The Parliamentary Centre in Ghana

The Ghana Parliamentary Committee Support Project Phase 2 (GPCSPII)

Since its re-establishment in 1992, the Parliament of Ghana has been working hard to improve its capacity to contribute to better governance in Ghana. The constitutional debates and the national referendum of the early 1990’s showed clearly that Ghanaians sought transparency and democratic responsiveness in their governing structures, and the role of Parliament as a key oversight institution to make the executive more accountable for its actions was built right into major constitutional provisions. Poverty Reduction Strategy efforts in Ghana have emerged as the main new priority for MPs, and there is a crucial monitoring role for Parliament so results are actually achieved. A special Committee on Poverty Reduction is now formed, with the mandate of considering and reporting to Parliament on the content, focus and adequacy or otherwise of the GPRS. The committee, which brings together members of other key committees, is also expected to help Parliament play a role in the formulation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review of the strategy.

Launched in June 2004, the GPCSPII will build on a decade of partnership between the Parliamentary Centre and the Parliament of Ghana built through capacity-building efforts in various initiatives, including the first phase of the GPCSP (1998-2003). The GPCSPII, of a duration of 4 years, will be implemented by the Parliamentary Centre, in partnership with the Parliament of Ghana and local partner institutions and civil society organisations such as the Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA).

Objectives

The GPCSPII aims to strengthen accountability, transparency and participation in the Parliamentary governance of Ghana, with particular attention to achieving more effective poverty-reduction efforts in the country.

The program conceives that the above-stated results can be best achieved via ongoing capacity-building of key committees related to poverty reduction, in partnership with local policy institutes and civil society groups. Target committees include:

• Public Accounts Committee;
• Finance Committee;
• Special Committee on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy;
• Committee on Local Government and Rural Development;
• Gender and Children Committee;
• Government Assurances Committee.

The expected outcomes of the project are:

• Increased capacity of the committees to participate effectively in national government decision-making concerning economic policy, resource allocation and poverty reduction;
• Increased capacity of the committees to monitor and evaluate poverty reduction efforts so as to promote accountability, encourage participation, assure compliance with national systems of financial administration, and ensure implementation of poverty-reduction decisions taken.

Project Components

With an overarching focus on poverty-reduction, the program will undertake the following interrelated activities:

• Provision of Information Resource Coordinators to facilitate the general strengthening of the committees;
• Annual workshop retreats for the committees to deal with ongoing and emerging policy concerns and develop cross-partisan committee co-operation and consensus on plans and priorities for work;
• PRSP monitoring initiatives to build the capacity of the committees to focus on poverty-reduction policy monitoring and evaluation;
• Community civil society linkage initiatives to deepen the nature of Parliamentary-civil society links in the North and connect the process to local levels of civil society-governance interface. This component will be undertaken in partnership with the Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA);
• A responsive training and policy studies fund, including a provision for parliamentary staff training;
• Opportunities for the committees to expand ongoing international and regional linkages, which in the past have proved very valuable in providing new insights that have in turn been transferred to other committee members