Mfantseman: The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has organised a capacity-building workshop for Accountability Labs (ALs) within the Mfantseman Municipal Assembly of the Central Region to enhance grassroots democracy and social accountability. The Accountability Labs engender social accountability by supporting active citizenship.
According to Ghana News Agency, the workshop, supported by STAR-Ghana Foundation under the project dubbed 'Action for Voice for Inclusive Development' (AVID-2), aimed to equip young leaders and active citizens with the skills and knowledge to influence local governance and advocate effectively for their communities. It is also to build, sustain, and amplify community voices to advocate and claim their rights whilst holding duty bearers accountable.
The trained youth were selected from various communities, including Anokye, Ewoyaa, Abonkor, Krampakrom, Krofu, Ansaadze, and Afrangjuah within the Mfantseman municipality. Mr Bernard Anaba, the Head of Policy and Programmes at ISODEC, said over the years, communities had not been able to come together and mobilise for action due to their low level of consciousness and inability to galvanise mass movements to articulate their issues using tools and strategies that would enable them to sustain social action for change.
The capacity-building exercise, he stressed, was organised to raise youth awareness and empower them to actively address shared challenges through volunteering and community-driven initiatives. Mr Anaba explained that ISODEC had recently gathered data on community needs, paving the way for the workshop to deepen participants' understanding of their roles in local decision-making and access to social accountability mechanisms. 'This is to strengthen the capacity of these ALs on local participation in Assembly processes and social accountability tools available to citizens.'
Mr Sakyi Julius, the Assistant Development Planner at the Mfantseman Municipal Assembly, disclosed that during the needs assessment to develop the Medium-Term Development Plan, it emerged that water was the major concern affecting the communities. He said as a result of the challenge, the Assembly took a decision to drill mechanised boreholes in the communities using the District Assembly Common Fund.
Mr Michael Tettey, a volunteer at ISODEC, educated participants on how to submit petitions and the responsibilities of the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies. He led a discussion focusing on the purpose of the Client Service Unit and its functions and responsibilities, among others.
On his part, Mr Kojo Bondzie, a youth representative from Abonko, said although he regularly visits the Municipal Assembly as a Unit Committee Member, he was unaware of the existence of some committees until he participated in the workshop. The workshop concluded with the formation of an eight-member community-led committee to tackle the second most pressing issue identified through the project's pairwise ranking, which has to do with poor telecommunication networks.
