Tamale-Ghana, Dec 08, GNA – Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, has said the region is currently witnessing a vast number of development projects and programmes being implemented through either direct funding by the central government or development partners.
He said, “These development projects cut across sectors of education, health and agriculture among others.”
Alhaji Saibu said this at the second meeting of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) held in Tamale and attended by Heads of Department from regional and district levels, development partners, traditional authorities amongst others.
He called on all stakeholders to uphold strong collaboration and cooperation to promote law and order to translate into the accelerated and sustained development of the region.
The meeting, which focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and peace and security, saw representatives of United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), and STAR Ghana Foundation make presentations on WASH, and Northern Ghana Peace Index, respectively.
Alhaji Saibu gave assurance of the NRCC’s commitment to effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation of all the ongoing development interventions to ensure projects and programmes were executed to specifications and completed within schedule.
He touched on peace and security, emphasising that “As we are in the festive season, I entreat each and every one of us to as a matter of urgency, take our individual security and that of our communities seriously, and support the security agencies in sensitising members of the communities to be security conscious and law abiding.”
He gave assurance that the Regional and District Security Councils and traditional authorities would continue to monitor security situations with the potential of breaching the peace and security of the region, especially during the yuletide.
Mr Bhanu Pathak, Chief of Field Office, Tamale, UNICEF Ghana, said whilst access to water looked good on paper, one in three (1 in 3) water access points in communities was not working.
He called for increased domestic funding to sustain the gains made in sanitation to ensure good health for residents, especially children.
He expressed a need for authorities to ensure that schools had well-functioning water and sanitation system for the benefit of children.
