The extent and capability of holding local governments to account and making it responsive to the needs of citizens has received a major boost in the Ga East Municipal Assembly through the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) forum.
The forum, attended by representatives of citizens groups including Ghana Federation of Disabled, Ghana Blind Union, state actors as well as non-governmental organizations, was also aimed at creating synergy and avenue for information sharing and building of a concerted advocacy drive to ensure that resources allocated for development are used to alleviate poverty and improve the standard of living.
The forum used a mix of role plays and plenary to discuss a variety of tools. Information sharing tools,
Participatory Planning tools and Monitoring/Feedback tools were the broad category of tools highlighted.
Social Audit, Community Scorecards, Citizen Report Cards, Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS), Participatory Planning and budgeting just to mention a few were among the tools discussed.
Mr Felix Amakye from the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) noted that “each social accountability mechanism has a specific social, political and economic context with attendant benefits and risks. Therefore success of one mechanism in a local context in no way guarantees success in another”.
He urged them to avoid hearsay and but rather test and consult with information before using any social accountability tool. He stressed that the citizens must form coalition in their quest to embark on any social accountability move since coalition reinforces people power and make them less vulnerable to public offices.
Mr Solomon Okai, Program Assistant of ADP, said the forum was organised every quarter to help build an informed citizenry who are equipped with the relevant tools and techniques to demand better service delivery from duty bearers during the engagement platform known as town hall meetings.
He said that information and coalition building is key in social accountability so the citizenry must form or join groups so that they benefit from the grassroots information campaign on Public Financial Management (PFM) processes which is on-going in the municipality. He was hopeful that the assembly members in the areas will mobilise the citizens groups for such vital knowledge.
Some participants who spoke after the forum described it as an “eye opener and a fine opportunity to learn about these crucial tools”. Most of them were of the view that the learning platform should be sustained since it will be a way for the citizens to keep learning about the assemblys dealings and ways of exacting accountability from duty bearers.
ADP is a leading organization in Africa working in the social development space with mainstream themes of gender, governance and social protection. With the vision of Africa in which strong economic growth is anchored in inclusive social development for its citizens, ADP promotes human-centred development through integrated development programmes targeted at rural and peri-urban communities.
The SPEFA project is being implemented in 46 MMA throughout the country with the National Coordinating Unit (NCU) of SNV providing a lead role in the consortium of the Civil Society Organizations.
