The five Regional Coordinating Councils in the north have accepted nine indicators as part of agenda 55 to ensure that all the 55 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within their areas report on them. In line with this, the MMDAs are to start reporting on the indicators by the end of this year, and in planning for their next fiscal year, the Annual Action Plans for 2025, they are to re-strategise, consider what work best around the agenda 55 and integrate it into their work plans. The nine indicators are, the proportion of girls and women aged 15 – 49 years, who have undergone female genital mutilation, number of people reached with child protection and Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) information, number of SGBV cases referred to other services and followed up, total number of recorded cases of child abuse/defilement and number of reported cases of rape. The rest are, number of reported cases of physical violence, number of reported cases of sexual assault, whether legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce, and monitor equality and non-discrimination since sex, and number of reported cases of child violence. The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) carved out the nine indicators from the Integrated Social Services (ISS) Indicators, the Medium-Term Development Plans of MMDAs and the District League Table to ensure that effective reporting on them would help in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This was the outcome of a day’s meeting, held in Tamale on Tuesday and attended by Chief Directors and Regional Economic Planning Officers from the five RCCs (Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions), and the NDPC to review and accept the indicators. It was organised by Norsaac, a civil society organisation, with funding support from OXFAM in Ghana as part of the agenda 55, which was launched in 2022, to co-create with government an annual evidence generation platform on protecting girls against SGBV. The Agenda 55, being implemented by Norsaac with funding support from OXFAM in Ghana, seeks to facilitate the sharing of experiences including successes, challenges and lessons learnt with a view to accelerating the implementation of policies that address SGBV in all the 55 MMDAs in the five regions in the northern part of the country. It also seeks to strengthen implementation of policies, institutions of government and to mobilise multi-stakeholder support and partnerships in response to the SDGs. To ensure enforceability, it was agreed during the meeting that the NDPC should write to the five RCCs to remind them to urge MMDAs within their areas to start reporting on the indicators. Mr Charles Konglo, Principal Planning Analyst at NDPC, who made a presentation on the indicators during the meeting, expressed need for the MMDAs to deepen gender dimension of national policy formulation, planning and Monitoring and Evaluation cycle with evidence of Agenda 55. Mr Konglo urged them to strengthen partnerships for combating gender-based violence at local level as well as sustain dialogue around gender-based violence periodically at local level. Mr Alhassan Ibrahim, Upper East Regional Economic Planning Officer, expressed the need for gender desk and social welfare officers to work closely with planning officers at the MMDAs to ensure effective reporting on the indicators. Mr Musah Abubakari, Upper West Regional Coordinating Director, also expressed need for MMDAs to marry the agenda 55 with the ISS, which comprised Ghana Police Service, Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, Planning Officers, Gender Desk Officers amongst others, to ensure that data collection on the indicators could be easy. Suhuyini Karmil Nawaratu, Social Protection Lead at Norsaac, expressed need for effective reporting on the indicators to ensure the availability of correct data on issues affecting especially young people to help address them. Mr James Kudjo Nachibu, Social Protection Programme Manager at Norsaac said ‘The way forward is to work together with the RCCs and the MMDAs to ensure that they report on the indicators, and we try to establish some of the challenges that they encounter and try to appreciate those that are under reporting, and those that are reporting. Then, we hold a peer review session for them to explain their experiences in implementing the indicators of the agenda 55.’

Source: Ghana News Agency