by: Stephen Tetteh
Ghana is considered as one of the countries that have made significant gains in their democratic governance processes and have therefore been lauded for meeting international and regional standards for elections in respecting fundamental electoral freedoms.
This achievement has been linked to the peaceful, open and transparent manner in which the country conducted its presidential and parliamentary elections over the years.
It is in the light of these achievements that STAR-Ghana has stepped up ways of supporting the consolidation of these gains through critical involvement and participation of civil society.
STAR-Ghana is also stepping up its monitoring processes to support this year’s elections to ensure that there are peaceful, open and transparent elections without any cry of violence.
In this direction therefore, the organisation has allocated Four Million Eight Hundred and Thirty-Seven Thousand, Five Hundred and Sixty-two Dollars (USD 4,837,562.00) as funding to support 45 civil society organisations and non state actors to contribute towards ensuring peaceful elections.
According to STAR-Ghana, in November last year, the organisation has put out a competitive call for proposal from civil society organisations and non-state actors interested in undertaking interventions aimed at enhancing transparency of activities around the electoral cycle and increasing the accountability and responsiveness of key stakeholders such as the electoral commission, the judiciary, security services and political parties.
“Applications were invited from but not exclusive to the key areas of the election value chain. A total of 99 applications were received out of which 45 organisations were shortlisted and approved by the grants-sub-committee and the steering committee,” STAR-Ghana stated.
According to the organisation, the intervention is in line with STAR-Ghana’s goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of government, traditional authorities, and the private sector to the Ghanaian citizenry.
STAR-Ghana is a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism which aims at increasing the influence of civil society and parliament in the governance and management of public resources. They are currently being funded by DFID, EU and DANIDA.
