The Education Committee of Parliament, with support from STAR Ghana Foundation and funding from the UKAid and EU has embarked on a working oversight visit to some selected senior high and technical schools in the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, and Ashanti regions of Ghana. The Committee started its work on Monday 14th of October 2019 from the Bono East Region is expected to end on Friday 18th October 2019 in the Ashanti region.
The purpose of the tour is to assess the status of implementation of national educational policies including the ‘free SHS Policy’ and the Semester (double track) system. Other areas of interest to the team are ongoing infrastructural projects funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) as well as challenges of the second cycle institutions including special schools and youth with various forms of disability in education.
It is expected that the independent oversight conducted by the Committee will document the emerging challenges and its impact on national education policies for redress. The monitoring visits also serve as spaces for cross-sector engagement between the Committee, Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs), representatives of Civil Society Organizations and Parent-Teacher Associations, teaching and non-teaching staff of the schools, as well as the media. The host institutions include Techiman S.H.S., Tuobodom S.H.S., Goaso S.H.S., Ola Girls’ S.H.S., Notre Dame S.H.S., Twene-Amanfo S.H.T.S., Tepa S.H.S., Mankraso S.H.S., Toase S.H.S., Yaa Asantewaa S.H.S.
STAR Ghana in June 2017 signed a partnership framework with the Parliament of Ghana to help deepen and consolidate democratic governance in Ghana. The partnership with Parliament aims at helping to enhance Parliament's effectiveness in discharging its constitutional mandate.
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STAR Ghana Foundation supports CMAC and Customs Division – GRA to promote citizen participation in revenue mobilization
The Citizen Movement Against Corruption (CMAC) in collaboration with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has held a capacity building workshop aimed at promoting citizen participation, service delivery and improving revenue mobilization. The workshop, dubbed: Public Sector Watch Initiative (PSWI) was held in Accra on Friday 11th October 2019. This forms part of activities under the CMAC “Economic Rights Advocacy to Reduce Corruption Project” supported by STAR Ghana Foundation with funding from the UKAID, EU and DANIDA. The purpose of the workshop was to imbibe participation as a key function of increased revenue mobilization among key stakeholders.
Colonel Kwadwo Damoah (Rtd), Acting Commissioner, Customs Division – GRA, indicated his interest and appreciation of the event and urged participants to see the challenge of revenue collection as a collective responsibility:
“… we are in this fight together, we need to understand issues involved, we need to get the cooperation and assistance of everyone and we need to have a clear direction that in indeed! this is a very important assignment for all of us. We are not to look at any one particular group, but we are all to look at it (tax evasion) as a social menace that requires cooperative effort from all stakeholders.”
Col. Damoah(Rtd) expressed his expectation of the event by indicating that:
“It is my expectation that when we are able to have series of such engagements, and those of us who by our acts of omission or commission may behave in a certain way that will give room for any types of perception, we understand ourselves better, and be conscious of whatever we are doing so that collectively we can find solutions to such disturbing problems and challenges”
Edem Senanu, co-convenor of CMAC in his address drew inspiration from Article 35 (6)(d) of the constitution of Ghana and asserted that: citizens have the responsibility to support Government, and Government has a bigger responsibility to create the platforms and spaces for citizens to receive feedback.
He underscored the need to increase platforms for citizen participation to enhance an increase in revenue mobilization. He said:
“The platforms, spaces, and channels for citizen participation need to be increased so that many more Ghanaians will understand what they are trying to achieve, understand their responsibilities and be willing to give. If we don’t have those platforms available, citizens will not know, they will not own the process and they will not also feel they are obliged to support what the Government wants to achieve.”
It is expected that at the end of the two-day workshop, participants will apply the new knowledge of participation and outcome mapping to achieve policy results. Participants of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority will also be supported to develop an Action Plan to facilitate citizen participation in their work.
In attendance were representatives of among others the following: Customs Division of GRA; Joint Committee of Freight Forwarders Association Ghana; Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders; Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana; Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority; Ghana Union of Trade Associations; TV3; CMAC; Westblueconsulting Ghana; GCNET; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; Ghana Integrity Initiative and STAR Ghana Foundation.
About the Public Sector Watch Initiative (PSWI)
The Public Sector Watch Initiative (PSWI) is a social accountability project initiated by the Citizens’ Movement against Corruption (CMaC) and hosted by Participatory Development Associates (PDA) with funding from STAR-Ghana Foundation. It is being implemented in collaboration with the Customs – Division, GRA.
The Objective Is to help enhance service delivery, accountability, revenue generation and responsiveness of targeted public sector agencies through an accountability approach that uses direct citizen engagement with key state agencies to enhance institutional performance. This contrasts with a tactical social accountability approach that relies solely on access to information as a catalyst for generating transparency and accountability.
STAR Ghana Foundation and Others Celebrate Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr
STAR Ghana Foundation lends its support to a public lecture on the theme: “Aki@80 - Celebrating a Life of Academic Excellence, Public Service, Thought Leadership and Activism” in honour of Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr (Aki) who turned 80 in March 2019. The celebration – hosted by the Third World Network and the Institute of Demographic Governance, is organized around three inter-linked themes that emerge from Aki’s life and work: Academic intellectual; Public Life/Service and Activism/Thought Leadership. The two-day celebration is scheduled for Thursday 5th and Friday 6th September 2019 at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra, Ghana. Alongside the public lecture and series of presentations of papers is a photo exhibition that captures Aki’s life and work.
