SEND GHANA has partnered with Integrity Action on a new two-year project in which groups of citizens in two districts in Northern Ghana will be enabled to monitor the delivery of infrastructure projects within their communities.
They will track the delivery of these infrastructure projects, highlight problems, engage in a dialogue with key government officials, contractors, and other duty bearers, and seek a range of improvements to how these projects are delivered.
This will encourage ownership of health and education infrastructure in the citizens by involving them directly in the process of monitoring.
Worldwide, projects have experienced numerous barriers in their implementation. As a solution, project monitoring and evaluation are key elements in improving project performance.
These barriers are primarily influenced by the kinds of measures being used and the minimum amount of attention given to the practice.
The effectiveness and success of every monitoring plan depend largely on the capacity of the institution or individual mandated to undertake the activity.
Here in West Gonja and Yendi, Implementation of project monitoring and evaluation seems to be a challenge with weak institutional capacity.
Where citizens are consulted, they lack the technical aspect in monitoring the quality of expected projects.
Again, monitoring and evaluation are processes and therefore there is a need for synergy with other activities in the project cycle, such as planning and budgeting.
The weak linkage between planning and budgeting on the one hand and project monitoring and evaluation on the other adversely affect the ultimate aim of planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation.
Citizens and opinion leaders in communities such as Busuni, Mpeasem, Damango, Canteen, Nayilifong, amongst others in the West Gonja and Yendi believe citizens’ engagement in project construction in the health and education sector will guarantee successful completion.
Integrity Action and SEND GHANA have started this new project in which groups of citizens in Northern Ghana will be enabled to monitor the delivery of important infrastructure projects and essential services within their communities.
As part of this program, the wish to generate evidence on whether, and under what conditions, public money is saved through this citizen monitoring approach.
Service delivers however are hopeful that collaborating with Citizens and CSOs will monitor projects will help the assemblies make some savings.
Integrity Action and SEND says their long experience of citizen monitoring approaches tells that such approaches have the potential to improve services like education, health, or infrastructure.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm
