Tamale, March 22 – STAR-Ghana Foundation, in collaboration with SONGTABA, organised a zonal consultation town hall meeting as part of the manifesto influencing initiative for the upcoming 2024 general election.
The meeting held in Tamale was to provide a platform for diverse stakeholders from the Northern, Upper East, and North East regions to engage in constructive dialogue on key issues affecting their communities to foster inclusive participation and contribute to the development of comprehensive manifestoes of the various political parties for the 2024 general elections.
Madam Eunice Agbenyadzi, the Head of Programmes at Star-Ghana said In Northern Ghana, about 80 percent of students in basic education do not have access to desks and this number is compelled to 40 percent in the southern sector. He said the government needs to ensure that investment into the sector is well utilized to make education more attractive and serene for teaching and learning.
“We do know that political party’s manifestos have become very important tools in setting policy direction and agenda for development for Ghana, we do understand that the issues that political parties want to focus on should be coming from the citizens and so the town hall meeting is to generate citizens’ issues that would be presented to the political parties for consideration as they draft their manifestos for the 2024 election”. she said
Hajia Lamnatu Adam’ the Executive Director for Songtaba said it is important for such a town hall meeting to bring citizens together to discuss issues of national interest that citizens want political parties to feature in their various manifestos.
She mentioned that Issues of access to quality education, primary healthcare as well social protection are issues that bother the vulnerable in society and are a hindrance to the development of citizens hence the call on political parties to consider including citizens in political manifestos to help address their issues.
Touching on the free Senior High School(SHS), she noted that citizens called for the review of the free SHS education policy to enhance its quality.
Hajia Alima Sagito Saaed, the Executive Director for Savannah Women and Integrated Development Agency(SWIDA) Ghana, said the citizen perspective would be responsible for some action plans citizens expect politicians to consider in developing their manifestos.
In ensuring the transformative development of a country, quality education is key, and therefore the need for government to invest more funds and infrastructure into the sector to provide quality education to the young ones.
According to her, despite the government’s frantic effort to improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, the awareness creation has been impressive, and therefore more infrastructure needs to be provided to achieve the set goals.
Hajia Saaed said with the Technical, Vocational and Education Technology(TVET), though the government is investing in the area, it is the responsibility of citizens to ensure that the funds are utilized for their purpose.
She said there is the need for cooperation with citizens adding that citizens are leading their realities and they have to be respected but political parties must desist from perceiving themselves as the elites in society.
