Mr Kofi Tenasu Gbedemah, a Civil Society Activist, has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to involve citizens in the grassroots in local governance.
He said that was the only way the real needs, aspirations, concerns and queries of people could be tackled.
Mr Gbedemah was speaking at a workshop on “Decentralizing development in Ghana – The use of research evidence in development and project planning”, held in Ho last Thursday.
Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS), a non-govermental organisation, organised the workshop on a project that seeks to upgrade the skills of civil servants in their operations.
Mr Gbedemah said work of the assemblies was not restricted to assembly staff alone and called for interplay between assembly staff and stakeholders.
He said the situation where many government appointees had no special skills to positively impact on the assemblies’ work was worrying.
Mr Ibrahim Inusah, Executive Secretary of GINKS, said civil servants should know how to manipulate the huge and varied information available online to improve corporate and individual performance.
Kirchuffs Atengble, the Project Coordinator, said the import of the project was to make civil servants relate research evidence to development projects.
Mr Felix Adom Boateng, an Officer of the Regional Economic Planning Unit of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) said there were plans to link district development plans to national development plans.
