Participants at a forum in Bawku have urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to empower women to participate actively in the development process.

They argued that women wielded strong development prowess, and therefore should be assisted to bid and win contracts to help develop the MMDAs.

The participants noted that most often, contracts were awarded to male contractors with the untenable excuse of the inability on the part of the women to deliver, thereby denying them contracts such as the construction of schools, and roads works, among other facilities.

They indicated that women were vital tools for national development and that it was necessary to create opportunities that would help them to develop and contribute meaningfully to national development.

The participants, included civil society organizations, women groups, queen-mothers from the Bawku traditional area, farmers, officials from the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), traders, People Living With Disabilities (PWD’s),Community-Based Organization (CBO’s), NGOs, political parties, transport unions and the media.

The forum was jointly organized by the Community Development and Advocacy Centre (CODAC) and their Netherlands Development Organization partners, under the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Programme to sensitize the citizenry on how the MMDAs administered public funds.

Mr Paul Musah, Engineer at the Bawku Municipal Assembly, who took the participants through the procurement process of the MMDAs, said the overall objective of the procurement law was to provide value for money to the tax payer, by ensuring that public funds were spent in transparent, efficient and fair manner.

Mr Musah schooled the participants on the procurement plan methods, which included competitive and limited tendering and advertisement, and noted that the procurement law ensured that there was economic efficiency for the development of the concerned institution.

He urged community members to actively participate in community planning to enable the MMDAs to appreciate their needs in order to capture them in the assembly’s action plans.

He therefore urged community members to observe the implementation of projects being undertaken by the MMDAs in their various communities to check shoddy works by contractors.

Hajia Fuseini Abdul-Rahman, Chairperson for the Anontaba Association in Bawku, lamented that women have been left behind for a long time, and said it was about time they were allowed by society to operate fully since they could do better when given the opportunity.

She urged women to strive to prove to society that when given the chance they could make society a better place to live in.

Mr David Samari, Manager of the Bawku Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, hinted that the scheme was coming out with modalities, such as the introduction of the health capitation to reduce frequent human errors bedeviling the scheme.

Mr Samari explained that under the capitation, maternity consultation, Out Patient Department (OPD) services among others, would be free and would enable the clients to exercise preferred private provider (PPP), which would allow them to access healthcare services at the nearest health facility in the community they resided.

Mr Samari disclosed that the scheme also designed measures to provide services for permanent and temporal transfers to workers in different destinations.

He urged Ghanaians to support the scheme to grow.