Koforidua-Ghana, Sept. 2, GNA – The Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe) has set up an Eastern Regional M-CODe Open Defecation Free Stakeholder Engagement Platform to accelerate the fight against the practice in the region as the nation hinges on eradicating it by 2030.
The M-CODe Stakeholder Engagement Platform launch at Koforidua is also to create a synergy for media practitioners’ and other stakeholders to work together, identify challenges and operational gaps, and work towards a common goal.
The stakeholders include the Eastern Regional Coordination Council (RCC), the Regional Environmental Health Office (REHO), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Regional SHEP, and the Ghana Education Service.
Others are the Ghana Health Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Municipal SHEP, and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA).
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, M-CODe National Convenor, who launched the stakeholder engagement platform during an empowerment forum for journalists in the Eastern Region, charged the stakeholders to work with the media towards the eradication of open defecation.
Mr. Ameyibor noted that the journalist empowerment event and launch formed part of the “M-CODe 2023 Anti-Open Defecation Nationwide Advocacy efforts, being supported by World Vision Ghana.
He said that to ensure that the objective of the group was attained, a rotational monthly strategic meeting was scheduled with REHO to host the group in September to develop local strategies to identify notorious open defecation communities, holding meetings with religious and traditional leaders to use as agents of change.
The Eastern Regional M-CODe Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Platform would also work with the journalists to commend communities that are doing well in the fight against open defecation and expose those who are not responding so well.
Mr. Ameyibor noted that the group was also to work to revive and maintain the activism to alter the rules and build a society free of open defecation.
As part of national efforts to put an end to the practice, M-CODe believes that empowerment through capacity building, connecting key players in the battle against open defecation, and developing a forum to expose communities still engaging in the practice are all important.
The M-CODe National Convenor mentioned the public awareness campaign towards the global aim of eliminating open defecation by 2030 and the empowerment of media, who serve as important partners to revitalise locally.
M-CODe acknowledges Sustainable Development Goal six, which calls for a significant increase in toilet use, stating that “open defecation is an affront to the dignity, health, and well-being, especially of girls and women”.
Mr. Ameyibor emphasised that there was scientific evidence connecting open defecation to a lack of sanitation, participation in unsanitary behaviours such as not washing hands with soap after open defecation, and the transmission of germs from one stage to another.
Mr. Yaw Atta Arhin, World Vision Ghana Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Technical Coordinator, noted in his opening remarks that World Vision Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), would continue to support the government to accelerate access to improved basic sanitation in the country.
Mr. Arhin said while Ghana had made remarkable progress in respect of access to safe water, it was regrettable that the same could not be said about environmental sanitation.
“Progress towards universal access to improved sanitation and ending open defecation continues to be very slow.”
Mr. Arhin charged M-CODe to scale up its efforts across the country through innovative programmes, the engagement of celebrities as open defecation-free ambassadors, as well as the use of social and traditional media to consistently drum home the message.
