Dr Afriyie (3rd from left) with other officials who attended the programme
A forum to discuss the development challenges in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality of the Western Region has taken place at Sefwi Wiawso.
The one-day programme was organized by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), a Civil Society Organization (CSO) whose mandate among other things, is to ensure transparency, accountability and probity in the democratic governance of District, Municipal and Metropolitan assemblies.
The forum was attended by all stakeholders in the development of the area including the Member of Parliament for the Sefwi Wiawso constituency, Dr Kweku Afriyie.
The engagement was to discuss some key sectors in the development of the municipality, such as education, health, agriculture, road and employment.
All identifiable stakeholders such as teachers, traders, driver unions, unit committee members, and assembly members amongst others, were asked to air their views and point out challenges confronting them in their respective sectors in the area.
The Senior Programmes Officer for CCD-Ghana, Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, explained that the forum was aimed at bridging the communication gap among stakeholders.
“It was also to engender discussions around development challenges in the districts, with the aim to designing appropriate intervention mechanisms to deal with those challenges”, he added.
He pointed out that issues discussed would be collated and shared to members of Parliament, Assemblies and other stakeholders to serve as a guide towards development in the area.
Nana Aborampah Mensah stressed that CDD-Ghana was a non-governmental, non-profit governance and democracy think-tank dedicated to the promotion of good governance, democracy and economic openness.
He also indicated that the forum, which was a pilot one, formed part of efforts by the CDD, with support from the French Embassy, to promote development in 13 out of 26 constituencies in the Western Region.
During the forum, people indicated that the major challenges facing the municipality could only be tackled one after the other, when all the stakeholders collaborated with the district assemblies to ensure development.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi