'Participate in development process to strengthen decentralization' - NCCE

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Central Gonja District in the Savanna Region has called on citizens at the grassroots to participate fully in all developmental processes in their communities.

This they believe would help to strengthen the nation's decentralization process.

It said Chapter 20 of the 1992 constitution made provisions for people in a particular local government area to be afforded the opportunity to participate effectively in their governance to ensure transparency, accountability and community ownership.

"The Local Government Act 2016, Act 936 sections 40-48 also made provisions for local governance participation at the grassroots level" it added.

Mr. Ayaala J. Abdullai, the District Director of NCCE in the Central Gonja District made the statement during a meeting at the forecourt of the Sankpala Chief's palace with 144 participants on the Implementation of the Social Audit, March 2019.

Mr. Abdullai said the implementation of the Social Audit was to help citizens to hold duty bearers accountable for the service they provided at the local level.

He said the National Decentralization Action Plan (NDAP) and policy framework for the year 2015-2019 directed the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to ensure that MMDAs established the Social Audit Committees aimed at ensuring that the social audit techniques were used to promote and increased participation with strengthened grassroots accountability.

"In order to reinforce the above, the Government has developed the National Popular Participation Framework (NPPF) in order to mainstream the participation of citizens in the MMDAs," he said.

He called for effective decentralization process in the country by enforcing the relationship between potential beneficiaries, stakeholders and the service providers through all the processes in development policies.

"To ensure effective social auditing, citizens need to have access to vital documents at various districts assemblies such as the District Medium Term Development Plan, Annual Action Plan, Budget and Annual progress reports, so as to assess and make conclusion on whether the District Assembly has achieved its set goals or not" he said.