A five-day workshop for representatives of district assemblies and civil society in the Upper West Region on budgeting and the use of public resources at the district assembly level opened at Wa on Monday.

It was organised by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in collaboration with Oxfam, a British non-governmental organisation. It is under the theme: "The Budget And The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy - The Need For Collaboration Of Stakeholders."

The workshop would expose participants to the basic concepts and principles of public sector budgeting, principles and techniques of budget analysis between civil society and district assemblies in the Region.

Mr Bishop Akologo, Acting Executive Director of ISODEC, said poverty could be minimised in the country if small-scale producers were empowered by making productive assets available to them.

He said that would make producers like peasant farmers to produce enough to meet their requirements and link up with industry to process surplus food.

Mr Akologo said it was wrong for people to rejoice when food prices were falling because that often led to lower incomes for farmers and consequently made them poorer.

He advised citizens of the three Northern Regions to put aside partisan political rivalry and unnecessary conflicts and to unite to fight poverty.

Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister, called on district assemblies to budget with the right statistics and strictly adhere to their budgets.