The participants were trained on how to be more proactive and skillful in identifying and prioritising the development needs of their communities.

A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Centre for Promotion of Youth Development and Empowerment (CPYDE), organised the workshop, in collaboration with the Karaga District Assembly, with funding from the German Development Services (DED).
 
The participants discussed issues on how to deal with political partisanship in the district assembly to the benefit of the people; the responsibilities of community members in the development process of their communities, and the role of traditional authorities in strengthening local government.

Designing poverty reduction programmes to target the most’ vulnerable, ensuring financial accountability of the assembly and mobilisation of community-folk for effective participation in local governance were among other issues learnt at the workshop.

The Tolon/Kumbungu District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Alhaji Abdul-Razak Saani, who was a resource person at the workshop, challenged the assembly members to be more proactive and responsive to dealing with community issues.

He also entreated them to be inquisitive about the expenditure of the assembly to ensure proper accountability and effective administration.

An advisor on the Local Governance Support Programme at the DED," Mr Derrick Otten, said the German government had decided to support Ghana’s local governance programme, realising some of the problems it faced.

Mr Otten, however, cautioned that support for Ghana would make the desired impact only if Ghanaians were ready to commit themselves to the success of such programmes.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Karaga, Mr Baba Wahab, said such a workshop was the first to be organised since the district was established in 2004.

"It is the responsibility of the assembly to organise such training workshops, but due to one or two challenges, we are usually unable to do so," he stated.  

Mr Wahab entreated the participants to take the training seriously and let it reflect in their day-to-day handling of community issues.