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More than 3,700 community development monitors (CDMs) are to be trained and deployed to assess the quality of service delivery in basic schools and community-based health planning and services (CHPS) compounds in 50 metropolises, municipalities and districts across the country.
The exercise forms part of the activities of the third phase of the project: the Ghana strengthening accountability mechanisms (GSAM), which ends in September 2022.

The project is being implemented by CARE International in Ghana and the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) with a consortium of 25 other civil society organisations (CSOs).

It is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Significance

The Deputy Chief of Party of the GSAM, Mr Samuel Addai Boateng, said this at a workshop in Kumasi for focal persons of the project, mostly district planning officers, and representatives of CSOs to equip them with the requisite skills to ensure the successful implementation of the exercise.

He said initially the CDMs were trained to monitor capital projects in the various districts, and that in the extended phase of the project, they were to monitor the quality of service rendered to the people.

This will be realised through the use of a scoreboard in all 50 metropolises, municipalities and districts.

According to Mr Boateng, there were additional components that included HIV/AIDS service delivery, “but that will be limited to the Western Region”.

“It is necessary that if citizens are going to monitor service delivery in a certain CHPS compound using a community scorecard, then that citizen will have to know what a standard CHPS compound is and the behaviour and quality of service expected from staff,'' he  said.

“What are the various standards that the Ghana Health Service itself has set out? What constitutes a CHPS compound and the behaviour and quality of service expected from the staff?” he asked.

In the same vein, Mr Boateng said, the Ghana Education Service also had its own standards, and that the workshop would, therefore, enable both the GHS and the GES to train focal persons on their respective standards for effective monitoring.

Sharing experiences

Some of the participants who shared their experiences described the project as laudable, saying it had encouraged people, especially at the local level, to be more involved in the activities of the assemblies, including developmental projects.

According to them, “now the citizens monitor all the projects in the districts and score the performance of the district based on the training they have received from the GSAM activity”.

One of the district planning officers, who declined to give his name, claimed that as part of the project, a performance audit which was conducted on a project in his district recommended that the district engineer be surcharged for certifying the shoddy works of a contractor.

“Because of that, we have become more careful and diligent in our work and the citizens too have become more vocal and abreast of capital projects within the district,” he added.