Parliament’s Public Affairs Department to use social media often

Staff of the Public Affairs Directorate of Parliament trained to increase public engagement in the legislative process.

At a workshop in Koforidua, the Public Affairs Director of the department, Kate Addo, conceded there are gaps in the communication from Parliament. Hence there was the need to create an enhanced communication strategy. The personnel of the Directorate are expected to be using more of social media to reach out to target audience. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy says research indicates that over three million Ghanaians are active Facebook users.

The Director of Research at the Public Affairs Directorate of Parliament, Mohammed Hardi Nyagsi, pointed out that the communication policy of Parliament must change to respond to its changing needs. He added that there were concerns of the level of engagement with citizens. He said work was ongoing in scrutinizing and monitoring the executive but that hasn’t reflected as yet.

Mr Nyagsi was confident the strategy would respond to challenges so that Parliament would be repositioned and re-branded to improve its image. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy is offering the training for staff of the Public Affairs department Country Director Dr David Ekow Appiah observed that it has been working with the legislature on research and information management activities.

As a key organisation of governance, he said, Parliament needed to organize its information flow better.