Working groups from Tema Metropolitan, Atebubu-Amantin, and Kwahu West municipalities have undergone a three-day training in project management under the Partnership for Municipal Innovations—Women in Local Leadership project in Koforidua.

The five-year project, implemented by the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and funded by Global Affairs Canada, also benefits Nandom Municipal in the Upper West Region and Saboba District in the Northern Region.

With the objective of increasing the participation of women in leadership and decision-making in local governance and enhancing the capacity of local authorities to deliver gender-responsive services for the benefit of women, girls, children, and other marginalized groups, each local authority will also benefit from one physical project of its choice.

Welcoming participants, the General Secretary of NALAG, Mr. Kokro Amankwaah, while expressing satisfaction with the progress of work with all the beneficiary assemblies, urged them to be gender-sensitive in the preparation of their annual and medium-term development plans.

Conceding the arduous nature of the task, Mr. Amankwaah was nonetheless hopeful that with the knowledge, skills, and experiences gained so far under the project, things will begin to turn around soon.

The project director of PMI-WILL, Mary Heather White, in a brief remark, stressed the importance of the training programme, adding that it will enhance the capacity of the various working groups to produce the requisite documents for the release of funds by Global Affairs Canada for the physical infrastructure component of the project.

Participants were taken through an introduction to project management, work breakdown structure, developing Gantt charts, project management styles, project monitoring and evaluation, as well as communication.

An FCM finance team virtually took participants through budgeting, financial compliance, and reporting structures.

Participants expressed delight in the new insights gained and their readiness to deploy them to enhance service delivery at the local level.