By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Feb 14, GNA – A consultative workshop to establish and strengthen coalitions among socially excluded groups has been held in Tamale.
It is to enable them effectively to demand accountable governance.
The engagement would create a platform for shared learning, collaboration, and joint action to empower the groups within the Northern and Savannah Regions to advocate their fundamental human rights and inclusive development.
It was organized by the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana) an NGO, with funding support from Star Ghana Foundation and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
The workshop was attended by leaders and representatives of various excluded groups and communities, including persons with disabilities (PwDs), Zongo communities, women in the development space, youth focused organizations, among others.
Ms Patience Basing, Project Officer at SWIDA – Ghana, said “Today’s workshop is a cross coalition initiative, a buildup on what we started in December last year, after the elections, where we formed coalition groups to pick up advocacy issues based on the campaign promises of the government, especially on vulnerable groups like PwDs, women and girls”.
She said the event, was to afford the groups the opportunity to re-strategise and leverage on the power collaboration to ensure that the voices of the marginalized were prioritise in the implementation of government policies and programmes.
Capacity building of women and girls, peaceful demonstration and protest, media engagement, advocacy on women participation in key decision-making processes, and engaging with employers were some issues identified by participants to ensure that the duty bearers were held accountable for their campaign promises.
Ms Avoka Alberta Wuntima, Member of the Women in Development Space, underscored need for government to collaborate with the traditional authorities to enable women too to own fertile lands for agricultural activities.
She said, “When women are given the opportunity to own lands and engage in productive agriculture, it will not only help boost households’ income and nutrition but also contribute to poverty reduction and national development”.
Mrs Abubakari Shahadu Nima, Northern Regional President of the Federation of Disability Organizations, expressed the need for government to demonstrate transparency in the disbursement of the disability common fund, to ensure that the targeted groups benefited from it.
GNA