Assembly Grateful To “I Am Aware Project”

The Deputy Coordinating Director of the Dormaa East District Assembly in the Brong Ahafo region, Mr. Amoako Adams has expressed appreciation for the “I AM AWARE “ project, an initiative of the Cenre for Democratic Development(CDD-GHANA) and implemented in partnership with Resource Link Foundation-Ghana with funding from Willliam and Hewlett Flora Foundation.

This appreciation was expressed during an interface meeting between state and non-state actors organized by Resource Link Foundation- Ghana recently at Wamfie, the District capital of the Dormaa East District Assembly.

The Deputy Coordinating Director who was addressing participants at an interface meeting between state and no-state actors said the earlier sensitization forum has created awareness among citizens about the activities of the Assembly and especially how it is competing with it peers in critical areas like Health, Water, Education, Sanitation, Security and governance.

He assured citizens of the Assembly’s preparedness to respond to issues that they do not understand and urged citizens to make use of the citizens complains unit to make their grievance known to the officials.

Mr. Amoako Adams continued that citizens has a role in ensuring improvement in service delivery at the community and District levels by actively participating in the Assembly’s activities. He said citizens have the right to ask questions when they are not satisfied with service delivery while state officials has the responsibility to address their concerns. He said the interface meeting must be a starting point for the Assembly and citizens to see each other as partners in the development process. “As citizens we should not only be aware of what is happening in the District but we have an additional responsibility to hold state officials accountable for improvement in service delivery” He added.

On his part, the Country Director of Resource Link Foundation-Ghana, Mr. Christopher Dapaah in his welcome remarks appealed to participants to eschew partisan politics and work in unison to ensure overall improvement in service delivery. He said the situation where people from opposing parties are side-lined in the development process in the District level does not auger well for development. He appealed to citizens to use the information and knowledge gained in both the sensitization and the interface meeting from the I AM AWARE project as a spring board to demand accountability for improved service delivery in their communities and the District as a whole. “It is therefore imperative to enhance awareness of the citizen’s roles and to fully empower them to participate in the decentralization especially preparation of the district’s development plans, budgets and its implementation”. He concluded

The I AM AWARE project is aimed at empowering citizens particularly the poor and vulnerable through information sharing to demand accountability from state actors to ensure improvement in service delivery.