By Philip Tengzu,
Wa (UW/R), Oct. 29, GNA – Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been encouraged to integrate Social Transformation issues into their Annual Action Plans (AAPs) for holistic socio-economic development.
Dr. Portia Adade Williams, a Research Scientist at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI), gave the advice and added that achieving positive social change should be the core of development plans at all levels.
She said this in a presentation at a day’s workshop for some staff of seven Municipal and District Assemblies in the Upper West and Savannah Regions on the implementation of the Resilience Against Climate Change-Social Transformation Research and Policy Advocacy (REACH STR) project.
The REACH-STR project is being implemented by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in partnership with the CSIR-STEPRI, the University of Ghana, and the SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) with funding from the European Union (EU).
The workshop was to engage the participants on the need to integrate social transformation issues into development planning and interventions as well as into the assemblies’ AAPs.
The project, in 2022, engaged representatives of the participating MDAs on the need for them to ensure social transformation issues formed an integral part of the development of their AAPs for 2023.
Comparing the 2021 and 2023 AAPs of the participating MDAs, Dr. Williams said though there had been an improvement in the level of integration in the 2023 AAPs, much needed to be done.
Dr. Williams observed that the level at which climate change, migration, and gender issues were mainstreamed into the national, district, and community-level development interventions was “ill-defined.”
She said the 2023 AAP showed an increase in some elements of social transformation such as education, health, and infrastructure, and a decrease in mobility, agricultural practices, climate change, governance, and urbanisation elements.
“To enhance mainstreaming of social transformation into policy making and implementation, it is important that barriers and enablers for policy process (should) be critically identified for policy advocacy initiatives,” she explained.
She recommended an improvement in the development of programmes and projects towards improving climate change impacts to reflect climate resilience, gender, and migration outcomes.
Dr. Godfred K. Frimpong, a Chief Research Scientist with the CSIR-STEPRI, stressed the need for social dimensions to be considered in climate change interventions and implementation to achieve the expected outcome.
He said the issue of climate change had dire repercussions on the lives of the people in the areas of gender and migration, and cited men migrating to the southern sector greener pastures as an instance of the impact of climate change.
He said due to the impact of climate change, the REACH-STR sought to create and strengthen a network of stakeholders to advocate the integration of social transformation issues into development planning at all levels of society.
Dr. Francis Jarawura, a Senior Lecturer at the SDD-UBIDS, said studies had shown that there was a reduction in the quantity of rainfall being recorded in the Upper West Region over the years.
He said that presented a high risk of climate variability and its attendant consequence on the lives of the people including agricultural production.
The participants identified political influence in the preparation of the AAPs as a major setback in incorporating ST issues into the Plans.
They thus suggested a stronger engagement of the political heads of the assemblies on the project implementation for them to understand the need to include more ST issues in the AAPs
Madam Amina Baluwie, the Wa West District Planning Officer, acknowledged that through the project engagement, she had realised a shortfall in integrating ST issues in the AAP.
She added that the engagement had also helped her to improve the general development planning process through the lessons she had drawn from the engagements.
“I have seen it as a shaping tool on the issues of climate change planning and implementation in our Annual Action Plan development”, she explained.
Madam Baluwie, therefore, indicated that there would be an improvement in the 2024 AAP in terms of integrating ST issues into the plan.
The participating districts were: Sawla-Tuna-Kalba in the Savannah Region, Wa West, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa, Sissala East, Sissala West, Lambussie and Nandom Districts in the Upper West Region.
District Planning Officers, District Directors of the National Disaster Management Organisation and Agriculture, District Gender Desk Officers, and representatives of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) participated in the workshop.
GNA