A five-person Kenyan delegation from the NEPAD/APRM Secretariat in Nairobi paid a visit to their counterparts in Ghana from June 26-30, 2018. The team was made up of Mr. Daniel Osiemo, CEO of the NEPAD/APRM Secretariat, Mr. Michael Kisilu, NGC member, Mr. David Yalla, Programme Officer, Mr. Peter Kimemia, Governance Expert, and Ms. Pauline Njoroge, Communications Officer. The Ghana team was led by Mr. Kofi Marrah, Acting Executive Secretary, Ms. Winniefred Asare, Principal Programme Officer, and Mr. Patrick, Osei, Finance Officer.
They were assisted by Ms. Candice Temeng, National Servicewoman. The purpose was to learn from the experience of Ghana’s APRM in cascading the APRM process to the local government level. Ghana’s NAPRM-GC had in 2008 pioneered the District Oversight Committee (DOC) concept which are civil society dominated local groups that function as decentralized APRM units at the district level.
This concept has become a benchmark which other APRM implementing countries aspire to in order to involve citizens at local level in the process. The first day of the visit was spent introducing the two teams to each other, and discussing their respective country programmes. The second day was spent in the field at Swedru where the NAPRM secretariat introduced their Kenyan counterparts to members of DOCs from Mfantsiman, Gomoa West, Agona West, and Birim Central.
The DOCs explained the process of forming the committees and the activities they were engaged in including sensitization and conducting district governance surveys. The use of mobile telephony to collect data and sent it to a central server.
The Interim Chairman of the NAPRM-GC, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante met the Kenyan team at the offices of the secretariat on Day 3 of the visit where he formally welcomed them to Ghana and expressed his satisfaction that they had gone to the field to learn about Ghana’s process.
He explained the challenges facing the GC and the steps being taken to address them. Mr. Peter Kimemia and Ms. Pauline Njoroge took turns to explain the NEPAD/APRM Kenya’s approaches and work on governance and communications respectively.
Mr. Daniel Osiemo, expressed his appreciation to the Chairman and staff of the NAPRM-GC Secretariat for the welcome accorded the team and for sharing their knowledge and experiences.
newsletter-compressed