Assemblies urged to engage the public to promote participation

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been called to do more to engage their citizens by going down to the people instead of holding town hall meetings.

They have also been advised to employ a wide approach in inviting people to meetings to ensure that majority of the citizens were targeted to promote participation.

Mr Eli Yao Kuadey, Development Planning Officer at the Social Accountability Unit of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), said there is the need for MMDAs to reach out further to the people to promote citizen participation in their activities.

He was speaking at a dissemination workshop in Tamale organized by the Social Accountability Unit of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development under the Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP).

The event was attended by stakeholders from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

It was to present findings of Citizens Perception Survey conducted under the LGCSP for the past five years to assess citizens’ appreciation and understanding of delivery of projects by 46 Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies in the country.

The survey revealed that the assemblies’ engagement of citizens in the delivery of projects has improved compared to five years ago when the project began adding that there is the need to find innovative ways to reach more people.

Mr Kuadey said going down to the people to engage them on assemblies’ activities to addressing their lot would stimulate citizens’ participation in the activities of the assemblies to enhance good governance for development.

He urged assemblies to ensure that people, who manned their client service units, were properly trained to understand the role of the assemblies.

Mr Abdul Rahaman Baba Ahmed, Acting Tamale Metropolitan Coordinating Director, lauded the project for helping to bridge the gap between the various assemblies and the citizenry leading to improved citizen participation in the activities of the assemblies.

The five-year project, which will end this year, supported the 46 assemblies in the delivery of improved infrastructure in the areas of health, education, sanitation amongst others through the Urban Development Grants.