The Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), an NGO, has presented Action Plans documents it had helped some vulnerable groups in the Mion District to develop for the onward presentation to the District Assembly for possible implementation.

The GDCA had assisted the vulnerable groups to develop their prioritized and strategic action plans for the Mion District Assembly for possible implementation to enhance the participation of vulnerable groups in local governance.

The programme forms part of GDCA’s implementation of a one year project on promoting participatory governance with support from Star Ghana, which seeks to model the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities in local governance.

Mr Richard Akambota, the Northern Regional Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) speaking at the engagement workshop at Sang to present the Action Plans to the groups, stressed the importance of the programme to the local governance of the country.

He said over the years, the Institute had been sensitizing groups on social accountability and commended the GDCA for the project, which would help promote and enhance the participation of the less privileged in local governance.

He said the handing over should not be the end of the programme and appealed to management of GDCA to be good communicators to ensure that members of the groups got the needed information required to participate in the local government system.

Mr Philip Gmabi, the Project Coordinator, said the GDCA had helped some women groups, youth and People Living With Disabilities (PWDs) at the Mion District to prepare their action plans and stressed the importance of the involvement of socially excluded persons in local governance.

He said over the years some vulnerable persons including women, People with Disabilities and the youth had been relegated to the background when it comes to participation in local governance and that the NGO would strive hard to help enhance their participation in the work of the district assemblies.

He said the first step was to get the vulnerable groups well organized and to get them supported to identify issues concerning their involvement in decision making, which would be properly packaged for the assemblies.

He said the project had so far facilitated and trained some target groups in relevant areas of the local government system and supported to identify and prioritize their needs as well as facilitated to develop the action plans, which based on their prioritized needs.