Director of programmes at the Ghana Federation for the Disabled, Kwami Ansre, has asked\u00a0Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) operating in Ghana and the rest of West Africa, to form stronger collaborations with journalists and all other stakeholders to effectively advocate on the development agenda of the sub-region.<\/p>\n
This, \u00a0he said could be in the form of organizing empowerment training workshops, giving direct financial support and involving media practitioners \u00a0in the advocacy plans of the CSOs.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”onHwbQp3n9qyHU7JqMH2dw22psvaBv5b”]According to him\u00a0\u201csuch collaboration will equip the journalists and key stakeholders to better understand the work of CSOs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ansre gave the advice at a three-day policy and advocacy training workshop organized by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development CIKOD, \u00a0in collaboration with the African Biodiversity Network(ABN) at Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cCSOs must begin to empower journalists if they want to improve on what they have been doing. This should not be mistaken for trying to influence the work of our journalists. Because it has a greater potential to strategically position them to effectively amplify the concerns of our advocacy on the development agenda of the sub-region which is the core mandate of journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 25 people drawn from Civil Society Organizations in seven African countries including Ghana,Tanzania , Kenya, South Africa , Zembawe, Benin and Uganda, are attending the workshop which is funded by the European Commission.<\/p>\n
Karen Nekesa , Advocacy and Communications Officer for ABN, said the programme is to build the capacity\u00a0 of coalition members and ABN partners, to be able to effectively carry out evidence-based advocacy especially in mining communities. It is also to engage stakeholders in the day to day activities of the extractive industry, water and food.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we continue doing our work as a network, we noticed that there is the need to train partners and other members about the importance of the bottom-up approach to advocacy, especially at this time when we need\u00a0 support at the local level, national, sub-regional and the entire Africa,\u201d Ms. Karen opined.<\/p>\n
Mr. Danniel Banuoku, Director of the CIKOD, noted that\u00a0in the last decade, there has been an influx of multi-national mining companies in Africa, hence \u201cthere is the need to empower CSOs to be able to respond to the increasing threats in the extractive industry,\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed dissatisfaction about the way and manner \u201csome mining companies are increasingly depleting the Ghanaian forest on the blind side of the law\u201d and warned that the situation, if unchecked, could have dire\u00a0consequences for future generations.<\/p>\n
Participants are expected to leave the conference with a common strategy in their advocacy campaigns.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Mahama Latif\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Director of programmes at the Ghana Federation for the Disabled, Kwami Ansre, has asked\u00a0Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) operating in Ghana and the rest of West Africa, to form stronger collaborations with journalists and all other stakeholders to effectively advocate on the development agenda of the sub-region. This, \u00a0he said could be in the form of organizing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[17],"yoast_head":"\n