Our partner, Skyy Media Group has supported the Wassa East District Assembly, in the Western region to build a GESI responsive digital album on Persons with Disabilities. The album which categorises the various forms and specific disability also captures the specific needs of each person with disability.
A total of 1,200 people in Wassa East were registered on the PWD digital album following a survey to ascertain the number of PWDs in the assembly. Following a needs assessment conducted by the district with support from SKyy Media Group, the District Assembly organised a presentation ceremony where a total of 230 Persons with Disability (PWD) in the district received various working tools and money to improve their living conditions. The presentation ceremony sponsored by Skyy Media Group was towards ensuring transparency of the process.
Out of the 230 beneficiaries, 49 received working tools whiles 175 received money expanding their businesses, 4 received educational scholarships and 2 medical supports as per the directives for disbursing and utilizing the 3% disability fund. The items include Community Radio Equipments, Solo Cocoa Spraying machines, sets of barbering kits, sewing machines, gas cylinders and ovens, wheel chairs, deep freezers, cassava processing machines and palm oil processing machines. The rest are education scholarships, medical fees and a start-up capital.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Wilson Arthur, indicated that subject to funds released, different sets of beneficiaries would be supported. He noted that the new vision of the assembly is “to be the most responsive assembly. We want to be known for responding quickly to the needs of our people”. He further indicated that a monitoring and evaluation team would be put in place to closely monitor the usage of both cash and items to ensure that they are being put to judicious use and that anyone who would misappropriate his or her fund would be sanctioned accordingly.
He commended Skyy media group and STAR-Ghana for assisting the assembly to get a district digital album on PWDs which, he noted was the first in country and would enhance planning and development in the district.
The DCE expressed his appreciation to STAR-Ghana and its funders (DANIDA, UK and EU) nothing that without the support of STAR-Ghana and it would have been difficult for the event to take place as the assembly had to feed participants and provide transportation to enable them participate and also transport their items home. “I am proud of the support we have received from STAR-Ghana as it is a strategic fit to our new vision. I know that the support will not be there every time but what we have now is something we can build on in ensuring transparency and responsiveness of our processes”.
Using Mobile Technology to Monitor Service Delivery at the major Hospitals in Tamale Metro (2)
Community Volunteers and administrators of the major Government hospitals in the Tamale Metro of the Northern Region of Ghana have been trained to use short messaging services (SMS) on their mobile phones to report and respond to issues affecting service delivery in the respective hospitals.
The training was organized by Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID) as part of activities of the “Fighting Unapproved Charges for Health Services” Project. The Project has a special focus on 3 health facilities; Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Tamale Central Hospital and The Tamale West Hospital.
The one-year project is supported by STAR-Ghana under its Anti-Corruption Call with funding from the UKAid, DANIDA and the European Union (EU). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to an improvement in the Quality of health care delivery to citizens in the Tamale Metropolis as a result of the elimination of unapproved charges by health officials.
Information gathered by CALID from some citizens has revealed that: some staff of the selected hospitals have been charging patients and pregnant women illegal fees which often, are not receipted. For instance, it is in the public domain that hospital staff at the theatre demanded or collected an amount of GHC 200.00 from pregnant women before they were attended to.
Additionally, there have been allegations of Clients who go to retrieve the bodies of their deceased relatives and were asked to pay GHC90.00 but received a receipt of GHC50.00” Mohammed Awal Sumani Bapio, Executive Director – CALID.
Mr Bapio further indicated that: Some family members and the youth are beginning to counter the situation with violence. “There was a situation where a community forcefully picked the corpse of a late member for processing for burial without paying for the unapproved fees. This resulted in chaos and near conflict situation. It took the Northern Regional Minister and other prime stakeholders to intercede” he said.
The STAR-Ghana SMS platform serves as a means of engagement between citizen representatives and administrative representatives of the respective selected hospitals. This will allow for constant flow of information between the two parties to address pertinent issues and avert any misinformation which could lead to violence.
The Citizen representatives are leading members of the League of Youth Coalition in Tamale. The League of Youth Coalition is a coalition of over fifty (50) Youth groups spread across the entire Tamale metropolis and the Sagnarigu District. The Coalition has representation from all the affiliate Youth groups who are elected by their respective Youth Associations to front their issues at the Coalition during their usual periodic meetings.
