The ground breaking Ghana Post Elections Intervention Project (GPEIP) has been launched at the Ghana International Press Centre on December 1, 2010. The programme was organized by Penplusbytes in collaboration with the Open Society of Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) its strategic partner. Other partners of the Project include African University College of Communications (AUCC) Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) SMS GH, Edge Cube, Frontline SMS and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).
The theme for the launch was “Because accountability counts.”
The programme was attended by about thirty (30) participants from the media, political parties, academia, donor agencies and the field of research.
Mr. Jeremiah Sam, Project Director, disclosed to participants that the project was the pilot phase of the broader African Elections Project (AEP) which sought to use various sources of information to track developmental issues as promised by elected officials during campaigns. He also stated that the sources used to undertake the tracking included: the President’s sessional addresses, Budget Statements, Parliamentary question time, statements by the President and Sector Ministers as captured by the Press, Statements and Publications by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He added that field officers also furnished the project with reports on the work being done by the various government agencies.
Mr. Sam disclosed to participants that the goal of AEP was to encourage journalists to write more stories after elections and to also equip journalists with new media skills.
The programme was divided into two major segments namely a stakeholders’ forum and the launch of the Ghana Post- elections Media Guide
Mr. Kwami Ahiabenu II, team member for (GPEIP) informed participants of the twenty selected indicators for the Project which were based on promises made by the ruling NDC government in the areas of agriculture, health, infrastructure, education, energy, decentralization, gender, employment, corruption and security.
The objectives of the stakeholders’ forum were as follows;
· To ascertain from the participants whether the twenty (20) indicators for the Project chosen were enough.
· To find out how to get citizens involved in the Project
· To know the expectations of participants upon the completion of the Project.
· To find out whose responsibility it was to ensure that citizens were involved in the Project
At the end of the discussions, a lot of suggestions were made by the participants who came from diverse professional backgrounds.
A sixty (60) page media guide titled “Because accountability counts - A journalist guide for covering post elections in Ghana was also launched by Prof. Emmanuel Ofori Akyea, Dean, Journalism and Communications of AUCC.
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