SEKONDI-TAKORADI

PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR THE OPEN GOV WEEK

Day Activity Notes Materials Time

Tuesday

12/03/19

Radio discussion Team will discuss all issues relating to OGP and CoST is supporting the OGP agenda.

Also an opportunity to phone in and share thoughts.

Flyers Brochure Press release

8:30-9:30am

Wednesday

13/03/19

Press briefing

There will be a press briefing where the OGP Action Plan will be opened and to see where CoST aligns within this.

We have invited 15 members Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF), 6 CSOs, and 15 media houses and TV, Radio, Print etc.

Chief Executive will do press briefing for all the activities and look at the future and what is ahead of us.

50 people will participate The nine members who created

the OGP action plan will be at the press briefing.

Isaac will be speaking on behalf of CoST.

9:00-11:05am

Thursday

14/03/19

Radio discussion and a set of panelists will be on the radio

Discussion on what we are doing so far and looking ahead.

Also an opportunity to phone in and share thoughts.

8:00-9:30am

Friday TV discussion Yet to be confirmed, as all the TV stations have their head office in Accra and so they have offices in the sub-regions.

Below is the draft brochure

What is Open Government Partnership (OGP)?

OGP is an international initiative formally launched in 2011 to ensure effective collaboration by bringing together government reformers and civil society leaders to create and implement Action Plans with the aim of ensuring

inclusive, responsive and accountable governance. OGP is overseen by a Steering Committee made up of representatives of governments and civil society organizations (CSOs). Currently, there are 79 OGP participating countries and 20 subnational governments that have signed unto the Open Government Initiative with Action Plans developed by each participant to advance the tenets of the OGP.

OGP Strives to Embrace the Following Values to Improve Governance and Solve Public Challenges

1. Access to Information

Information disclosures in open data

2. Technology & innovation for Openness & Accountability

Promote new technologies for information sharing

STMA’s OGP Journey Ghana signed unto the OGP initiative in 2011 and by virtue of this membership, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan

Assembly (STMA) was competitively selected in 2015 to join 20 other subnational governments across the globe as a

way of giving meaning to the tenets of OGP at the grassroots level through the efforts of Local Governments, Civil

Society Organizations (CSO’s) and most importantly, the involvement of citizens to spur change.

STMA is currently implementing 5 commitments crafted in it’s co-created second Local Action Plan (2018-2021) that

has the overall ambition of transforming public service delivery through enduring partnership with key stakeholders.

2. Civic Participation

Open up decision-making throughout policy cycle

4. Public Accountability

Citizens audit of government performance

40-member Multi-Stakeholder Forum 9-member Working Team

Members of the Working Team at Radio360 A section of participants at community engagement exercise at Mampong

Extent of Implementation of Commitments

Commitment 1: Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure In February 2019 STMA partnered with Construction Sector Transparency (CoST) initiative to meet the objective of ensuring better value for money from public infrastructure investment by increasing transparency and accountability. CoST is a leading global initiative to improve transparency and accountability in public infrastructure by working closely with government, industry and civil society to promote disclosure, validation and interpretation of data from infrastructure projects. This helps to inform and empower citizens and enables them to hold decision makers to account.

Commitment 2: Civic Participation & Fiscal Transparency

STMA is partnering with The Engineer Room (TER) to provide technical support in developing simplified data sharing templates and creating mechanisms for internal and external data sharing. This would aid in empowering citizens to enhance responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision- making at all levels and also build citizens trust and confidence in resource allocation and utilization. TER is an international non-profit organization based in the USA that assists activists, organizations and other social change agents to make the best use of data and take advantage of technology to promote equality, justice, human rights, good governance and accountability.

Commitment 3: Public Service Delivery (Permitting & Enforcement of Land Use and Spatial Plans) STMA will fully launch the STMA360 web application in March 2019 to promote transparency and ease of acquiring permitting for effective development control and management STMA360 is web and smart phone based Mobile Monitoring geospatial technology platform currently managed by the Physical Planning Department of STMA. It was developed in the year 2018 purposely to track and manage progress of projects undertaken by citizens in the metropolis and reports on the status of the project to facilitate permitting and local governance services. The app gives vivid location of where projects are being undertaken and some basic information such as the type of development, the owner, date for inspection, date for review, date for consideration, permit fee payable and the status of application whether approved or deferred. The app gives room for direct interactions with authorities, and convey feedbacks and comments from users. Complimenting the web app would be the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

Commitment 4: Access to Information (communication & feedback) In line with the commitment to strengthen the Client Service Unit of STMA by creating a centralized communication platform and outlet to enable citizens to access key information, report complaints and receive feedback on municipal services, STMA in February of 2019 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GovChat.

GovChat is a South African civic engagement platform officially known as govchat.org which enables active engagement between government officials and communities in real time. GovChat enables you rate and report public services and facilities, it allows uploading of reports and photographs of issues, ensuring both your elected representative (Assembly man/woman) and technocrat can quickly and accurately address the problem. This system allows you to engage directly with public representatives, reporting community problems in real time and actively drive solutions.

GovChat also aids in providing real time analytics and predictive modeling to create an early warning system. It connects with citizens and easily inform them through broadcast messaging, push notification and private messages. It creates a single digital identity, utilizing facial recognition and fingerprint technology to intuitively connect the user to variety of municipal service.

Commitment 5: Public Services (sanitation) To mitigate against the effects of open defecation brought about by inadequate access to improved household toilet facilities, this commitment on sanitation is implementing the new model of collaboration between STMA and landlords to increase the coverage of household toilets. In furtherance of this, through the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4G) competition STMA has roll out support for landlords to construct 100 household biofil latrines in the following communities; New Takoradi, Sekondi (Zongo), Nkontompo, Ngyiresia, and Mempeasem, Takoradi (Old Amanful), Adakope and Kojokrom. STMA would also explore the possibility of partnering with CSOs, and donor agencies to scale-up the project to benefit all deprived communities within the Metropolis.

1. STMA Partner CSO's STMA-CityWide Settlement Upgrading Fund, Berea Social Foundation and Friends of the Nation.

NB: To support (Technically and Financially) and partner STMA to co-create and implement its OGP Local Action Plan (2018-2020). Contact: The Metro Chief Executive The OGP Point of Contact P.O. Box 74, Sekondi, P.O. Box 74, Sekondi, E-mail: info@stma.gov,gh E-mail: aidoo.isaacyahoo.com