C'nities Urged to Collaborate With Assemblies

Eric Opoku, Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Sub-Committee, has urged communities to collaborate with their respective Assemblies and Members of Parliament (MPs) to develop action plans to serve as road maps to facilitate development processes.

He noted that without collaborative efforts, communities could lack infrastructure and slow pace of development resulting in confrontation between communities and the assemblies.

Mr Opoku called on stakeholders to deepen democratic structures between communities and assemblies in order to fight poverty.

He was contributing to the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and Mondelez International Cocoa Life (MICL) initiative, which strengthens local democratic governance strategic meeting in Accra.

Mr Opoku commended the IDEG and MICL for the meeting which discussed the challenges confronting livelihoods and productivity, especially in the areas of agriculture, cocoa farming and community development.

He acknowledged the role of the cocoa industry which employs a chunk of the nation's population, specifically farmers in the southern part of the country and promised to forward their concerns for consideration.

Kwesi Jonah, Senior Research Fellow of IDEG commended the committee for making the meeting possible and its relevance was part of the process to strengthen citizens' involvement and participation in the development of national policies and programmes that affect people at the local level.

Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, Country Lead of MICL, indicated that the essence of support of the processes across the country was to enhance the development of projects and interventions in the areas of water and sanitation, education, health, farmers' livelihood and productivity.

Nana Kwasi Bennie II, Chief of Edwuman Traditional Area in the Western Region, urged the committee to prioritise the development of cocoa growing communities since their contributions to physical, social and economic development of the country could not be disputed.

"The committee should improve roads, education, electricity and cocoa inputs, among others, to help improve development in the area and enhance the nation's achievement of the sustainable development goals".

Representatives of the Governance Issues Forum Network (GIFNeT), a framework instituted by IDEG, and selected media personnel in districts within IDEG's operational participated. -GNA

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