25 participants attend workshop on good governance

Daily Graphic (pg11) Sat., June 5/10

Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

TWENTY-FIVE representatives from human rights and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose operations are related to governance, have completed a five-day training in making governments in their countries more accountable to the needs of the citizenry, especially women.
The participants, drawn from West Africa and Cameroon, were trained on how to use a tool kit dubbed ‘The Citizens Education Action Learning (CEAL) guide designed by the Commonwealth Foundation under the Commonwealth Secretariat’.
The guide, which has so far benefited other activists in East Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, is designed to enable the participants have more insight into good governance.
The training programme organised by WiLDAF Ghana with sponsorship from the Commonwealth Secretariat, was attended by participants from organisations such as Campaign for Good Governance in Sierra Leone, the West Africa Association of Development Organisations, Cameroon, Gender and Development Action, Nigeria. Others organisations from Ghana were the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEGC), Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), KAB Consult, ABANTU for Development, the Hunger Project, the Gender Centre among others.
Facilitated by the Executive Director of Dignity International, Mr Jerald Joseph, the participants were taken through the benefits to be derived from consistent application of the tool kit.
The Head of Governance at WiLDAF, Mr Frank Bodze, said the tool kit, under the citizens governance programme under the Commonwealth Foundation, was meant to bridge the gap between civil society and the citizenry, and to ensure that people at the grassroot were more involved in governance.
The guide, he said, would help them to better understand topics on poverty eradication, sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
According to Mr Bodze, the guide would also help them better understand the nature of democracy and the relationship between democracy and development and the importance of good governance.
The kit, he said, also focuses on the rule of law, respect for human rights, the application of new public management systems and structures, as well as transparency and accountability.