HODs Urged to Involve Traditional Leaders in Their Activities

Nana Akosua Gyamfiaba II, Queen-mother of Nyankrom in the Shama District in the Western Region has implored Heads of Department (HODs) at the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to involve the traditional leaders in their activities to disseminate information regarding their programs and activities in the region.

She noted that there are good policies and initiatives which can help reduce poverty among the populace but were hidden in books for which reason they have to involve the traditional leaders to highlight some of them to their subjects.

The Queen-mother who was speaking at a workshop organised by the Ghana Employment and Social Protection (GESP) held at the Residency also bemoaned the centralised nature of disbursement of funds to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and called on the Government to be serious with its decentralisation agenda.

Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye who anchored the workshop underscored the need to collaborate with the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the need to partner with each other for information sharing.

She also implored them to adopt harmonisation of data among themselves for easy reporting of programs and activities and urged them to build rapport with the media to help in the dissemination of information and sensitization.

Madam Grace Howard, a Senior Project Officer at the Western Regional office of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) announced that her outfit provides graduate training for people who are interested in vocational and technical skills and support them with some basic tools to start something on their own and to improve on their ventures.

However, she lamented that some of the beneficiaries after completing the training and receiving the items don’t apply the knowledge imparted to them while some even divert into something else rather than what they were trained to do.

For her part, Mr John Ransford Arthur, Western Regional Planning Officer at the Ghana Education Service (GES) explained that the GES was only mandated to implement policies made by the Ministry of Education (MoE).

He expressed the hope that there will be more technical and vocational schools in the country to address the increasing unemployment challenges in the country.

He also bemoaned the situation where parents don’t guide their wards in which course to choose when it comes to the selection of schools and programs to study at the Senior High Schools (SHS) level.

The GESP is an integrated programme being implemented by the Government of Ghana with funding from the European Union (EU). 

The programme is aimed to enhance social protection services for vulnerable population groups and to generate decent employment opportunities with particular attention to the youth and to contribute to inclusive growth in Ghana by strengthening social protection and employment systems in the country.