DOCs urged to align APRM to community needs

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) District Oversight Committee (DCO) members at a three-day workshop to promote Good Governance, have been urged to let transparency and accountability be their guiding principles, to enable them work as a team to enhance public policies, and align the APRM to the needs of their community people.

“It is only when transparency and accountability take the lead in all your activities, that you will achieve the objectives of instituting good governance and accountability at your localities”, Mr. Kofi Marrah, Director, Technical Operation of National African Peer Review Mechanism-Governing Council (NAPRM-GC) made the call at the closing session of the workshop at Cape Coast, organized by the APRM in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and sponsored by Hanns Seidel Foundation, a German-based Non-governmental Organization (NGO).

The DOCs were from the Effutu and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Municipal Assemblies and Jomoro and Ahanta West Districts.

He advised them to be innovative, and to ensure the judicious utilization of resources that may be put at their disposal, as well as the skills and knowledge gained at the workshop for grassroot engagement, to promote good governance, especially accountability and local ownership through increasing applicability and effectiveness of APRM process.

Mr. Marrah charged them to periodically revise the training manual and the handout, to enable them execute the task that has been entrusted them to help bring sanity into society.

Mrs. Winifred Asare, NAPRM-GC, Miss. Gladys Mariam Osman and Mr. Andrews Ofori Larbi from NCCE, Dr. Mark Nii Lamptey and Mr. Henry Coffie, DOC members, were the facilitators who schooled the participants on, Adult Teaching and Learning Techniques plenary and comments, APRM process in Ghana, Government Administration, Decentralization and Local Government structures.

Other topics treated were the role of society in the APRM process, Participation and Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups, Group Management, Techniques for creating Dialogue, Participatory tool for sensitive planning, Social Mobilization, Resources Mobilization and Management NAPRM research Methodology, conflict management and Mobile Data Collection Techniques.

Dr. Nii Lamptey, lead facilitator, urged the participants to be assertive, to enable them have access to the sharing and dissemination of information, ideas, and experiences of the APRM in their district.