Mwananchi Project ends in Ghana

Nana Nyanfiaba, Queenmother of Nyankrom in the Shama District, at the weekend called on women to get more involved in development activities.

She made the call at a ceremony to mark the end of the Mwananchi Ghana Project, a participatory grassroot governance project, in Takoradi in the Western Region.

The five-year project of the Overseas Development Institute was funded by the Governance and Transparency Fund of the United Kingdom Department of International Development.

The Participatory Development Associates (PDA) Limited is the National Coordinating Organisation of the project.

Nana Nyanfiaba who presided over the function said women should not under-estimate their important role in the country’s development process.

She said women should spearhead development projects by dismissing their lukewarm attitude. Nana King, Coordinator of Mwananchi, Ghana at the PDA, said the organisation focused particularly on innovative approaches to the use of information and communication to improve governance systems.

She said it involved building connections between community, district and national decision making processes. This, she said, helped strengthened the legislative and policy dialogue between citizens and other stakeholders.

Nana King said partner organisations in the Region included the Advocates and Trainers for Children and Women’s Advancement and Rights (ATWAAR), Friends of the Nation and Conservation Foundation.

She said the project was implemented in Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Uganda with the purpose “of increasing the ability of civil society, the media and elected representatives to enable citizens to effectively express their views and governments to account for their actions”.

Madam Ekua Ansah-Eshun, Executive Coordinator of ATWAAR, said the project strengthened the role of Queenmothers in the beneficiary communities.

She noted that Queenmothers, who represent the voice of women and children, are marginalised while their authority is subverted.