REGIONAL MINISTER CAUTIONS NGOs

Story: Vincent Adedze, Tamale

THE Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, has cautioned non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in northern Ghana to avoid supporting local elites and middle class persons thereby denying the poor the needed resources to alleviate their plight.
“There is an allegation that NGO localism tends to support local elites and middle class persons more than the benefits they bring to the poor; findings of studies carried out in recent times suggest that the poor on whose wings the NGOs derive their raison d’etre feel alienated from the organisations,” he stated.
Alhaji Idris gave the warning in a speech read on his behalf at a day’s School For Life (SFL) Impact Assessment (IA) dissemination forum in Tamale.
It was aimed among other objectives at showcasing the key findings from the assessment exercise with the view to adequately educating stakeholders on it.
Representatives of civil society groups, NGOs, donor agencies and educationists attended the forum that was organised by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) in collaboration with the SFL.
The minister stated that other studies had also proven that some NGOs had been true friends and savers of the poor.
He, however, commended the SFL for its immense contribution towards the promotion of functional literacy programme in the region over the past 12 years.
Alhaji Idris observed that the “deliberate colonial legacy and poor educational facilities in the north has made the area to lag behind in terms of education.
The Programme Director of SFL, Mr Sulemana Osman Saaka, said the programme had gone through two successful phases and had entered into the fifth and last cycle of phase three.
“The gains from the assessment exercise will go far beyond this documentation into medium to long-term benefits that we cannot even fully imagine today; indeed it will forever remain a major landmark activity to have been successfully accomplished by my outfit,” he stated.
He intimated that the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) was financing the printing of three versions of the impact assessment report, in addition to financing many other SFL activities this year and early next year.