Economic Governance Project will make District Assemblies more efficient – says Saboba DCD

The Saboba District Coordinating Director, Mr. Musah Issaka has commended the implementing organisations of Empowerment for Life (E4L) Programme for introducing the Economic Governance Project (EGP) in the Saboba District.

“A project of this kind is not about ‘naming and shaming’ but an opportunity for the Assembly to position itself to be more efficient and effective in the delivery of public goods to the people”, Mr. Issaka reiterated, adding that the approach promotes active citizens involvement in the local governance process.

The District Coordinating Director, who made these remarks at the recent District Steering Committee’s (DSC) meeting in Saboba, assured the E4L Programme implementing team of the Assembly’s collaboration. The DSC was one of the structures created by the project to serve as the advisory board with the oversight responsibility of selecting and monitoring of the capital development projects in all the E4L Programme districts.

As the Chairman of the DSC, the new District Coordinator, was hopeful the project would help the Assembly to improve upon its strategies for effective implementation of community development projects.

The Economic Governance Project Officer, Mr. Musah Mohammed maintained that “the overall objective of the project is to increase civil society capacity to engage in and lead initiatives that promote improved local governance by ensuring higher citizen participation in monitoring local government to improve transparency, accountability and performance.”

Mr. Musah explains the project uses social accountability tools such as scorecard, town hall meetings, social audit and oversight committees to increase citizens participation in the local governance process to ensure effective delivery of public services by the local authorities.

The Economic Governance Project, at the pilot phase, seeks to strengthen the capacity of citizens to monitor public capital development projects in their districts by using social accountability tools. The intervention also aims at encouraging citizens to take keen interest in the local revenue collection and utilization. It, as well, provides support for the production and use of citizen-generated communication on capital projects and revenue collection through community radio programs, social media and community debates.

The E4L Programme is being implemented by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) with technical and funding support from Ghana Friends (GV) in Denmark and DANIDA.