Government to give Assembly Members motorbikes

Mankessim (C/R), June 30, GNA - Government, in collaboration with the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) is to provide 6,000 motorbikes to all assembly members in the country, to help deepen the decentralization system and local governance.

Currently, government had taken delivery of the motorbikes and the registration processes is almost completed and very soon would be handed over to beneficiaries in a couple of weeks.

Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a knowledge product advocacy meeting on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Project (SRLP), held in Mankessim in Central Region, said the cost of the motorbike would be deducted from the Common Fund.

The SRLP was established in 2006 by the UNDP in the context of rural poverty in general, which continues to exacerbate the plight of people living in deprived areas, making them vulnerable, and powerless to break away from the vicious circle of poverty, particular the endemic poverty of the three Northern Regions of Ghana, whose Human Poverty Index shows higher deprivations in health, education and decent standards of living.

The one-day workshop, organized by Africa 2000 Network Ghana (A2NG), with support from the UNDP, seeks to sensitize partners about these knowledge products, since the implementation of the project deepen the use of these products.

Mr Ankrah said the move is also to enable Assembly Members to perform their constitutional mandates of soliciting the views of the local people and reporting to the district assemblies, as well as, supporting revenue generation.

He said, 93Assembly Members over the years' have been advocating for improvement conditions of service and successive government had not been able to pay allowances to them, so in collaboration with NALAG, we have come up with this to help facilitate their work."

Mr Ankrah said the work of Assembly Members required them to travel to communities and so the means of transportation was crucial, to aid in discharging those responsibilities.

"Many of them have about 40 communities under their jurisdiction to visit and interaction becomes difficult for them to do all these rounds,"he said.

Alhaji I.M Sherif, a representative of NALAG said the initiative, which started during the previous government was a decision discussed and greed on by the district assemblies to enhance the work of assembly member.

He said since the commencement of the district assembly concept two decades ago, it had observed that the work of the district assemblies was pivotal to the strengthening of local government system.

Alhaji Sherif said the ministry and NALAG would not be part of the distribution processes, 93It will be handed over to the district assemblies for them to do their own distribution"

Mr K. Edem Senanu, National Project Coordinator of the UNDP and A2 NG SRL Project said the Project was developed to promote growth and reduce poverty in the deprived Northern Regions, especially the most deprived districts by 2010 and is being implemented by Africa 2000 Network-Ghana (A2N).

He noted that the Project focused on developing the capacities of communities, in terms of individual capacity and organisational capacity, to empower communities to take control of the development, implementation and monitoring of their Action Plans.

A key element of the approach he said was to focus on community assets, including social, physical, financial, human and political assets, as well as, all other available resources and potentials.

Mr Senanu said the approach had helped target communities to develop community action plans and to identify and harness their assets towards the implementation of these Community Action Plans.

"Communities are therefore not considered as complex masses of needs and problems, but rather as diverse and potent webs of gifts and assets. Each community has a unique set of skills and capacities that can be channelled for community development", he said.

Mr Senanu said the project had worked together with other stakeholders to support a variety of knowledge product, including the Community Action Plan Training Facilitators Manual, the Ghana Developmental Information Portal, the Information Mediator Concept and a Review of 20 Years of Decentralization.