Minister urges district assemblies to strengthen Unit and Area committees

Mr San Nasamu Asabigi, the Deputy Nothern Regional Minister, has appealed to district assemblies in the region to strengthen the Area Councils and Unit Committees to enhance community mobilisation for development.

He said Area Councils and Unit Committees were avenues that secured political participation, especially for the poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalised as they bring government closer to the doorsteps of the people.

Mr Asabigi was speaking at the mid-year review meeting of the Phase two of Public Participation in Local Governance (PPLG) initiative by IBIS West Africa, a Danish non-governmental organization (NGO).

The PPLG, which was instituted in 2007, is aimed at strengthening governance at local and national levels, and promoting participation of the marginalized at all levels.

The programme further seeks to build the capacity of civil society organisations to enable them mobilise their constituencies to demand accountability from the government.

He said there were certain problems associated with the operations of the Unit Committees structure and the recent review on the decentralisation process would provide solutions to problems that are hindering the smooth operations of the sub-local government structures.

Mr Emmanuel Abeliwine, Programme Director, Public Participation for Local Governance of the NGO, said the public should have the opportunity to determine how the government should work and that IBIS’s support for MDAs was a way of ensuring that structures put in place to promote good governance were working.

He said the Region, which was selected for the PPLG pilot programme, was performing well.

He Abeliwine appealed to stakeholders to increase the number of women in the assemblies.

Source: GNA