By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), March 23, GNA – The STAR-Ghana Foundation has urged Ghanaians to seize every opportunity to amplify their voices to ensure that their demands are included in the manifestos of the various political parties in the country for the upcoming 2024 general election.
“Please, every avenue that you get, amplify your voice and speak about your demands because the more we talk about them the more serious they take them,” Mr Frank Amoateng, the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager of the Foundation, said.
He was speaking at a zonal consultative and town hall meeting in Wa to collate inputs of the stakeholders towards influencing the political party manifestos for the 2024 general election.
The meeting was organised by the STAR-Ghana Foundation in partnership with the Community Development Alliance (CDA) as part of the implementation of the Manifesto Influencing initiative, a component of the Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme (GREP).
The GREP project is being implemented by the Foundation spanning from December 2023 to March 2024 with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The forum was to empower key stakeholders, especially women, youth, Persons with Disability (PWDs) and other marginalised groups in the Upper West and Savannah Regions to contribute to the development of comprehensive manifestos for the 2024 general election.
It was also to create a platform for the stakeholders to co-create recommendations towards influencing the manifestos of political parties and candidates for elective office at constituency and national levels.
He explained that the forum was just one platform to influence the manifestos and said they could also use avenues such as engagements with politicians and radio discussions to influence the manifestos.
Facilitators at the forum made presentations on discussion papers developed by the Foundation on issues of health, basic education, and social protection in the country.
Mr Amoateng said the inputs and recommendations collated on the discussion papers would feed into the development of policy briefs on the three areas, which would form the basis for citizen advocacy to influence party manifestos.
Dr. Ernestina Korleki Tetteh, Project Manager of the Foundation, urged the participants to hold politicians accountable for their promises as contained in the manifestos.
She entreated them not to allow politicians to take them for granted saying, “They come as if they are doing us a favour, but we are rather doing them a favour.”
Dr. Tetteh encouraged the people not to fall for material things such as food and money in exchange for their future but to ensure politicians considered their concerns in the development of their manifestos.
Pognaa Rosemary Bangzie, the Queenmother of Duong in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, appealed to politicians to pay much attention to the efficiency of health facilities, especially by ensuring the availability of drugs.
She said issues such as lack of essential medicines at the health facilities discouraged some people from visiting the health facility when they fall sick but resorted to self-medication.
Stakeholders including traditional leaders, representatives of youth groups, students, and vulnerable and marginalised groups among others participated in the forum.
GNA