Penplusbytes. a Civic tech Non Governmental Organisation, has organized a one-day social accountability and Economic Justice clearing platform forum to provide opportunity for social accountability actors to come out with common issues for a concerted advocacy on better service delivery in the selected social intervention policies by government.
The forum which was held at the Kofi Annan center of excellence conference hall at Ridge-Accra, forms part of the implementation of Penplusbytes’ 2-year “HERE (Health, Education, Resource Equity) and Now” Project, which seeks to equip ordinary citizens with usable information via the #ShortChanged mobile app mashed-up with social media to promote their purposeful participation in demanding accountability and responsiveness from decision makers for effective public service delivery.
According to Mr. Jerry Sam, the executive Director of Penplusbytes, the project is being implemented in Ghana and Mali in partnership with ID-Sahel in Mali and funded by the Open Society Initiative for WestAfrica (OSIWA).
The stakeholder Clearing Platform on Social Accountability, discussed the existing social accountability approaches and their associated advantages and challenges as well as the role of ICT tools in facilitating social accountability”, he said.
He believes that the key outcomes of the meeting would be able to sensitize the stakeholders on the level of implementation of the selected policies, finding solutions to challenges and gaps identified in the implementation of social protection policies in Ghana and garnering support in the drive.
For him, social protection has the potential of alleviating poverty and also encouraging human capacity developments.
Adding that the forum it is about health, education and resource equity. “When it comes to our economic justice, that’s the national cake we all have a chance of benefiting from. We should all be allowed to give opportunities and resources to go out to improve our standard of living,” he tressed.
In the executive director’s welcome address, he mentioned that the forum is aimed at increasing the contribution of civil society in promoting accountability by state and public service providers through mandated representation and advocacy on health and education issues which are of great concern to citizens and has impact on their social lives.
To ensure there is value for money in the implementation of the various policies, Mr. Sam added the event will bring together Ministries, Agencies, Departments, and other civil society organizations in the social accountability space.
Touching on the HERE & NOW project , he said penplusbytes is implementing the projects in Ghana and Mali. Saying, “We began in Mali because we all have similar issues. But then, Ghana’s situation is much better. So we want to see to it that the results that we’ll get from this project would positively impact the people in Mali, so that they can even copy some of the good things we are doing to improve their lives.”
On his part, a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Mr. Felix Amakye, called on Parliament to expedite the passage of the Social Protection Bill to give strong legal backing to the implementation of social intervention policies.
He said for any social programme to be successful, there was the need for legal backing to help effective resource mobilisation, disbursement and utilisation.
“Such a bill would curb corruption and delay the release of funds for those interventions. The implementation of social programmes is fraught with challenges and it is time we got a consolidated social protection law to ensure that they are implemented in a coherent and well-coordinated manner,” he stated.
At the social accountability and economic justice clearing platform forum 2022 in Accra yesterday[August 23,2022], Mr Amakye said, “Without a Social Protection Bill, it makes accountability very weak,”
“For a policy implementation that has little legal backing, you can smell the angle of corruption within that framework which will be extremely difficult to manage, but when you have the law it tackles issues about procurement, mobilisation and disbursement of resources and also provides the citizens the opportunity to demand real accountability,” he said.
He stated that when he presented the health, education, resource equity (HERE) research report carried out from April to May 2022.
The research examined the citizens’ level of awareness of selected social protection interventions and identified challenges affecting the implementation of those social interventions.
It also aimed at strengthening citizens’ ability to hold state and corporate actors to account and make economic development work for the poor.
The research was carried out in Central Gonja District in the Savannah Region, Juaben Municipality in the Ashanti Region, and Accra Metropolitan in the Greater Accra Region.
Mr Amakye further indicated that, there was a gap in terms of how resources for social interventions were mobilised and disbursed, it reflected the sheer lack of answerability on the part of public officials and the discharge of their responsibilities.
“This bill will ensure that social protection policies are implemented in a manner that reduces lapses and corruption to give people the assurance that their taxes and rights to good living are being upheld by these interventions,” he emphasized.
By:Bernard K DADZIE
