Reported by, Nsor Paul mensah
The Executive Director of Star Ghana Foundation Dr. Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, has disclosed that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have played an immense role in Ghana's Development right from the struggle for independence.
"If you talk about the origins, rights protection society, for example, pre independence this was a civil society organization, right through to the struggle for democratic governance in the 80s and 90s. Through the service provision and others. Civil society has been an integral part of Ghana's development process and are split, very achieved very significant resources should be yes."
He stressed that civil society organizations differ according to where they work, what issues they focus on the types of civil society organizations. "We are quite different. We think that across these differences, there are areas where of common interests, how we can enhance our accountability to the citizens of this country, how we can strengthen our capacity to be more effective and also how to ensure that we are legitimate and will comply with the regulatory requirements."
Dr. Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, was Speaking at the National Civil Society Organisations Forum with a theme " Reflections on the Conceptual and Developmental issues of CSOs in Ghana and the Sustainability Challenge". Was held at University of Professional Studies Ohene Konadu auditorium at East Lagon in Accra.
The national Civil Society Forum (CSF) seeks to setup an NGO/CSOs Forum, to promote knowledge sharing, discourse and joined up cations on protecting and consolidating civil society and civic space in Ghana.
This is in the light of a renew enthusiasm to enact a law to enhance the governance of the sector in the recent times. In 2020 the non profit organization policy was approved as an enhanced step towards regulating the NGO/CSO sector.
According to Dr. Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, Star Ghana Foundation Executive Director, the purpose of the forum is to create space for civil society actors to consolidate ideas on how to sustain the sector.
Adding that, the civil society Organisations forum will also serve s a platform that brings actors in the sector together for reflections and brainstorming on matters of mutual interest, discussing developments with sector wide implications.
The Executive Director of ASEPA Mensah Thompson revealed that CSOs need to create a space where they can come together as civil society organizations to ensure that they do have the freedom to operate as guaranteed by the Constitution of this country.
"We are not asking for anything beyond what the Constitution guarantees, but how do we collectively defend the rights that the Constitution has given us to enable some psycho analysis as to what each specific organization is doing? I think that is the business we are not setting up us," he said.
Mr Thompson, entreated the various societies should be able to generate the funding to support their own development in some ways, that selfless rights, that they need to own their development processes. And that means also raising the funding to support those processes.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Imani Ghana, Mr Franklin Cudjoe, explained that Civil Society Organisations deal with a lot of national policy issues that benefit the country.
He hinted that the donors have started cutting back on the money they gave Ghana as you know, the percent of Ghana's that's be served by private investors. It used to it didn't used to be the case. So if you're looking at accountability, you know, the architecture for the military itself from governments,
Governments typically no longer listen to critical civil society actors because they feel well, they are not bound by those. There were times when donors who contributed to the CSO space also had a relationship with government and that was a tripartite relationship.
"Government donors was the one that changed as a result of the change in the terms of the tax base, because of Ghana's peculiar growth prospects but it now means that they no longer really paid much attention to what we do, which is why we need to look within and make sure that our work is more relevant.
Many internationally funded projects and programs delivered in Africa from an arm’s length had to pause or retreat during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic’s early days, but locally based civil society organizations had no choice but to remain.
At times, these CSOs were the only safety net available to communities in need of the most basic amenities, filling the gap as the economic and social fallout of the crisis wracked the continent.
The pandemic has emphasized many societal inequities, and philanthropic global giving has not been exempt. In many ways, COVID-19 has proved that existing models of philanthropic giving in global development and aid do not necessarily live up to its lofty ideals and that they do not lead to the changes often touted."