Findings Of Maiden Governance And Peace Poll In Ghana

What is GaP Poll?

The Governance & Peace Poll (GaP Poll) is a mechanism for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its lead partners to track the extent to which progress is being made in the areas of governance and peace as they relate to approved work plans under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

This survey was conducted in June 2014. The methodology involves the creation of a list of respondents who have agreed to be contacted regularly on matters relating to governance and peace. These respondents were randomly selected using criteria of gender and region. The poll is nationally representative, and has a margin of error of +/- 3%, at a 95% confidence interval.

Highlights of key findings
Level of Trust in Public Institutions: More than half of the respondents indicated they trust the Electoral Commission (57%), National Peace Council (64%), Law Courts (53%) and CHRAJ (60%) to deliver on their mandate. However, 53% do not trust District Assemblies to deliver on their mandate.

Contact with Duty Bearers: Most of the respondents said they do not contact duty bearers [Members of Parliament (84%), district assembly officials (79%), Unit Committee member (75%) and Assembly representative (68%)] to share their views on pertinent development issues.

Trust in the prosecutorial powers of the state: Even though 53% of the respondents trust the law courts, only 47% said they trust in the ability of the state to prosecute cases in the law courts. A significant 45% did not trust the state at all or trusted them a little to prosecute cases.

Willingness of Women to Accept Leadership Position: In a country with few women in leadership position, it is encouraging to note that 54% of women respondents were willing to accept a leadership role in a political party if offered them. While an overwhelming majority of women in Upper West (85%) region were more willing to accept a leadership role in a political party only 47% of women in the Eastern region were willing to do so.

This aside, 73% of the women interviewed said they were willing to accept a leadership role in a private sector organization, with the rate particularly high in the Northern region (91%). Moreover, 70% of the women respondents indicated that they were willing to accept leadership role in a public sector organisation.

Payment of Bribe: A significant majority (80%) of respondents who reported having contacted a service provider in the past 12 months said they did not pay a bribe.

How will these findings be used?
It is worthwhile to repeat that the data and findings generated from this poll are meant to support the tracking of progress being made in the area of governance and peace. UNDP and its implementing partners, where necessary, will use these findings to assist in the design of interventions necessary to address governance and peace challenges in Ghana. The data and findings are also made available to the public and other stakeholders in the field of governance and peace to support their work.

Who are the partners?
Partners in the implementation of the poll comprise UNDP, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the National Peace Council (NPC) and the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC), which also serves as Chair of the GaP Poll Technical Committee. The GaP Poll is being operationalised by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).

The GaP Poll findings do not necessarily reflect the view of the implementing partners.

What is to be expected next?
Today's poll is the first of three surveys that will be done in 2014. The second GaP Poll will be conducted in August/September and the findings will be shared with the public in October.

For the full report and summary of this survey, please visit the following URL: http://www.gh.undp.org/content/ghana/en/home/library/democratic_governance/governance-and-peace-poll-report---july-2014.html

Contact:
1. Maxwell Ashon, CDD, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 268 936 359

2. Mohammed Awal, CDD, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 244 778 621

3. David Appiah, UNDP, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 208 127 007,

4. Gameli Kewuribe Hoedoafia, IMCC, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 200 131 455

5. Janet Sarney-Kuma, NPC, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 277 182 030

6. Gloria Gyedu, CHRAJ, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +233 245 990 644