Report on Media Foundation 3-day Workshop on Local Governance

The Director,
GBC URA Radio
Post Box 43
Bolgatanga
Cc: Head of Programmes

Report on Media Foundation 3-day Workshop on Local Governance

The 3 –day workshop was attended by 16 selected media practitioners drawn from the various local radio stations across the country including two representatives from GBC URA Radio under a project dubbed: “Using Radio to promote Participatory and Effective Local Governance in Ghana”. It was organized by Media Foundation for West Africa, a regional independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Accra and supported by key stakeholders, among other media partners from neigbouring countries including Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin. It was established in 1997 to defend and promote the rights and freedoms of the media, and generally, to help expand the boundaries of freedom of speech and expression in West Africa through:
1. Monitoring, alerting and publicizing violations of and attacks on freedom of thought and expression.
2. Reform of legislations and policies inimical to freedom of expression and media freedom.
3. Defence and support of Journalists and other Communicators against intimidation and other controls that could undermine freedom of expression.
4. Research into issues affecting Media Rights and Freedom of Expression.
5. Training and support for professional practice and media capacity to promote democracy.
6. The need for a MFWA was the product of region-wide consultations involving many of West Africa’s leading media professionals and civil society organizations.

Vision of MFWA
The vision of MFWA is a West Africa sub-region in which media and citizens can and will express themselves freely with absolutely no fear or threat of interference, reprisal or violation by any force - governmental or otherwise.

Aim of embarking on the project and the purpose of organizing the workshop
• The project among other interventions aim at building the capacity of selected media practitioners from radio stations across the country in local governance reporting and programming, and supporting stations financially and technically to produce and broadcast quality programmes that focus on governance issues at the local level and enhance opportunities for citizens participation in the local governance processes and debates.
• The project is to build a strong collaboration between the selected radio stations and their Municipal and District Assemblies as a way of facilitating access to the radio stations by officials of the assemblies and vice versa.
• The project is considered crucial for Ghana’s Development and democratic progress given the crucial role radio stations play in mobilizing, influencing and supporting the citizenry to contribute to local community development efforts. As unique as it is, the project moreover seeks to provide a platform for the assemblies to better engage with the populace through radio stations. This will make the citizenry demand accountability from their respective assemblies. This is to sustain the country’s enviable young democracy and put it on a high pedestal for the local people to participate.

Critical Issues brought to the fore
• Low levels of knowledge about local governance
• Low levels of engagement between Assemblies and the citizenry
• Low levels of people’s participation in local governance
• Poor perception about assemblies’ receptiveness to citizen’s needs

It was realized at the workshop that majority of the populace particularly those in the rural areas do not have a fair idea and understanding of the concept of district assemblies, and therefore fail to contribute and participate in their activities particularly in times of decision making. However citizen’s awareness of local government operations is low as they are not familiar with the processes of determination of bye-laws, local taxes, and property rates among other policies initiated by the assembly. Citizens in addition do not get feedback from the assemblies after data collection and consultation exercises.

It was also critically identified that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) in the course of formulating bye-laws and policies, do not seek input from the local people though the local government law mandates them to do so. Thus development policies of the MMDA’s do not usually reflect the priorities of the communities. Many problems were as well identified to the effect that most communities are hard to reach areas and therefore become difficult for the assembly to reach out to the people in times of information sharing. Interestingly citizens at the local level are mostly active in local governance affairs only during elections particularly, local level elections)

Participation of the citizenry in Local Governance
• The youth, women and the physically challenged are not significantly featured in decision making ventures especially at the MMDA’s
• Citizens also lack confidence in their own ability to make impacts in their communities. They believe that on a personal level, they have nothing to offer in finding solutions to their problems. For instance, most people fail to call radio stations or visit the police station to report local problems affecting them due to ignorance with regards to local governance.
• They do not know they could participate in assembly activities as per the provisions by the local government law.




Problems citizens have with the assemblies
• Most people at the community level do not trust assembly officials, generally. They perceive them as corrupt, not transparent in their dealings nor accountable
• They see little attempts made by the assembly to address their concerns
• They are generally not satisfied with the performance of the MMDA’s
• They have no idea about the role of the assembly
• Local citizens believe that informal leaders including traditional leaders as well as some local level leaders like assembly and unit committee members are most receptive to their opinions than other formal leaders



Question for Discussion at the workshop
How can radio be used to promote local governance reporting and programming to support citizens’ participation in local governance processes and debates?

The Way forward in bringing local governance to the doorstep of the people
• Need to identify critical issues around which radio stations will develop a radio programme to address the situation.
• Bring on board focal persons and heads of decentralized departments to take the public through their activities and explain how the citizen can contribute and participate in those activities. This will help create a platform for institutions and district assemblies to bring to the fore their roles and responsibilities.
• Media Foundation West Africa would provide technical and financial assistance to selected radio stations that initiate radio programmes with focus on decentralization and local governance.

Proposal
• MFWA requires all selected radio stations to allocate adequate air time to educate the populace on decentralization and local governance and how they work at the local level.
• Adopt to basic production techniques on programmes that centers on decentralization among other governance issues
• Use radio to communicate to people about the district assembly concept and decentralization

Action Plan
• Reporting: Participate and report on assembly proceedings
Assembly and Presiding members would be called upon to contribute in further discussions on assembly proceedings
Programmes:
• Radio programmes would be held with Municipal and District Chief Executives, departmental heads and assembly members to deliberate on their day-to-day activities of the assembly. This would be done with the aid of interviews, drama and phone-in programmes.
• Constant weekly educative programmes on the roles and responsibilities of duty bearers. (MDCEs, Heads of Dept, Assembly Members) etc. This will involve phone- in from the public.

Compiled by Isaac Asare (Participant)