Accra, Sept. 7, GNA - Mr Yaw Takyi-Ferkah, European Union Co-ordinator in Ghana, on Thursday said local communities must be empowered to be self sufficient in taking decisions on their developmental needs.

This, he said, would drive their capacity building initiatives. Mr Takyi-Ferkah, made the observation when he opened a day care centre for Atible community in the Akuapem South District of the Eastern Region.

The project was jointly funded by the European Union and the Akuapem South District Assembly at a cost of GH¢6,135,476. He said the construction of the day care centre marked the 904th infrastructural joint projects by the European Union and the Government of Ghana under the 6th Microprojects Programme. A community-based rural development programme, the Atible project aims at assisting rural communities to have access to social facilities. Mr Takyi-Ferkah said the European Union had, from 2006 to 2009, funded numerous projects nationwide, which include the construction of 293 Classroom blocks, 50 Day Care centres, Teachers quarters, rural Clinics and nurses' quarters.

The rest, he said, were Vault Chamber Public toilets, Culverts, Warehouses, Libraries, 17 Bore holes, one ICT centre, one Sanitation wall, a feeding and crafts centre, and 237 income generating centres. On the impact of EU microprojects on beneficiary communities, Mr Takyi-Ferkah said, "it has empowered them to take decisions on their developmental needs thus making them less dependent on the government." He called on the Ministry of Education, District Assemblies, and the Parent-Teacher Associations to make provision in their budgets to cater for the regular maintenance of the buildings. Dr. Godfried Osei Bonsu-Twum, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Akuapem South Municipal Assembly, thanked the EU for its rural development focus and human resource mobilisation effort. He noted that the project would lay a firm foundation for the education of children in the municipality.

The MCE said the EU microproject was one of the reliable interventions the Assembly relied on in most cases to solve some of the problems in the rural communities.

He announced that the Assembly had recently acquired a grader to improve the road network in the area, adding that although the country was currently faced with many developmental challenges, "there is light at the end of the tunnel."