UE/R: SOCO PROJECT FACILITATORS URGED TO WORK HARD FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE PROJECT – DCE NABDAM
BY: RAYMOND WEGWI
The Ministry of Local Government has tasked KALABASH AID, a non-profit organization based in Upper East Region, to evaluate the the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesive (SOCO) project, which is currently being implemented across the five regions of the northern part of Ghana by government of Ghana in contributing to the prevention of conflict spillover from the sahelian countries by improving the social and economic resilience of the targeted Northern Regions of the Gulf of Guinea countries (Ghana,Benin,cote d’lvoire and Togo) with funding from the World Bank
Speaking at the trainer of trainees and social accountability forum in Bolgatanga, the Director of KALABASH AID, Mr Justin Adonadaga stated that, after a very competitive selection process, the were given the mandate by government of Ghana through the Ministry of Local Government to evaluate the project, due to their good track record of being, with the beneficiary communities already providing them with social services and previous good works in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Northern Development Authority and many more, across the entire five regions in similar projects.
According to him, after the selection process, they assumed work in June, 2022 in the total number of twenty -one Municipal and District Assemblies across the entire Upper East and North East Regions, with a total number of over 500 projects in the area of health, education and sanitation to carry out an evaluation on the performance of the project for the first one year with the essence of making sure that, the improve the project in the succeeding year and they are working with the zonal offices at the Regional Coordinating councils, the Municipal and District Assemblies who are the implementing agent and the community people who are the direct beneficiaries and other stakeholders, like Ghana Health Services, Ghana Education Service and Community Water and Sanitation Agency .
Mr Justin Adonadaga, explained that, the have developed a standard key performance indicators for all the districts and when they moved to the communities with those indicators and observed the projects and interacted with the people and other stakeholders, they realized that, the projects are there and some are completed and others are at various stages of completion and based on that,they have produced a comprehensive report on them, called “Community Report” capturing the challenges, successes and a joint stakeholders’ recommendations and submitted to their employer and will be sharing the report to the general public which is mandatory. He was excited for the project, saying when it’s implemented very well , it will be a life changing one for the people and pledged their organization full support to the SOCO project, adding that when all plays their roles well, the may not be the need for many evaluations. Some of the facilitators and the evaluators, Mr. John Bosco Akansa, Madam Juliana Ampawari and Madam Martina Anyamasa who shared their experiences with GBC URA Radio , underscored the initial challenges of every new project as they observed few of them in the beneficiary communities and are very optimistic that, their joined recommendations, when properly implemented would solve those teething challenges.
