Ghana wins 2023 OGP Award

Ghana placed first out of ten Open Government Partnership (OGP) members who won awards at the 2023 Open Government Global Summit held on the 6th and 7th of September 2023 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo, the Senior Presidential Advisor and Dr E.O. Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, received the award for Ghana.

To recognise reformers at the forefront of advancing open governance, an award for “Inspirational Reforms” was launched by the OGP. Forty-seven applications were received from its members across the world out of which 10 winners emerged. The Internal Audit Agency took the top position out of the 10 winners with an application on the topic “Public Accounts Committee and Audit Reports.”

The OGP is an international initiative that seeks to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote openness, and transparency, enhance citizens' participation, promote accountability and adopt new technologies to enhance good governance.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Public Sector Reform Secretariat, stated, “The OGP Initiative in Ghana being implemented by the Public Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) with oversight responsibility under the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor has received a national and local award Africa Category from the 2023 OGP Global Summit in Tallinn, Estonia in northeastern Europe out of 47 applications received from national and local members across the world.”

The OGP Community, it said, is made up of thousands of relentless, inspiring and deeply committed reformers striving to make a difference in improving good governance of member countries across the world.

It noted that Ghana received the national award under the Africa category for implementing the most inspirational reform dubbed Public Accounts Committee and Audit Reports.

“This reform was one of the commitments in the 4th OGP National Action Plan implemented by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), a member of the Ghana Open Government Partnership Steering Committee. The OGP Steering Committee went through a very transparent process to select the reform which was submitted for the 2023 OGP Awards competition,” it added.

According to the statement, the local category award went to the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly based on its initiative in the Youth Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment Programme.

“The objective of the local initiative is to reduce poverty and create employment to improve the socio-economic well-being of citizens. It also seeks to set aside 10% of the Assembly’s share of the Minerals Development Fund to equip the youth, women and persons living with disabilities with technical skills, startup tools and considerable capital to commence their businesses and generate income to support their families.

“This great achievement would continue to guide the Government of Ghana under the leadership of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to deepen its resolve to be more open, transparent and accountable to the citizens as a quest to strengthen Ghana’s good governance processes,” it emphasized.

Ghana’s delegation at the 2023 OGP Global Summit included Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Senior Presidential Advisor and Chairman of Ghana’s OGP Steering Committee; Mrs Mary Awelana Addah, Ghana Integrity Initiative and Co-Chair, OGP Steering Committee; Mrs Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, Director, Finance and Administration at the PSRS and Point of Contact, OGP Ghana and Dr Stephen Manteaw, Co-Chair Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.

The local level was represented by Mr Benjamin Kessie, the Municipal Chief Executive for Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly; Mr Abdul Mumin Issah, Mayor of Sekondi-Takoradi Metro and Madam Amanda Pokua Adjei, the Municipal Planning Officer of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly.