By Rosemary Wayo
Tamale, July 29, GNA – The citizenry have been encouraged to make use of the ‘Let’s Talk and Clean Up Ghana” mobile applications to report violence and sanitation cases.
The mobile applications, generated by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) under the launch of the Citizens’ Generated Data (CGD), provide the platform for reporting sexual and gender-based violence as well as solid waste cases in communities.
Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director of Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH), speaking at a stakeholder advocacy forum on CGD in Tamale, said reporting abuse and sanitation cases via the mobile applications enabled the identification of dominating abuse areas, which enhanced targeted planning towards mitigating them.
She said, “These mobile applications gather all cases and allow users to state where cases take place. If the app indicates that abuses are more at the household level, focused planning would be in place to reduce it in that direction.”
The event was organised by the Ghana Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and SEND Ghana, spearheaded by SWIDA-GH.
It was to engage stakeholders on data that had been generated through CGD in 30 districts across the country on waste and violence to equip them deal with emerging sanitation and sexual and gender-based violence issues.
Participants were engaged on causes of sexual and gender-based violence, poor sanitation, and possible steps to reduce their occurrences, as efforts to contribute to attaining the SDGs.
Madam Princess Lovia Tetteh, a Representative of the Ghana CSOs Platform on SDGs, said the information and individual reports were confidential and that data were generated from citizens on abuse and solid waste sanitation with protected identities of reporters.
She stated that data generated from citizens were significant in informing decision-makers’ interventions in related areas.
She said, “The Ministry of Gender, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), Social Welfare are all informed based on data generated on these apps on critical areas and the kind of interventions, and policies to put in place to address gender-based violence in our communities.”
She said reporting solid waste was also important to attaining the SDGs, adding that reported cases showed on the platform of duty-bearers on the field, which enabled moves to sanitise the environment.
GNA