Results Fair attracts hundreds
Hunddreds of Ghanaians thronged the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) yesterday to take part in the 2020 Results Fair and see the outcomes of the government’s programmes and strategic interventions that were on display.
The fair, which runs for three days, has been put together by the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, to enable government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to furnish the public with the results of the various policies and interventions that they have spearheaded.
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The fair is organised on the theme: “Delivering results to our citizens:
Work in progress”, and each ministry has been assigned a booth where its departments and agencies are exhibiting results and outcomes of the various policies and programmes they have undertaken.
Launch
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, launched the fair.
There was a panel discussion, led by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, and the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who both spoke on various programmes by their ministries and fielded questions from the packed audience.
Before the President opened the fair, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, had witnessed a plenary session of the event.
Evidence of results
The various ministries at the fair are employing different strategies to publicise their contribution to the government’s successful performance.
While some are using infographics to display and share data with the public on their performance, others are giving out leaflets containing information on their achievements.
For instance, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, is exhibiting the results of the programme since 2017 with infographs boldly displayed at its booth.
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The infographs outline the number of beneficiaries captured under the poverty alleviating strategy, as well as the amount of money invested in the programme in the last three years.
Positive contribution
The Head of Communications for the LEAP programme, Mr Colson Akanbasiam, told the Daily Graphic that the fair was a positive contribution to efforts by the government to develop the nation.
He said it would help the citizens to better understand the direction the government was taking with regard to LEAP, which was focused on improving the lives of people living in poverty.
“We have added about 1.4 million people to the programme since 2017, and as you can see from the data displayed, the number of households under the programme increased from 213,044 in 2016 to 332, 200 in 2019,” he said.
Other interventions
The results of other priority programmes or interventions of the government, such as Planting for Food and Jobs under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture;
One-district, One-factory (1D1F), under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ghana Card registration exercise by the National Identification Authority (NIA), under the Ministry of Communications, among others, were also displayed prominently at the fair.
For example, exhibits by the Ministry of Trade and Industry indicated that through the 1D1F initiative, it had established 58 companies as of September 2019 and created 10,983 direct and 43,900 indirect jobs, bringing to 54,883 the total number of jobs created under the initiative.
The ministry also had on display some of the products manufactured by some of the companies operating under the initiative.
Under the free senior high school (SHS) programme, the Ministry of Education showed that the policy had school enrolment increasing by 43 per cent between 2016 and 2018, with the number of beneficiaries projected to reach 1.2 million, cumulatively, in 2019.
Participants
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, a participant, Mr Abubakari Yakubu, who said he had travelled from Tamale for the event, said the fair had opened his eyes to the abundant interventions by the government to improve the lives of citizens.
He urged the government to replicate the fair in each of the 16 regions to help citizens grasp its direction and support its efforts.
“It’s better if we know what is going on with the government, so we can offer ideas and give support to what they are doing right.
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I think they should take it to the other parts of the country, so that they can get everyone on board,” he said.
A student at Accra Academy, Master Alex Obeng, who also spoke to the Daily Graphic, said he had come to the fair with other students to represent their school and was very impressed with the results showcased by the various ministries.
“Sometimes you don’t get to know what the government is doing if it doesn’t tell you, so this is a good initiative by the government,” he said.