CSOs to monitor, evaluate activities of SADA

Civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Northern Savanna Ecological Zone, have committed to carry out participatory monitoring and evaluation of Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programmes to ensure greater transparency and accountability.

The CSOs said they have confidence in the new SADA management and its governing board and are prepared to partner with the authority to ensure transparency and accountability to realise the authority’s mandate of bridging the gap between the forested south and the north.

They made the commitment in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day conference organised jointly by SEND-Ghana and SADA with funds from IBIS-Ghana and Oxfam, which aimed at strengthening SADA and civil society partnership.

The conference on the theme: "The role of CSOs in achieving the SADA mandate and bridging the development gap between the north and the south of Ghana", was also meant to mobilise CSOs and traditional authorities to contribute to SADA’s ongoing repositioning process.

The communiqué resolved among other things to create a platform for information dissemination for rapid transformation of the SADA zone, commit to carry out participatory monitoring and evaluation of SADA programmes to ensure greater transparency and accountability.

The communiqué said CSOs would continue to advocate increased infrastructure development in the SADA zone and the passage of the Legislative Instrument on the levy of non-petroleum imports for funding the authority.

The communiqué said CSOs acknowledged and commended government for all the policy initiatives that had been introduced towards promoting the growth of the SADA zone and, “We pledge as civil society organisations, to give our optimum support regarding the implementation of the SADA development agenda”.

Mr Charles Abugri, Acting Chief Executive Officer of SADA outlined the programmes and projects to be carried out by the new management and board to include making judicious use of the nine valleys in the authority’s operational areas to improve farming.

He said SADA had also considered adopting pragmatic measures to address transport, irrigation and warehousing infrastructure problems saying: “We are taking steps to map out all the infrastructure digitally, which includes roads, schools, hospitals, warehousing among others.”

He said the mapping would also form basis of knowing NGOs in SADA operational areas and development partners who would partner the body in its repositioning process.

He said the promotion of irrigation module to combine commercial and out-grower farmers would be one of the priorities of SADA.

Mr Abugri said SADA would take advantage of the Pwalugu multi-purpose dam, which has been earmarked for hydro power generation by government to embark on irrigation on the about 20,000 hectare irrigated land in the area.

He said another area of importance that SADA is considering is to establish an assembling factory to assemble tricycle motorbikes and motorbikes in commercial quantities to serve the northern sector and the Sahel countries as ways of creating employment and revenue generation for the country.