News · Priscilla Asante

Department of community development engages with staff

The Department of community Development under the Ministry of local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious affairs, has held regional consultative meeting with staff of the department in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital.  

The meeting which is the first of its kind forms part of the Department’s national engagement with the staff from across the region and it is aimed at finding out what pertains in their districts as community development officers, know their challenges and chat a new path in their areas of work. 

In an interview with Sunrise FM News, the National Director of the Department of community Development, Stephen Blay, said the mandate of the Department is to facilitate and ensure that every community in Ghana is developed especially those in the rural areas and the peri urban areas. 

This he said, is done in collaboration with some institutions to achieve that. "The visit is to help encourage the officers to refocus on the core activities of the Department which include community education, mobilizing them on steps to improve their way of lives, provide skills and livelihoods for the people in the communities to make them financially independent," he stated. 

These notwithstanding, he said, his outfit also help to leverage the opportunity provided by Information through digitalization and innovation to market the products that will be produced.

Mr. Blay said as a department, their work will not be complete if they do not help the people especially those at the grassroots to understand the initiatives and policies introduced by government and to benefit from them. 

"This can be done through what he termed District level or community level coordination", he said.

The Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Community Development, Mrs. Vera Lamiley Allottey, revealed that her outfit has been in existence for the past 78 years.

She said the region is into child protection which is funded by Unicef adding that their mandate is community mobilization and engagement where they engage with all key stakeholders.

"We also collaborate with the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service and NCCE as well as some private institutions adding that all the officers in the various Districts have been trained to engage the communities," she said.

The Region is the last to be engaged with the National Director having met with the district officers in all regions across the country.