He explained that CSOs, which perform their roles well, stood the chance of receiving more support from governments, development partners and donors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ohtjDVuwkzGuI4PQUNceDq47jshzSIo7″]Mr Bombande said CSOs need to have strong institutional and capacity credibilities, in order to continue enjoying support from governments, development partners and donors.

He urged CSOs to put in place strong institutional management structures and to develop a remarkable way of negotiating with governments, development partners and donors for funding.

Mr Bombande made these remarks in Accra during the inauguration of the head office complex of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).

The event, which coincided with the launching of a book entitled: “Strides and Strains of Civil Society Organisations in West Africa: The WANEP Story”, was chaired by Mr Alain Marcel Da Souza, the ECOWAS Commission President.

In attendance were the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas and Dr Sam G. Doe, the first Executive Director and Co-founder of WANEP.

Mr Bombande, who is also WANEP’s Co-Founder and the second Executive Director, cited WANEP’s success story from a humble beginning to global reputable CSO.

He said WANEP was a leading Regional Peacebuilding organisation founded in 1998 in response to civil wars that plagued West Africa in the 1990s.

He said over the years, WANEP had succeeded in establishing strong national networks in each of the 15 Member States of ECOWAS with more than 500 member organisations across West Africa.

He noted that should Mauritania return to the ECOWAS bloc, WANEP would open a National Office there.

He said WANEP placed special focus on collaborative approaches to conflict prevention, and peacebuilding, working with diverse actors from civil society, governments, intergovernmental bodies, women groups and other partners in a bid to establish a platform for dialogue, experience sharing and learning, thereby complementing efforts at ensuring sustainable peace and development in West Africa and beyond.

He said CSOs might have internal challenges such as payment of staff salaries, but they must not pretend that the problems did not exist.

He said CSOs must be able to put in place measures to raise funds at both national and regional levels to execute their projects.

Mr Bombande encouraged CSOs to have strategic partners at both the national and regional levels.

–

Source: GNA

The post Bombande urges civil society to develop strong institutions appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He condemned such acts as self-servicing and the fuel behind of some of the post-election disturbances perpetuated by political party foot soldiers.

In an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of a joint graduation ceremony at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Mr. Bombande said it was unfair to put pressure on the President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo, who has himself urged the National Executive Committee of his New Patriotic Party to give him more time to announce his proposed ministers.

He further stressed that selflessness must be seen to be the calling card of all persons engaged in politics.

“We must see politics and leadership for public service, selflessness and not that one is in politics because one wants to participate in the election and immediately after the election is thinking about who he is going to be in government.”

“No wonder at the foot soldier level, there is so much violence because, in their minds, it is about what they are going to get. So let me take over the motorway toll booth, let me create pandemonium so I can draw attention to myself,” Mr. Bombande added.

Nana Addo’s ministers, what we know so far

The only minister that Nana Akufo-Addo has confirmed for his incoming administration is Alan Kyeremanten as the Minister of Trade and Industry.

Multiple sources within the NPP have also disclosed to Citi News that co-founder of Databank, Ken Ofori-Atta; Member of Parliament for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul and a former deputy Attorney General, Ambrose Dery will also be ministers.

Mr. Ofori-Atta has been pegged as the Finance Minister whilst Dominic Nitiwul and Ambrose Dery will head the Defense and Interior ministries respectively.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Stop speculating over Nana Addo’s potential ministers – Bombande appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Emmanuel Bombande, described the accusations as “petty” in an interview with Citi News’ Sixtus Dong Ullo.

The organizers of the lecture say they were denied access at the eleventh hour; despite previous meetings and assurances by managers of the facility which is under the Ministry.

[contextly_sidebar id=”0NGTIg20FJLqVOnmzONoT12DPYkl81oe”]They subsequently announced that the event will be held at the National Theatre.

They also accused government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; of trying to sabotage the event because it fears Dr Bawumia will expose how bad it had run the economy.

But Dr. Bombande explained that, the Ministry granted the Danquah Institute, organizers of the lecture the approval to use the facility and added that they went ahead to decorate the place for the lecture, but “we only heard the news yesterday [Wednesday] in the evening that they had a change of mind and they were relocating to another venue.”

Approval

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration manages the Accra International Conference Centre and persons seeking to use the facility make formal request to the Ministry.

“That is exactly what happened leading up to the approval by my Minister for the event organizers to use the Accra International Conference Centre. Once that approval was granted the management of the conference centre together with the event organizers proceeded with the technicalities and things that include: number of people, convenient of the hall, among others. My response to you is that, precisely on that process that involves us.”

“Anything outside out of this remit, I am not able to speak to. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has provided approval for the use of the conference centre and there is no need to go down to the petty level of what is being insinuated that they were denied the use of the conference centre by government.  As to the other speculation of who did what and when they did it and whether the event organizers together with the managers had agreed upon what was needed to be done, those are details that are not in the purview of government. Those are technical details between organizers and the managers of the Centre,” Mr. Bombande explained.

Event to come off at National Theatre

Meanwhile Citi News’ Sammi Wiafe reported that Dr. Bawumia’s aides are earnestly preparing the new venue, the National Theatre, to host the event at 4:00pm this evening.

–

By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Alleged denial of Bawumia access to AICC ‘petty’ – Bombande appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.