By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bongo (U/E), July 3, GNA – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has introduced a digital complaint dashboard and service providers’ scorecard mechanism to stakeholders in the Upper East Region.
The pilot project aims to enhance the complaint systems of service providers and institutions, and to create a platform for residents to conveniently lodge their concerns for the appropriate service providers to address.
The introduction of the platform, which currently operates through a website and a mobile app downloadable from the Google Play Store, forms part of the implementation of the two-year United Nations Peacebuilding Fund project, dubbed “Enhancing social cohesion and social contract through empowerment of women and youth in three northern regions of Ghana.”
It is being implemented by the UNFPA and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council and the Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana in the Garu, Bawku West, and Bongo Districts.
The project aims to work with stakeholders to prevent and address the root causes of localised and spillover conflicts and vulnerabilities to violent extremism in northern, particularly border communities in the Upper East, Upper West, and North East Regions.
Through the project, various stakeholders have been trained to improve service delivery to ensure that all people have access to social and public services to strengthen trust and cohesion.
Speaking at a training workshop held in Bongo to introduce the mechanism to stakeholders, Madam Selina Owusu, Gender Analyst at UNFPA, explained that although Ghana had not recorded any attack by violent extremists, the threats from Sahelian countries required efforts to prevent their spillover.
She said improving service delivery to all persons was key to promoting social cohesion and preventing the vulnerable from joining violent extremist groups, adding that the project had trained service providers on how they could enhance their provision.
“We are now institutionalising this complaint mechanism where communities will be sensitised on the services that are available, that they can access, and can also provide feedback through the same mechanism for the service providers to attend to them,” she said.
She said the training would be trickled down to the communities to ensure full participation and urged the stakeholders, particularly the district assemblies, to take lessons from the pilot project and scale up the innovation to other sectors.
The UNFPA digital complaint dashboard and service providers’ scorecard mechanism currently covers four sectors, namely health, security, social services, and social justice, with the various institutions included to ensure easy referral of complaints and resolution.
Mr Senanu Agbozo, the Consultant, who developed the system, stressed that the centralised dashboard sought to improve transparency and harmonisation of data collection, enhance cross-sector collaboration to ensure faster resolution, as well as ensure accessibility through multi-channel complaint systems.
Ms Franklina Amoah, a Public Health Nurse at the Bongo District Health Directorate, lauded the initiative, adding that it would improve the service providers’ interactions with communities, which would enable them to serve the people better.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/Christian Akorlie