The DLT, which was introduced in 2014 and is released annually, is a social accountability tool that ranks the level of development or the progress of delivering key basic services in the country’s 216 districts.

The purpose of the pre-launch engagement was to share the outcomes and lessons learned from the three years of implementing the DLT, and to allow stakeholders to familiarize themselves with the objectives, process and outcomes of the initiative and to brief stakeholders on the 2017 DLT.

Speaking at the event, the Northern Regional Minister, Hon Salifu Saeed, underscored the importance of social accountability as a fundamental tool for effective governance and public service delivery, and hence tasked all MMDAs in the region to be more proactive and identify sectors where they have shortfalls, in terms of the provision of quality service delivery, and re-strategize to overcome those shortfalls.

He said MMDAs are development vehicles that are responsible to improve the socio-economic needs of citizens through the provision of quality service.

Mr. Salifu Saeed thus expressed gratitude to CDD-Ghana, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), for the initiative.

He asked all the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), CDD-Ghana and UNICEF to ensure the needed co-operation and assistance to enable them develop the 2017 DLT report on time.

In her remarks, Madam Mable Amoako Atta from the Head of Local Government Service said, “the DLT is not out there to name and shame non-performing MMDAs, but to intensify the scrutiny of Ghana’s development, highlighting inequality across districts, and could also be used to better allocate resources to those individual districts that ranked low to be better supported.”

She therefore encouraged all MMDAs to take the DLT more seriously in order to improve service delivery.

On his part, Mr. Paul Osei-Kuffour, Programs Manager for CDD-Ghana-Tamale Office, who commended all stakeholders for their massive turnout for this year’s pre-launch, also indicated that, “there is the need to stimulate citizens’ engagement with duty bearers over issues affecting their lives, both in terms of access and quality of services, which had been identified in the development discourse as critical for promoting participation, transparency, responsiveness and accountability.”

–

By: Latif Mahama/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post CDD launches 2017 Northern Region District League Table appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The judge ordered that the post’s title be amended and told the blogger Caroline Doudet to pay damages.

Ms Doudet said the decision made it a crime to be highly ranked on search engines.

The restaurant owners said the article’s prominence was unfairly hurting their business.

Ms Doudet was sued by the owner of Il Giardino restaurant in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France after she wrote a blogpost entitled “the place to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino”.

According to court documents, the review appeared fourth in the results of a Google search for the restaurant. The judge decided that the blog’s title should be changed, so that the phrase: “the place to avoid” was less prominent in the results.

The judge sitting in Bordeaux also pointed out that the harm to the restaurant was exacerbated by the fact that Ms Doudet’s fashion and literature blog “Cultur’elle” had around 3,000 followers, indicating she thought it was a significant number.

‘Perverse’

“This decision creates a new crime of ‘being too highly ranked [on a search engine]’, or of having too great an influence’,” Ms Doudet told the BBC.

“What is perverse, is that we look for bloggers who are influential, but only if they are nice about people,” she added.

The judge told Ms Doudet to amend the title of the blog and to pay €1,500 ($2,000; £1,200) but only if they are nice about people.”

In her article, which has now been deleted, she complained of poor service and what she said was a poor attitude on the part of the owner during a visit in August 2013.

The owner took issue with the whole article. However, the judge limited her decision to its title.

The restaurateur did not respond to the BBC. But, according to the website Arrêt sur Images, she said: “Maybe there were some errors in the service, that happens sometimes in the middle of August – I recognise that.

“But this article showed in the Google search results and did my business more and more harm, even though we have worked seven days a week for 15 years. I could not accept that.

“People can criticise, but there is a way of doing it – with respect. That was not the case here.”

‘Weeks of anguish’

A French lawyer and blogger who writes under the pseudonym Maître Eolas, said: “It seems to me that the judge did not understand the technical issues.” He added that, in French law, this type of decision would not create legal precedence.

Under French law, a judge can issue an emergency order to force a person to cease any activity they find to be harming the other party in the dispute.

The summary decision is intended to be an emergency measure to protect the person deemed to be a victim and can be overturned or upheld if the parties go to a full hearing.

In order to issue the order under French law, the judge has only to identify a wrong on the defendant’s part, a negative effect on that of the appellant and a causal relationship between the two.

Ms Doudet said she did not believe she will appeal because she did “not want to relive weeks of anguish”.

Ms Doudet added that, because the decision was taken at an emergency hearing, she did not have time to find legal representation, so had represented herself in court.

Source: BBC

The post Blogger fined for restaurant review appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.