The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has been selected among 15 cities across the globe to be part of the sub -national pilot government programme.
He said STMA was selected from 45 applications across the globe to be part of the Open Partnership Government (OGP).
The OGP is a 69 country partnership programme aim at securing commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
Mr Isaac Aidoo, Assistant Planner at the STMA told the Ghana News Agency that, Ghana signed onto the Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGPI) in 2011; and as an obligation under the Partnership to developed and implement its first Action Plan, which covered 2013-2014.
He said following the implementation of the first Action Plan, the Global OGP Secretariat commissioned an independent assessment into the implementation of Ghana’s Action Plan and submitted its report which was launched on 3rd March, 2015 at the World Bank office in Accra.
Ghana has developed her second Action Plan which would span 2016 - 2017.
Mr Aidoo said the participants were selected based on the under-listed criteria: eligible sub-national governments for both tiers need to have a minimum population of 250,000 people and the national government of the country needs to be current participants.
They are to have to respect for the open government principles and commitment from the political leader of the sub-national government and staff, who could dedicate time to develop and implementing commitments in partnership with civil society.
Cities and States must have a demonstrated track record of, or commitment to, open government, for example through open data, civic engagement, access to information, budget and fiscal transparency, participatory policy-making and willing to take on a formal mentorship role with another sub-national government after year one of the pilot program is complete among others.
A total of 45 applications including those from STMA were received by the Steering Committee in the United States.
The 15 successful applicants have been invited to engage directly with OGP in a pilot programme.
Participating Cities and States would receive assistance and advice from the OGP Support Unit and Steering Committee to develop and fulfil independent open government commitments in action plans, in partnership with civil society organisations.
They are expected to actively contribute to peer learning and networking activities with other sub-national governments.
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