A day’s consultative forum to collate inputs from key stakeholders to influence political parties’ manifestos for the 2024 general elections, has been held in Tamale.
It was organised by SEND GHANA, a civil society organisation, and funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The forum was to deepen participatory governance and help develop people-centered policies towards enhancing the livelihoods of citizens, especially the vulnerable.
Participants were drawn from the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions, and their inputs focused on gender and social protection, adolescents and reproductive health, Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH), Education and Health.
Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Regional Programme Manager, SEND GHANA, speaking during the event, said it sought to involve citizens in the development processes of political parties’ manifestos to ensure that they addressed their practical realities and needs.
He said: “Over the last two decades, we have observed that our development as a country was largely influenced by political parties’ manifestos. In order to get political parties to develop comprehensive and more inclusive manifestos, which reflect the needs of the people, citizens must contribute their opinions on the needed policies, hence the forum.”
After a round table discussion during the event, participants for the WASH sector proposed that political parties’ manifestos should have policies and programmes that would help to minimise open defecation.
For the health sector, participants proposed the need to support the production and consumption of locally available nutritious foods to address malnutrition amongst, especially children in communities.
They also wanted the manifestos to show how they intended to ensure regular procurement and timely distribution of vaccines to address infant mortality.
In the Social Protection sector, they suggested a more sustainable funding source for social protection initiatives to help address the delays in executing some of the social protection interventions.
They also proposed that adolescent reproductive health education be taught as a separate subject at basic school level to ensure more awareness on the rights of adolescent girls and other young people.
Mr Mumuni said SEND GHANA would engage the various political parties to ensure that the inputs collated at the forum were captured in their manifestos.
GNA
EA/BM/CA
12 April 2024
Caption: Cross section of participants during the event
