By Charles Tawiah
Nkawie (Ash), Aug. 19, GNA – Demanding social accountability is not a complaint mechanism but a rights-based approach to social inclusion for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Mr Humphrey Matey Kofie, Executive Secretary of the Mental Health Society of Ghana (MEHSOG), has said.
He said demanding social accountability positioned PWDs to become active, rather than passive, monitors of the benefits and opportunities available to them in society.
Mr Kofie made the remarks at a two-day training workshop on monitoring disability-inclusive programmes and services through technology and social accountability approaches for PWDs at Nkawie in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The workshop, held under the theme: “Strengthening the Capacity of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities for Promoting Inclusion in Ghana,” sought to guide participants on key disability-inclusive programmes, policies and services in Ghana.
It also aimed to equip them with skills to apply social accountability tools, including Community Score Cards and Citizen Report Cards, to monitor disability-inclusive service delivery, develop monitoring indicators aligned with their thematic priorities and organisational mandates, and advocate improved services.
The programme was designed to build participants’ capacity to use technology to collect, analyse and present evidence-based data for advocacy, while enabling them to engage duty bearers through interface meetings to demand transparent, accountable and sustainable solutions to challenges confronting PWDs.
The workshop was organised by MEHSOG in partnership with the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) and the Africa Disability Institute (ADI), with funding support from the European Union.
It brought together 20 selected members of various disability groups from the Ashanti, Bono, Central, Eastern, Upper East and Volta Regions.
Mr Kofie said demanding accountability required consistent follow-up and the effective use of accountability tools, noting that “an action plan without tracking is only a wish list.”
He explained that the training was intended to provide participants, most of whom were PWDs, with practical knowledge in the use of Community Score Cards (CSC), Citizen Report Cards (CRC), Public Expenditure Tracking (PET) and Accessibility Audits (AA) to obtain information on services and benefits due them.
The use of these tools, he noted, could promote accountability, transparency and fairness in the delivery of services and benefits to PWDs without favouritism or discrimination.
He mentioned the five per cent allocation of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for PWDs, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme as some of the interventions designed to support persons with disabilities.
Mr Kofie further identified evidence gathering as a critical tool for holding service providers and stakeholders accountable, explaining that advocacy efforts could easily be dismissed if they were not supported by credible data.
He urged participants to serve as facilitators of social accountability, community monitors, action plan developers and collaborators in implementing community-level monitoring of service providers within their respective localities.
According to him, the impact of the training would be assessed through post-workshop follow-up activities, including advocacy initiatives, community-level assessments, improved service delivery engagements and the submission of monitoring reports.
He said the ultimate goal of MEHSOG was to strengthen the capacity of disability organisations to effectively monitor and advocate improved disability-inclusive services using social accountability approaches.
Mr Daniel Baah Appiedu, Ashanti Regional Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, expressed appreciation to the organisers for the initiative.
He said the workshop had equipped participants with the tools and knowledge needed to effectively demand their rights and access services and opportunities available to them.
Mr Appiedu observed that some members of disability groups were often denied information about available benefits due to limited awareness and inappropriate approaches to information seeking, adding that the training would help address those challenges.
GNA
Edited by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah/Lydia Kukua Asamoah