By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, May 15, GNA – Norsaac, a civil society organsation, has engaged Deans of Coordinating Directors of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as part of efforts to co-create a process to carry out joint implementation of the agenda 55 across the northern part of the country.
Deans of Coordinating Directors from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Savannah Regions attended the day’s meeting, which was held in Tamale.
Hajia Hafsatu Sey Sumani, Head of Programmes and Policy Influencing at Norsaac, speaking at the meeting, said it was also “To let our Deans of Coordinating Directors appreciate our Agenda 55 initiative where we want to see how they implement policies that respond to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) effectively.”
Hajia Sumani added that “So, it is about the implementation of policies that we want to see, and in this one, we want to see how the MMDAs are able to even assess themselves and peer review on the strategies they are using to assess themselves.”
Norsaac, with support from OXFAM in Ghana launched the agenda 55 in November 2022 to co-create with government an annual evidence generation platform on protecting girls against SGBV.
The agenda 55 seeks to facilitate the sharing of experiences including successes, challenges and lessons learned with a view to accelerating the implementation of policies that address SGBV in all the 55 MMDAs in the five regions in the northern part of the country.
It also seeks to strengthen implementation of policies, institutions of government and to mobilise multi-stakeholder support and partnerships in response to the Sustainable Development Goals.
During the meeting, the Deans of Coordinating Directors identified child defilement, domestic violence, especially against women, early marriages and betrothal, child abuse and child prostitution as some key issues within their areas that needed to be addressed.
Hajia Sumani said “The Agenda 55 is voluntary, and so, we are expecting that the Leadership of Coordinating Directors will share the information with other Coordinating Directors to able to come on board.”
She said “With this programme, we are also expecting that it reflects at the national level, and so, we are gradually going to use this concept to see how we respond to SGBV. In this part of the country, SGBV issues are increasingly scaring us.”
The Deans of Coordinating Directors gave assurance of sharing the information on Agenda 55 with their colleagues and reviving their inter-sectorial coordinating committees to ensure effective implementation of the agenda 55 within their areas.
Alhaji Mohammed Rufai, Savelugu Municipal Coordinating Director, who is also Dean of Coordinating Directors in the Northern Region, commended Norsaac for initiating the agenda 55, saying its objectives were in line with the responsibilities of the MMDAs.
He said MMDAs had plans to address issues of SGBV but lack of funds hampered implementation and expressed optimism that the implementation of the Agenda 55 would help to reverse the trend.
Pognaa Fati Issaka Koray, Wa Municipal Coordinating Director, who is also Dean of Coordinating Directors in the Upper West Region, said it was a good project, which would be of immense benefit to the MMDAs and the people.
GNA