Cities Alliance and CCMA deepens ties to aid development

The Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) in collaboration with Cities Alliance have initiated moves to find lasting solutions to the debilitating menace of sanitation, waste management and tourism development in the ancient city of Cape Coast.

Cities Alliance, an International NGO based in Brussels is in the country to partner cities and support them to deliver sustainable development to help improve the lives of urban dwellers through integrated and innovative solutions to end poverty.

To this end, a day's stakeholder's forum on sanitation, waste management and tourism development was held in the Cape Coast on Thursday, to solicit and collate views for effective implementation.

The initiative is being piloted in two Assemblies in the Central Region, namely Cape Coast Metropolis and Agona West Municipality to be replicated across the country to significantly improve on sanitation and waste management and boost local tourism.

Reverend Professor Yaa Adobea Owusu at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, said the workshop was to build on an earlier one held last year to prepare a Local Assessment Report (LAR) and to establish City Level Partnership (CLP) through the existing local multi-stakeholder forum.

She explained that in 2017, the Cities Alliance in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development prepared the Institutional Enabling Environment Report (IEER) for Agona West and Cape Coast through stakeholder workshops in the two secondary cities.

Funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the cities Alliance and CCMA as implementing partners, identified city level actions using local budget and available policy instruments of equitable economic growth to serve as a vehicle for new policy options.

It solicited different views of stakeholders, including representatives from the local authority, informal and formal sectors, community organisations and academia.

The forum also identified various action points for improving solid waste management and public health hygiene to help develop strategies for disseminating the project findings, including information that will feed into media briefing.

She believed the collaboration was the surest way to create employment, increase the revenue base of assemblies, and rid cities of filth to attract tourist across the world.

Mr Sampson Amoako Kwarteng, CCMA Coordinating Director called for the collective effort of all stakeholders to make the Metropolis the cleanest and preferred tourism destination in Ghana.

GNA

By Isaac Arkoh, GNA