Ibrahim Tanko receives leadership award
The Programme Manager of STAR-Ghana, Mr Ibrahim Tanko, has received a Leadership in Social Accountability award for the African Region.
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The honour was bestowed on him by the Global Partnership for Social Accountability Forum, an initiative of the World Bank Group, at its 2015 Global Partners Forum.
He was the only person from sub-Saharan Africa to receive the award held at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, USA, on May 12 and 13, 2015.
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The World Bank annually selects one person each from the six regions for distinguishing themselves in the area of social accountability.
These individuals could be businessmen and women, politicians, activists and government officials.
Other awardees
Six other persons from other regions who had distinguished themselves in the area of social accountability were also honoured by the Forum.
They included Mr Oded Grajew, founder and General Controller of Rede Nossa in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Ms Corazon Juliano-Soliman, Secretary, Department of Social Welfare from the East Asia Pacific region and Mr Gonzalo Hernandez Licona, the Executive Secretary of CONEVAL in Mexico.
The rest are Iftekhar Zaman, the Executive Director of Transparency International, Bangladesh from the South Asia region; Aicha Ech-Chenna, founder of Solidarite Feminine in Morocco and Maia Sandu, the Moldova Minister of Education from Europe and Central Asia region.
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The two-day forum brought together the executives of the World Bank, including its President, Mr Jim Yong Kim, and other globally-recognised social accountability and governance experts.
They explored how the emerging concept of strategic social accountability would play an important role in how citizen-centered governance was realised.
Distinguished contribution
Giving the award, the Forum said Mr Tanko had been recognised for his ability to bring together development practitioners and civil society organisation to learn and support each other in implementing new participatory approaches to development.
“His greatest achievement has been focusing STAR-Ghana on supporting the piloting of innovative strategies linking citizens ‘voices into governance processes.
“This led to the adoption by the Parliament of social accountability approaches in its interface with citizens, while CSOs have increased their capacity to engage with government and promote social accountability approaches in the governance of social services delivery,” the forum stated.
Appreciation
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Tanko expressed delight at being recognised at the international level, saying that it was exciting but at the same time challenging to be recognised internationally.
“The Forum has recognised my work and also that of the people and team I have worked with over the past 20 years.
“It is a big challenge to do more in the area of social accountability; overall I hope it will also inspire people that hard work pays and that the impact of one’s work will be duly recognised in time,” Mr Tanko said.