Details

WORKSHOP FOR CHIEFS IN THE UPPER WEST REGION

Theme: Financing the work of Chiefs Follow-up to October 2006 w/shop

Background

As part of its support for strengthening chiefs to be able to play a meaningful role in Ghana’s democratization and good governance process, KAF would want to go beyond the educational and advocacy support it has given to the National House of chiefs to strengthening their financial base to support their work. In a recent national workshop with the National House of Chiefs in Akosomsbo, it came out clearly that although the chieftaincy institution is constitutionally recognized and infact given specific roles to play in the governance, they have not been adequately resourced to carry out these roles.

The situation in the Upper West Region in particular has been aggravated by the fact that royalties from natural resources such as timber and minerals and land are insignificant. This prompted the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs to make a request to KAF to provide financial; support to enable the House to deal with the mounting chieftaincy dispute cases in the region. In response to this, KAF proposes to create a platform for the chiefs to find a more sustainable way of funding their work rather relying on adhoc support from KAF and other like organizations.

Goal

The goal is to ensure that chiefs have a sustainable source of funding for their work from the village level to the Paramonutcy level in the Upper West Region.

Objective

To organize a 2-day workshop for chiefs in the Upper West region to create awareness on potential sources of financial support for the work of chiefs and help the chiefs to articulate their views on how to access and manage such funding.

Participants

Participants would comprise 3 representatives from each of the 17 Paramountcies in the Upper West Region. These would be the Paramount chief, a divisional chief and a traditional woman leader. Thus a total of about 60 participants (including resources persons) are expected to participate in the workshop.

Proposed Topics

1. Official sources of funding for poverty reduction and development at the regional and district levels (eg. District Assembly Common Fund, HIPPC fund, etc) - To be delivered by the Regional Economic Planning Officer.
2. Strengthening the financial base of chiefs for development - Mechanisms for accessing revenues from land. - To be delivered by the Regional officer of the Upper West Regional Lands Commission.
3. Traditional sources of Funding - past, present and future. - To be presented by a chief.
4. Financing activities of chiefs from public funds – management implications. - To be presented by the Regional Economic Planning Officer.

Expected Output

A communiqué articulating the views of the chiefs on the problem of funding for their work and giving justification for support from government sources.

Expected follow-up

The Regional House of Chiefs will organize a forum at which the communiqué would be presented to the Regional Minister and District Chief executives in the region for a dialogue to come to a consensus on the way forward for funding of the work of chiefs in the region.

Venue and dates

The workshop would take place at the Tierbger Guest house. Arrival and departure dates are as follows:

Arrival – 19th March 2007

Working Session – 20th March 2007

Departure – 21st March 2007

Organization

The CIKOD secretariat in Wa would provide organizational support to the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs for organizing the workshop.