In celebrating Aki at 80, we at the STAR Ghana Foundation are celebrating more than the man and his impact on his society. We are also celebrating the journey of civil society in Ghana since the early 1980s when Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr (Aki) provided leadership for the Structural Adjustment Programme Review Initiative (SAPRI), a civil society-led initiative to deepen citizens’ voices and engagement with the structural adjustment programme.
The story of the STAR-Ghana programme and its evolution into the STAR Ghana Foundation cannot be told without acknowledging the critical role of Professor Sawyerr. He challenged the programme from the get go to look beyond its primary function as a donor fund management mechanism, leading to a second phase that engaged more actively with civil society in Ghana. He challenged and chivvied and supported the donors, civil society and the STAR Ghana Steering Committee to explore strategies for supporting civil society to consolidate and deepen its work in support of a just society in the following ways.
Transforming a fund management mechanism into a tool for social transformation:
Owing to its design, the managers of the first phase of the STAR-Ghana programme approached its implementation from what could be described as a ‘managerialist’ angle, focusing on achieving log-frame outputs and indicators, disbursing grants efficiently through a compliance-heavy strategy and focusing on ‘tried and tested’ CSOs. The Programme Steering Committee, chaired by Aki, engaged with the donors, the programme management team and broader civil society in Ghana on what the programme should be focusing on to contribute to transformational change in the society. As he usually put it, ‘these log-frames and theory of change mean nothing if they are not linked to the real issues confronting the nation and programme strategy is not located within the experiences of civil society’s struggles over the years for good governance and inclusive development. I don’t want to be part of a log-frame programme’.
By the end of the first five (5) years, STAR-Ghana had broadened the scope of its support to include work with community-based organisations, the media and less formally organised CSOs. It had moved away from a grant making facility to an iterative programme that used a combination of strategies to engage with and support civil society around issues they considered important. Mechanisms such as the Technical Reference Group and the Gender and Social Inclusion Advisory Group had been set up to expand the scope of contact and engagement between the programme and its stakeholders.
Civil society support beyond ‘traditional’ donors:
From the start of the STAR-Ghana programme in 2010, and perhaps long before, one question or message Aki kept repeating was:
“… so after the STAR-Ghana programme or the next iteration of the programme, what next? We have seen donor programmes come and often go, sometimes at a time when they are beginning to achieve traction. Then the next programme starts the process all over again. We cannot achieve any meaningful progress with 5-year projects. Let us challenge ourselves to come up with something and invite whoever is interested to get involved…”
This set the tone for the discussions preceding the end of the first phase of the programme and the design of the second phase. The second phase therefore deliberately set out to support the development of a national entity to support the strengthening of civil society and its work towards inclusive and sustainable development. The launch of the STAR Ghana Foundation in November 2018 was the realisation of Aki’s dream and the result of his pushing and challenging and brokering relationships within civil society and between civil society and its stakeholders. Perhaps the Foundation should have been called the Aki Foundation for Civil Society Strengthening!
STAR Ghana Foundation congratulates our Friend, Mentor, and Teacher for his invaluable contribution to the development of a vibrant civil society in Ghana and challenging our notions of what active citizenship involves. We look forward to several more years of such invigorating leadership and wish him the best of everything in the years ahead.
STAR Ghana Foundation joins hands with CSOs to demand Affirmative Action Law in Ghana
The CSO Cluster on Decentralisation and Citizen’s Participation – a community of Civil Society Organizations in Ghana has called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to lay the Affirmative Action Bill (Gender Equality Law) before Parliament.
A press statement released by the group opined that:
“The passage of the Affirmative Action Bill will accelerate Ghana’s efforts at meeting Sustainable Development Goal 5 target of Gender Parity in decision making by 2030 and the African Union Gender Agenda of 50-50 representation of both men and women in decision making.”
The group as part of its series of advocacy actions is embarking on a walk through the principal streets of Accra and Tamale on Friday, 30th of August 2019 and Saturday 7th September 2019 in Accra and Tamale respectively, to demand prompt action from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection on the laying of the Affirmative Action Bill (Gender Equality Law) before Parliament.
The CSO Cluster on Decentralisation and Citizen’s Participation is a community of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working around Good Governance, Decentralisation and Citizens’ Participation in Ghana with a common goal to promote active citizenship at national and sub-national levels.
The cluster, supported by Ghana Foundation, stems from the Foundation’s learning vision to strengthen and encourage learning, internally in STAR Ghana and externally amongst civil society organizations and across diverse stakeholders in Ghana; and more particularly to contribute to the Foundation’s commitment to enhance Gender Equality and Social Inclusion as a central dimension of transformational change in Ghana.
Join the walk on Friday, 30th August 2019 at Time: 7:30 am prompt. Converging Point: Obra Spot, Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Route: from Nkrumah Circle through Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Makola Market, Rawlings Park, High Street to submit petitions to Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection then to Parliament House and finally to the Presidency.
Dress Code: Red
