Government to give Assembly Members motorbikes

Mankessim (C/R), July 1, GNA - The government in collaboration with the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) would provide 6,000 motorbikes to all assembly members in the country to help deepen the decentralisation system and local governance.

Government has taken delivery of the motorbikes and the administrative processes are almost completed and would be handed over to the beneficiaries before the end of the year.

Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development made this known to the Ghana News Agency in Mankessim in the Central Region at a knowledge product advocacy meeting on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Project (SRLP).

He said the cost of the motorbikes would be deducted from the District Assemblies' Common Fund.

The SRLP was established in 2006 by UNDP to help eradicate rural poverty which exacerbates the plight of people living in deprived areas, making them vulnerable, and powerless to break away from the vicious circle.

The problem is endemic in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions whose Human Poverty Index shows higher deprivations in health, education and decent standards of living.

The day's workshop organised by Africa 2000 Network Ghana (A2NG) with support from the UNDP sought to sensitise the partners about the knowledge products developed since the implementation of the project and deepen the use of the products and concepts for development.

Mr Ankrah said the move was aimed at facilitating the efforts of the assembly members to perform their constitutional mandate of soliciting the views of the local people and reporting them to the district assemblies as well as supporting revenue generation.

He said: 93Assembly members over the years have been advocating improvement of conditions of service and successive governments had not been able to pay allowances to them so in collaboration with NALAG we (Mills Administration) have come up with this to help facilitate their work."

Mr Ankrah said the work of assembly members required them to travel to communities and means of transport was crucial to aid them in discharging those responsibilities.

"Many of them have about 40 communities under their jurisdiction to visit and interact with" he said.

Alhaji I.M Sherif a representative of NALAG said the initiative which started during the previous government was a decision discussed and agreed on by the district assemblies to enhance the work of members.

Mr K. Edem Senanu, National Project Coordinator of the UNDP and A2 NG=96 SRL Project said the project was developed to promote growth and reduce poverty in the deprived northern regions especially the most deprived districts.

He noted that the project which spanned 2006-2010 focused on the development of the capacities of beneficiary communities in terms of individual and organisational capacities.

It would also empower the communities to take control of the development, implementation and monitoring of their action plans.

A key element of the approach, Mr Senanu said was to centre on community social, physical, financial, human and political assets as well as all other available resources and potentials.

"Communities are therefore not considered as complex masses of needs and problems, but rather as diverse and potent webs of gifts and assets.

Each community has a unique set of skills and capacities that can be channelled for community development," he said.

Mr Senanu said the project had worked with stakeholders to support variety of knowledge product including the Community Action Plan, Training Facilitators Manual, Ghana Developmental Information Portal, Information Mediator Concept and a Review of 20 Years of Decentralisation.