Paga, (U/E), Sept. 19, GNA - A day's workshop aimed at helping district assemblies to improve on planning and budgeting at the community level to reduce poverty has been held at Paga in the Upper East Region.

The workshop was organized by the Movement of Collective Associations (MOCASS), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) with support from IBIS West Africa, an international NGO working to improve good governance.

It brought together 61 participants including unit committee members, assembly members and organized groups who were taken through budget processing, importance of budgeting among other things. Mr Braimah Sanjage, Coordinator of MOCASS, said budgeting helped to track performance and served as a guide to identify revenue areas for project implementation.

He said the workshop would also provide principles and guidelines for community level planning and integrate gender equity concerns in planning and budgeting.

Mr Sanjage said the way forward to better governance was to participate effectively in budgeting at the district level which should involve everyone in the community. He called for participatory planning at the district level, data collection and preparation of community action plans, harmonization of area council plans and the integration of area council plans into district plans. Mr Pwoawuvi Joseph Weguri, a resource person, said partnership in planning should ensure that plans reflected in the needs of communities and departments. He indicated that effective policy planning could not be implemented without financial support and urged the district budget officers to adopt sound financial practices to ensure quality and quantitative changes in the living conditions of the people they served.