The Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) Activity has held a capacity development workshop for its implementing partners working in 50 districts across the country to improve their resource mobilization, communication and advocacy planning effort.
The two-day workshop, held in Tamale, Kumasi, and Elmina for 25 Civil Society Organisations, also sought to support the sustainability drive of the CSOs under the GSAM Activity.
Mr Samuel Boateng, Deputy Chief of Party for GSAM, who spoke during the workshop in Tamale, said “CSO capacity strengthening is an important component of the GSAM Activity. Our interventions are meant to ensure that the CSOs are progressively autonomous in their accountability programming after the exit of the Activity. And we are happy to deliver these through targeted, peer-to-peer, and cross-learning approaches.”
GSAM Activity is an eight-year (2014-2022) United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Government of Ghana governance Activity designed to strengthen citizens’ oversight of capital development projects and to improve local government transparency, accountability and performance across 100 districts. It is being implemented by a consortium comprising CARE International in Ghana and the Integrated Social Development Centre.
GSAM, working across diverse platforms and networks, focuses on disseminating information, mobilising citizens and empowering community-based organisations, constituency groups – women, youth, persons with disabilities – savings groups, cooperatives, professional associations, trade unions, service providers and local authorities to work together to improve service delivery in their localities.
Through GSAM’s effort, the CSOs have benefitted from leadership and partnership training, gender mainstreaming and service monitoring.
Other areas included technical, financial administrative, and monitoring and evaluation systems support and training for selected process and systems improvements identified as crosscutting needs among the CSO partner organisations.
CSOs have also gained an increased understanding of their potential as agents of change for social accountability activities in the country.
Mr Samuel Boateng added that GSAM would continue to monitor and ensure the effective implementation of corrective actions from this workshop to improve the activities of the CSOS. GSAM approach continued to create the space for citizen participation in local affairs alongside national level advocacy, building local institutions and ownership for social change.
Mr Mohammed Awal Sumani Bapio, Executive Director of the Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development, said the workshop would help his organisation in diverse ways and to communicate the impact the organisation was making at the community level as well as its ideas to donors to help attract more funds.
Mr Enock Jengre, Programmes Officer at Legal Resources Centre, said in this era of dwindling donor support, the aspects of the workshop, which focused on resource mobilisation and advocacy, would be of immense benefit to the organisation to continue to raise resources for its work.
