BY: News Desk | Voltaonlinegh.com |
A project to push for the interest of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the management of revenues from the country’s extractive sector has been launched.
The $100,000 project which is an initiative of VOICE Ghana, a disability focused national NGO headquartered in in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, is funded by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP Africa), an organization, working to influence energy sector policies in Africa.
According to a release issued and signed by Mr. Francis Asong, Executive director of Voice Ghana and copied Volta Online, the focus of the one-and-a-half-year project was to ensure existing policies on resource revenue allocations from the extractive sector were reviewed to the benefit of persons with disabilities.
The project will be implemented in four carefully selected districts with extractive industries or activities across the Western, Ashanti, Eastern, Central and Volta regions.
About Voice Ghana VOICE Ghana plays active and leading role in disability policy advocacy, and inclusive governance for persons with disabilities in Ghana. The organisation has a corporate brand as the VOICE that SPEAKS for the marginalised persons with disabilities in our society.
“It will also sensitise persons with disabilities, especially from the implementing districts, on resource revenues management in the country such as revenues from the mining and extractive industries including the oil and gas sector. They will also be empowered to start demanding benefits from these revenues to address their needs, aside the mandated 3 per cent Disability Grant from the District Assembly Common Fund,” the release stated.
The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Madam Eugenia Gifty Kusi, the release noted, lauded the idea for review of existing policies on resource revenue allocations from the extractive sector as part of the project, to also benefit persons with disabilities.
Mr. Eric Kwakye Darfour, the Eastern Regional Minister, who also expressed his full support for the project, entreated VOICE Ghana to consider undertaking baseline survey as part of the project, to identify the needs of persons with disabilities, so as to develop future proposals in supporting their livelihoods.
Nana George Frimpong, the Central Regional President of Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations also threw his support behind the project and was optimistic, it would go a long way to support persons with disabilities in accessing additional funding for their livelihoods, apart from the mandated 3 per cent District Assembly Common Fund.
Other key collaborators of the project include, the Ministries of Energy, Finance, Lands and Natural Resources, as well as Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Petroleum Commission, Minerals Commission, National Council on Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), and Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD).
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
