he noted.

In a speech read on his behalf the Mayor of Tamale Alhaji Haruna Friday observed that the concept of decentralization could not be fully described as new, given that it is well over 20 years now since the country began the current process to send governance system down to the local level.

Local governance structures stretching from the central government (represented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development MLGRD) down to the Regional Coordinating Council, the Metropolitan/Municipal /District Assemblies (MMDAs) with Unit Committees being the basic units and therefore the “building blocks” of the system was a clear manifestation in this regard. He observed

The structures he explained have been designed to interconnect each other as they have responsibilities whose links can be traced from the ordinary person out there to the highest decision making body in the country.

The MCE however alluded to the fact that the entire system could still be described as new in view of the fact that most of structures are not fully operational for various reasons.

He identified the incomplete operationalisation to the lack of motivation for actors like the Assembly members, the Unit Committee members and staff of the Zonal/Town/Area Councils whose involvement could make the system work.

Madam Sandra Jensen a representative of GIZ partners of CDD underscored the importance of the capacity building workshop reiterating the commitment of the organization to partner in such events in the future.

She briefed participants on the activities of GIZ in collaboration with its partners citing three workshops in Tamale, Wa and Bolgatanga and other related activities an opportunity for the civil society and other stakeholders to learn more about the decentralization policies and activities in Ghana.

By Stephen Zoure

MMDAs IGNORING GUIDELINES FOR DISBURSEMENT OF DACF

A new study report released by SEND-Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has shown, that most Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), have been ignoring guidelines for the disbursement and utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) most especially the 3% share allocated to Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).

According to the report, previously the 3% share for PWDs was transferred as part of the Common Fund into the DACF Accounts for disbursement. But currently, all MMDAs are directed to open a District Disability Fund Account (DDFA) separately and put in place District Disability Fund Management Committees (DDFMCs) to facilitate its operations.

The study found out that these directives have not been complied with by most MMDAs except the Tamale Metropolitan, Yendi Municipality and Savelugu-Nanton District Assemblies had active DDFA.

Titus Segtub, one of the lead researchers gave a highlight of the study at a regional interface meeting with stakeholders at the Northern Regional Coordinating Council.

The research took place in 50 MMDAs in the three Northern Regions –Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions – and Greater Accra Region in 2010.

The purpose of the study was to bring civil society perspectives to bear on the implementation of the DACF which focused on citizens’ participation, transparency, equity and compliance with implementation guidelines.

According to Mr. Segtub, the objectives of SEND-Ghana in that particular research work was to assess the extent of community participation in DACF sponsored projects and asses the level of awareness and access to information on the DACF by communities.

It was also to assess the degree to which DACF sponsored projects were awarded on contract in line with the national procurement law, he added.

He explained that the three Northern Regions were selected based on the presence of SEND-Ghana and also because of the high incidence of poverty as per the Ghana Living Standards Survey (V) whilst the Greater Accra Region on the other hand was selected based on growing urban poverty noted by GLSS V.

Mr. Segtub who is also a staff of SEND-Ghana added that, District Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors, Presiding Members, Planning Officers and Chairpersons of District Disability Associations were interviewed whereas other information were sourced from Medium Term Development Plans, annual budget estimates and expenditure returns obtained from MMDAs and Administrator of DACF.

The study also revealed that access to the 3% share of the DACF for PWDs from 2003 to 2008 was less than one-third, adding “about 44% of PWDs who accessed the fund expended it on the celebration of the International Day for the Disabled and attendance of meetings”.

The study further revealed that about 50% of community leaders sampled did not belief that MMDAs had effectively used DACF to address their developmental needs.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Mahamud, a Programmes Officer of SEND-Ghana in a statement called on all MMDAs to adhere to the guidelines for the disbursement and utilization of the DACF.

According to him, access to DACF share for PWDs is very limited, adding “though most districts have established the DDFMCs and opened DDAF, as a directive, there is minimal or no transfers of funds at all into those accounts”.

Mr. Mahamud also disclosed that the management of the fund was fraught with misunderstanding between the MMDAs and the PWDs.