The leadership of the coalition intend engage with the appropriate State Actors to seek redress and feedback to the affected individuals using the name communication channel.
Participants at the training were sensitized on the various forms of services and payments at the hospitals. The citizen representatives expressed their satisfaction on the knowledge shared “With the information shared by the P.R.O., now we know the what questions to ask when we receive the reports” Mohammed Inusah, League of Youth Coalition.
Based on these learning, participants were taken through the relevance of information sharing, core principles and ethics of reporting, as well as some tit bits of mobile phone security to facilitate an effective process of using their mobile phones to provide feedback on the services received from the selected Hospitals.
Participants can now anonymously report issues of non-receipted payments, unavailability or otherwise of consumables, drugs among other services to the hospital administrators for redress. The SMS Platform allows both parties – the reporter and the duty bearer to rate the level of satisfaction of responses received and the relevance of the reports sent respectively.
Representatives of the selected hospitals embraced the platform as a useful tool to support their work: “our objective is to stop illegal collection of money and not to just arrest… with this platform, I can turn up at anyone’s desk and prove to them when they collected money without receipting, this I believe will deter the culprits” Dr. Ken Osei Mensah, P.R.O. Tamale Teaching Hospital.
In attendance were representatives of CALID, the League of Youth Coalition and STAR-Ghana.
STAR-Ghana Partners share results, lessons and opportunities
STAR-Ghana partners share results, lessons and opportunities
As part of our 3Cs and L (Convening, Catalyzing, Coordinating and Learning) role, STAR-Ghana in collaboration with its grant partners organized a partners' learning event in a bit to harvest the significant achievements, emerging opportunities, key lessons and challenges (four 3s) and processes grant partners used in their project implementation. The GESI Call falls in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 which seeks to ensure gender equality, human rights, the rule of law and universal access to public services.
The Learning Event involved a total of 120 participants from the GESI, Media and Strategic Opportunities GPs, Steering Committee, PMT, Donor Representatives, State Actors, CSOs and the Media. The two-day learning event was on the theme: “Social Inclusion for Sustainable Development (SI4SD)”. It encompassed pre-event media activities (social media, radio and TV engagements), during activities (Facebook live, periscope live, twitter hashtags #SI4SD) and a post-event press conference to issue a communique to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural development, Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children and other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Programme Director Amidu Ibrahim – Tanko speaking on the strategic implications for programming: the way forward said “grant partners need to look at the implications of the dynamics of the external environment (including the pending transition of STAR-Ghana) and position strategically to tap funding and sustain gains made. A small number of the small grant projects (about 7 organizations per a qualification criteria) will receive additional funding to showcase and replicate successes”
Dr Esther Offei-Aboagye the Chairperson for the SC noted that “A better understanding of emerging areas of work such as the linkage between climate change and advocacy may be strategic in the evolving environment. CSO actors need to keep abreast and informed for effective engagement. It is important to take cognizance of the emerging, heterodox forms of citizens’ organizations and responses to them. This warrants new partnerships that enjoin professional organizations that organize differently and have different forms/sources of funding. Other dynamics to take note of is the shift of resources to academia and emergence of private sector and crowd funding sources”.
Participants at the learning event after having heard presentations among themselves and other stakeholders on their contributions towards promoting GESI released a communique with the following resolutions:
Provide technical support to each other’s work/project to build synergies around shared GESI goals;
Strengthen CSO and media capacity to mainstream and respond to GESI issues;
Foster linkages and strengthen coordination amongst GESI Partners, Stakeholders and Beneficiaries for ownership and sustainability of GESI initiatives;
Build upon strategic engagement and communication via multiple channels- use of social media platforms and traditional media (tv, radio, and newspapers);
Mobilize key stakeholders such as traditional and local government authorities for collective actions to address systemic barriers including certain socio-cultural norms against socially excluded groups;
Maintain and promote inclusion of beneficiaries in project design, implementation and feedback loop to help sustainability and ownership of results;
Sustain the use of participatory approaches and local languages to reach under-served communities;
Pursue proactive interventions that target stakeholders to impact GESI consciousness into curricula and other public education activities;
Click here for full version of the communique.