Okere Youth Budget Advocacy Group inaugurated

Plan International Ghana, Eastern Programme Unit, has inaugurated a Youth Budget and Advocacy Group for Okere to empower the members to participate in development issues in their respective communities.

Members of the group are youth ambassadors from junior high schools in the Okere District who would bring issues such as sanitation, water, community needs and practices to the notice of the District Assembly for attention.

Mr Samuel Afadu, Okere District Coordinating Director, who inaugurated the group, said advocacy was a potent tool, which had helped to identify and address challenges of communities and marginalised groups.

He mentioned, for instance, the two per cent District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) meant for People with disability as one of the significant results of advocacy and pledged the Assembly's support to ensure that the group worked according to expectation.

Mr Afadu said already the composite budget plan of the Assembly had been released to the group to be guided by their coordinators to study and bring out the gaps identified in their respective communities for attention.

He commended Plan International for the project, which would ultimately improve governance participation.

Madam Victoria Minimade, the District Development Coordinator of the Eastern Programme Unit of Plan International Ghana, indicated the project's objective was to empower the youth from that level to take interest in community development as well as build their capacity to appreciate the governance structure and participate fully in national development.

She said Okere was the third district after Upper Manya Krobo and Akuapem North to benefit from the project.

She noted that the group would be mentored on how to appreciate budget estimates of their respective districts and the gaps created in implementation in terms of community needs, to achieve the objectives of the programme.