COLLABORATION YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS AT ASOKORE MAMPONG (PAGE 29)

The effective collaboration between traditional authorities at Asokore Mampong, a Kumasi suburb, on one hand and assembly and unit committee members on the other in initiating development projects over the years is yielding positive results.
Through their collaborative development agenda, they have been able to lobby for the completion of the Aboabo-Asokore Mampong main road.
The collaborators have also constructed a six-unit classroom block that is enhancing effective teaching and learning in the community’s basic school.
Their initiatives have also made it possible for them to provide a number of boreholes for the community to address the problem of inadequate water supply for the people.
The Chief of Asokore-Mampong, Nana Boakye Ansah Debrah, announced this at a forum organised for traditional authorities in the Kumasi metropolis and its environs for effective collaboration among the unit committees, assembly and the traditional authorities.
The forum was organised by the German Development Service (DED) and attended by selected traditional rulers, district and metropolitan planning officers and assembly and unit committees members.
It sought to share experiences on the process of preparing the district development plans with the traditional rulers as the driving force.
The forum, which was held on the theme: “Traditional and local authorities governance; the way forward for successful participatory development planning in the district”, also sought to identify issues that might have an impact on policy in relation to planning and traditional authorities’ participation in local governance.
The DED is one of the leading European development services for personal co-operation that seeks to sensitise traditional authorities to building up a collaborative relationship with local governments.
It also seeks to promote teamwork between leaders in the formal and informal sectors for the sustainable development of the districts.
The Chief of Asokore Mampong, Nana Boakye Ansah Debrah, said as part of the community’s development planning agenda for 2007, they proposed to establish a neighbourhood watch committee, plant trees along the Asokore-Mampong main road and also construct a police post at Asokore-Mampong.
He said the community was last year unable to achieve all its objectives including the construction of a drainage system within the Asokore Mampong old town, the buying of 300 containers for refuse collection at a cost of GH¢9,000, the planting of trees along the Asokore-Mampong main road and the construction of a police post at Asokore Mampong.