CSOs deliberate on decentralization process

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Accra, March 13, GNA - A number of Civil Society Organizations (CSO), on Wednesday met in Accra, to deliberate on an action plan, concerning challenges of the country's decentralization process.

The four year action plan which was formulated in the year 2010 and ends in 2014, is expected to enhance the decentralization process, and deal with any lapses the process might encounter.

Mr Edward Aboagye, Project Manager of the Social Accountability Platform, told journalists that since the governance decentralization process which begun in 1998, "we have faced challenges and we have as a result come up with this four year action plan which ends in 2014."

He said the meeting with the CSOs, was to bring to the fore, the extent to which local authorities were implementing the action plan adding, "we expect clear signals by now on how local authorities are implementing the plan."

Mr Aboagye said the meeting would also yield "feedback" from the CSOs who were at the grass roots, "then we can engage with government on the way forward with the implementation of the action plan".

He said, "already, they have talked about portions of the action plan that are not being worked out such as the putting in place of social audit committees, the need for adequate education of the media on the action plan, amongst others."

Since 1998, Ghana has implemented comprehensive local government and decentralization reforms as an alternative development strategy.

The 2010 National Policy Framework, is intended to accelerate the decentralization effort, towards the ends envisaged in the Fourth Republican Constitution, and to give the process the clarity, consistency and certainty, required to promote local level governance and development.

GNA