By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Feb 24, GNA – Alhaji Alhassan Ziblim Alhassan, a retired local governance practitioner, has called on youth groups in the country to embrace advocacy as a viable tool to help promote accountable governance at all levels.
He said it was important for them to demand responsible and accountable leadership by consistently lobbying and engaging with their leaders on how they could create opportunities and provide the enabling environment for young people to thrive.
He said: “You must strategise on developing compelling advocacy messages supported by data and facts to demand development.”
Alhaji Alhassan, who made the call while addressing a forum for some youth groups in Tamale, said young people must also learn to be responsible to help contribute their quota to the overall development of the country.
The forum was organised by Simba Ghana, a youth empowerment, governance and peacebuilding NGO, in partnership with Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and funded by William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
It was dubbed “Northern Regional Youth Cafe” and formed part of the “I am Aware Project, which seeks to provide user friendly information to the public to enhance the effective delivery of service at all levels.
It brought together various youth groups, including persons living with disabilities (PwDs) from Tamale, Sagnarigu, Karaga and Gushegu Districts.
Mr Abdul-Rahaman Abdul-Mumin, Executive Director of Simba Ghana, said the forum was to help participants develop an understanding of governance, accountability and the power gap between citizens and local authorities.
He said it was also to empower participants through information sharing on social mobilisation to enable them actively to participate in community development processes.
He expressed worry over the dwindling trends in governance accountability in developing countries, citing the Mo Ibrahim’s Index of 2013, which pointed out that accountability was one of the weakest elements of governance in Africa.
He called on the youth not to relent in their efforts to advocate for accountable governance to ensure equitable distribution of resources for sustainable development.
Mr Abdul-Hamid Yushawu, Second Deputy Speaker, Northern Regional Youth Parliament, called for the full implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to youth development, adding the growth of young people in the country depended on the execution of such policies.
Mrs Abubakari Ayishetu, Member, Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, said the challenges facing PwDs in the country were because of lack of accountable governance.
She called for measures to reverse the trend and commended Simba Ghana and partners for the forum.
GNA