Difficult accessing information at District Assemblies by NGOs – SEND Ghana
Mr Adamu Mukaila, Programmes Officer of SEND Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), said NGOs found it difficult to access information from district assemblies and other government institutions in the Upper West Region.
He said government institutions, especially the decentralised departments, usually denied them information they could use for their operations for fear that it would be used to create mischief.
This, he noted, usually affected their advocacy programmes and provision of basic services that would help better the lives of the people in their areas of operation.
Mr Mukaila said this during a meeting with Dr Ephraim Avea Nsoh, Upper West Regional Minister, at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
The meeting gave the opportunity for representatives of 18 NGOs operating in the region to interact with the Regional Minister and bring out ideas on how the development of the region could be fast-tracked.
Mr Martin Dery, Director for ProNet North, said their main objective was to complement government efforts in ensuring that the ordinary Ghanaian had a better life.
He said they could help assemblies in the region to generate more funds if they were seen as development partners and not “anti governmental agencies.”
Dr Nsoh said for the RCC to be able to co-ordinate activities that could bring development to the region, it needed information which could best be gotten from those NGOs who were always on the field.
“Since you are always in the field you have information about the challenges of the people at the grass root level and how these challenges can be addressed”.
Dr Nsoh said various NGOs in the region needed to collaborate in order not to duplicate projects in communities when such communities had numerous challenges that needed urgent attention.
He said government alone could not fund all projects that would be needed by the ordinary Ghanaian but could help facilitate, evaluate and co-ordinate NGOs to provide the needs of the people.
Dr Nsoh assured the NGOs of his readiness to link them to the assemblies when they had difficulty in accessing information from them.
Source: GNA