ACEPA Trains Parliamentary Staff, CSOs and PWDs on Citizen Engagement
A two-day training session has been organized by the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) for some staff members of Ghana’s Parliament, selected members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and members of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations in Ghana.
The two-day workshop began on Saturday, March 23, 2024, focusing on the review and practical application of methods and tools for citizen engagement to ensure legislation is gender-responsive, with a specific emphasis on addressing the needs of women, girls, and marginalized groups.
The Inclusive Legislatures for Gender-Responsive Policies (ILGRP) project implemented by ACEPA is being undertaken in partnership with the Parliamentary Centre with funding from Global Affairs Canada/Affaires Mondiales Canada.
Mr. Issifu Lampo, the resource person, guided participants through multiple sessions covering topics such as building a common understanding around citizen engagement, tools for citizen engagement, strategies for improvement, format for citizen/public engagement on legislative and oversight processes.
Additional subjects covered by Mr. Lampo included innovative methods for citizen engagement in policy formulation, techniques for gathering citizens’ perspectives through new formats, strategies for capturing the input of women and girls on specific draft legislations. There was also a practical session with parliamentary staff and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) representative on eliciting citizens’ views and the value of outreach-targeting women, girls and marginalized groups.
Ms. Lillian Bruce, Gender and CSOs Advisor, ILGRP, highlighted the objectives of the project and the benefits as well as challenges.
She explained that the ILGRP sought to assist beneficiary institutions such as parliament in translating their strategic plans into actionable steps by guiding them to apply a gender perspective to pieces of legislation, including parliamentary budgets, as well as enhancing parliamentary oversight of specific aspects of the work of government and support parliament’s representation roles.
The project, she said is being implemented in Ghana and Togo in West Africa and Kenya in East Africa with a target of 280 parliamentarians, 104 being women, 47 Civil Society Organizations including Women’s Rights Groups and an estimated 500,000 poor and marginalized women and girls in the three beneficiary countries.
Ms. Agnes Titriku, Parliamentary Liaison and Project Officer, ILGP said the project sought to strengthen the knowledge of staff of parliament and Civil Society Organisations as well as women rights groups working on parliamentary related issues and their capacity to engage effectively with parliament.
She further urged participants to participate actively and as well share their experience and expectation to enrich the programme.
The African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) is an African not-for-profit organization registered in Ghana and focused on building the capacity of African Parliaments, elected representative bodies at all levels of governance, and Civil Society Organisations.
It also supports African countries in ensuring effective performance throughout the governance chain – from local to national representative institutions, and has over the years worked with more than 20 African countries/Parliaments.
ACEPA’s partner in the implementation of the ILGRP project, the Parliamentary Centre, is one of the longest-standing non-governmental and non-partisan organization dedicated to strengthening parliamentary democracy in Canada and around the world. Originally created to support the Canadian Parliament, the Centre has supported more than 120 legislatures at regional, national and sub-national levels in 70 countries, and has developed more than 300 projects.
Participants for the two-day training programme were from various departments of the Parliament of Ghana and CSOs including FIDA, SEND Ghana, ABANTU, CDD Ghana, NORSAAC, Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFD), and NETRIGHT.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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