The Senior Presidential Advisor, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has commended the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR) for enhancing their service delivery by decentralising their operations to the regional and district levels across the country and also incorporating modernised records keeping that would ensure easy accessibility and retrieval of accurate births and deaths records.

The commendation came when Hon. Osafo-Maafo handed over Combined Maternal and Child Health Record Books (CMHRB) to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and launched a sensitisation campaign for public education on the CMHRB. The book is significant to the socio-economic development the country.

The initiative is by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) through the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR), in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), with support from the Public Sector Reform for Results Project (PSRRP), under the auspices of the office of the Senior Presidential Advisor.

The Ag. Registrar of the BDR, Madam Henrietta Lamptey, explained that her outfit would ensure every child is legally registered immediately after birth, regardless of the location, and the CMHRB will enable the registration process for birth.

Hon. Vincent Ekow Assafuah Esq, a Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development, acknowledged the support of the PSRRP to the BDR to improve efficiency and service delivery.

This is significant in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 and providing legal identity, including free birth registration by 2030.

The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 2020 (Act 1027) provides for notification for births and deaths. This provision envisages that every birth and death within the country should be recorded accurately.

Source: Sandra Owusu Asamoah

              Public Relations, Unit, MLGDRD

GARID Working Session on Geo- Enabling Monitoring tools (GEMS) Asset Register Template Held

The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) has held a training session for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and Management Information System (MIS) Officers under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) on the Geo- Enabling Monitoring tools (GEMS) Asset Register Template.

The training is to help build capacity for the MMDAs to make decisions on the necessary information to feed the Geo-Spatial Management Platform at the Assembly level.

The training session took place on the 24^th May, 2024 at the Ministry’s conference room as a follow-up on a meeting which took place in December 2023 in Koforidua.

A team member from the GARID project, Bernard Makafui leading the training session stated that, the platform is to help facilitate easy access to the Geo-Spatial Management Platform.

He added that, once the assignment on the permanent software was done it will be ready for deployment and use in all MMDAs. He reiterated that; this was only a trial session for the participants to be abreast with the system.

On his part, Mr. Eli Kuadey, Principal Planning Officer at the MLGDRD, expressed his profound gratitude to the participants present. He noted that, the training was very relevant for the performance output for all 29 MMDAs.

He encouraged participants to push this new initiative and adapt as they are the first batch of trainees for the new platform.

Source:    Rhodaline Abba

                  (Public Relations, MLGDRD)

The European Union (EU), Expertise France Groupe, and the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) have initiated dialogue with five Municipal Assemblies (MAs) to implement the Sustainable Cities Project in the northern regions of Ghana.

The implementing MAs of the Sustainable Cities Project are Wa in the Upper West Region,  West Gonja in the Savannah Region, Yendi in the Northern Region, Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, and East Mamprusi in the North East Region.

This came to light when the EU and Expertise France called on the Ministry in Accra on 27^th of May 2024 on the Project execution and the intervention needed and also update the Ministry on Expertise France Groupe introductory meeting with the five beneficiary Municipal Assemblies (MAs) in April 2024.

The Project manager Jihane Rangama, expressed her gratitude to the Ministry for the support during the visit to the MAs and called for the same in the recruitment of human resources to implement the Project.

The Director in charge of Local Governance and Decentralisation at the Ministry, Mr. Samuel Seth Passah, was hopeful that the interventions in the Project for the MAs would help the poor, improve local economic development, create job opportunities for the youth, and improve the livelihood of women in the implementing Municipal Assemblies.

The Project was slated to be launched in September 2024 at Tamale in the Northern Region.

Source:    Rhodaline Abba
                  (Public Relations, MLGDRD)