UNDP strengthens capacities of political parties
The capacities of the five main political parties in the country are being strengthened as part of measures to enhance democratic governance and build trust between them.
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The Joint Party Support and Strengthening (J-PASS) Project being sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is aimed at strengthening the internal democracy of the parties as institutions of governance.
That is premised on the conviction that when political parties are structured and built to function as institutions of governance, they would be better equipped as institutions when elected into power.
And when elected into power, they would be better prepared to govern with greater skills in articulating more clearly, political programmes and policy direction to the people.
Towards that goal, a sensitisation seminar was last Thursday held in Accra for representatives of the various parties.
Parties represented at the seminar were the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC).
Broad-based participation
Speaking at the opening of the seminar, the Country Director of UNDP, Mr Dominic Sam, said a number of activities would be undertaken to strengthen the internal democracy of the five political parties and open space for inclusive and broad-based participation of party members.
Mr Sam said another output had to do with gender equality as well as women and youth empowerment.
“Within this output, the project, therefore, aims to support parties to become more gender sensitive in their internal policies, support women candidates and also ensure the inclusion of the youth in their internal party decision making processes,” he pointed out.
The Deputy Chairperson in charge of Finance and Administration of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ms Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, said the EC had a crucial role to play in the J-PASS project because it represented the institutional anchors to conduct free, fair and transparent elections in Ghana.
EC can’t do it alone
She added that the EC alone could not guarantee good elections and that ensuring successful or good elections was a shared responsibility.
“This means that various stakeholders, including political parties, civil society, media, development partners like the UNDP and the state must collaborate to play prominent roles to ensure the integrity of the electoral process and the electoral outcome,” she stressed.
She said the J-PASS project would promote inclusive intra and inter party participation and deepen the understanding of political organisation in Ghana which would entrench multi-party democracy.
