The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development has begun a three-day capacity building of selected officers from the beneficiary Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) on the implementation of the Social Cohesion (SOCO) project in Tamale.
The SOCO Project is a US$ 450 million multi-country Project, to be implemented in Benin, Cote D’ Ivoire, Togo, and Ghana with support from the World Bank. However, the allocation for Ghana is US$ 150 million Credit Facility.
The beneficiary MMDAs in the Northern Region include, Tamale Metro, Sagnarigu, Yendi, Gushegu, Karaga, Taletale-Sanguli, Saboba and Nkwanta North in the Oti Region.
Addressing the relevant stakeholders in Tamale on Thursday, (May 25, 2023), Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Mr. Daniel Botwe said the Project is aimed at providing support to the northern parts of the Gulf of Guinea countries that are hard hit by fragilities due to food insecurity and climate change, conflict, and violence.
According to him, the Project Development Objective is to “improve regional collaboration as well as the socio-economic and climate resilience of border communities in the target northern regions of the Gulf of Guinea countries exposed to conflict and climate risk”.
He added the project is therefore expected to create jobs, improve access to basic social and economic services, promote local economic development, gender equality, and improve environmental management and most importantly promote social cohesion to deal with the spill over from the Sahel region.
For effective implementation of the SOCO project, Dan Botwe stated the Ministry has provided office equipment and other logistics to the Zonal Coordinating and Satellite Offices in Nalerigu, Tamale, Wa, Dambai and Damongo.
He also assured that additional logistics such as vehicles, motorbikes and tablets will also be provided to the RCCs, MMDAs and Community Facilitators for improved project facilitation, monitoring and evaluation.
Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Shani Alhassan Shaibu, for his part said the project will mitigate the socioeconomic deficit in the beneficiary communities.
“Therefore, the region anticipates that inflows from SOCO will bring improvement in the overall development of the region. For this reason, the region has been preparing anxiously for the SOCO project to commence implementation” he noted.
