Resource Dept of Community Development adequately

THE government has been urged to seriously consider resourcing the Department of Community Development to adequately meet its obligations.
That, according to the National Co-ordinator of the department, Mr Theodore Tandoh, would equip the department to fulfil its mandate of improving the living standards of the rural poor.
“Resource allocation to the department is inadequate for it to achieve its objectives,” he stressed.
Mr Tandoh was addressing participants at a day’s summit organised by an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), World Health and Environmental Society (WOHESAS), in Accra on Wednesday.
It was on the theme, “Health, Environmental Rescue and Community Development for Africa Resolution”.
The NGO, which was established in 2005 by a group of humanitarians in the USA and Nigeria, has the aim of researching, discovering and alerting governments and the public to hazardous conditions, health management and disaster control.
It also has the objective of sensitising society to the values of basic medical treatment and healthcare services.
Speaking on the topic, “Packaging and Strategic Partnership for Human and Community Development”, Mr Tandoh recommended that development partners, both local and international, should form stronger partnerships with the department in building the capacity of its staff from either side in community level planning and implementation to achieve the desirous sustainability of programmes and projects.
He said since its inception in 1948, the department had contributed to the country’s development agenda, especially in the rural areas, through its community initiatives and self-help projects.
The Chief Project Development Executive of WOHESAS, Dr Dominic Wilson, encouraged Africans to make concerted efforts at protecting their environment and also embark on other projects for their own benefit.
He cautioned that if care was not taken, a time would come when foreign development partners would be fed up and refuse to do anything for the people of the continent.
For her part, a Deputy Minister of Education, Madam Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh, encouraged authorities at the local level to first identify the needs of the people they were serving in the communities in order to win their support.
The immediate past Ga West Municipal Chief Executive, Nii Bram Okae II, advised WOHESAS staff to bear in mind that there were times when some rural dwellers whom they wanted to assist by offering them projects refused to contribute financially to those projects.
Basing his argument on personal experience, he said when it happened like that, the NGO should endeavour to play its role, since it had the aim of supporting such people who were mostly financially disadvantaged.
Participants in the summit were drawn from metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, traditional and local authorities, NGOs and other identified groups.