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Penplusbytes to inaugurate Community Monitoring Group in Ashaiman

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Penplusbytes with funding from the Open Society lnitiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is delivering the 2-year “Tech Driven Social Accountability for Results” project which seeks to empower citizens to demand accountability from elected officials in public service delivery using new digital tools.

The project is focusing on three government social intervention programs which are the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW), the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) and the Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP).

As part of project activities, a 9-member community monitoring group created in one of the two project districts, Ashaiman Municipality in the Greater Accra Region, will be inaugurated on Thursday February 16th, 2017.

The Community-based Monitoring approach is centered on drawing in, activating, motivating, educating and enabling community members to directly give feedback, suggestions and recommendations about the functioning of public services through active monitoring.

Emphasis will be laid on the developmental spirit of participatory monitoring, and ‘feedback for improvement’ rather than ‘fault finding’. Their core mandate would be to monitor delivery of the three government policies in their districts and report which would be transmitted to program managers and policy makers both at local and national levels.

According to the executive director of Penplusbytes, Kwami Ahiabenu II, “Our proposed solution is to equip citizens with usable information, methods, online and mobile based platform which will enable them to monitor these policies while actively engaging duty-bearers to demand for better service delivery.”

The project has a long term objective to create a culture where citizens are equipped to actively engage in policy implementation and demand accountability.

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About Penplusbytes

Penplusbytes is a not-for-profit organization driving change through innovations in three key areas: using new digital technologies to enable good governance and accountability, new media and innovations, and enhancing media oversight for effective utilization of mining, oil and gas revenue and resources.

About OSIWA

The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is active in 10 countries in the region (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone) and focuses on law, justice and human rights, and economic and political governance. The