Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa, has urged citizens to mount pressure on ministers of state and other relevant stakeholders to make them deliver on matters pertaining to national development.

 He said  it was when the citizens applied pressure on daily basis, including dialogue and interaction with District Chief Executives on how development projects should be handled that the socio-economic circumstances of the people could be improved.

Prof Karikari was speaking at the launch of IBIS Ghana's governance strategy which seeks to strengthen civil society's watch dog roles to enhance democratic culture and accountable governance.

The theme for the event was “Consolidating Ghana’s Democratic Governance through Transparency and Accountability”.

Prof Karikari indicated that the government, through its policies and programmes, should vigorously pursue the consolidation of Ghana's democracy as well as the attainment of national  development. 

Mr Chals Wontewe, Country Director of IBIS said the objective of the project was to support the efforts of the government and people to earn their fare share of benefit from the exploitation of the country’s resources.

Mr Wontewe said the collaboration was to enable civil society and government agencies to build capacity and create space for the people to have voice in decisions affecting them.

Mr Emmanuel Abeliwine, Programme Director noted that consolidating democratic governance was a way of life and not a mere political arrangement where governmental power swang from one political party to the other.

Mr Abeliwine said democratic governance should be based on the principle of equal rights and freedoms for all citizens regardless of race, sex, religion, occupation or economic status.

He said its consolidation called for the creation and maintenance of institutionalised platforms and processes for continual interaction and interface between governments, the institutions of state, civil society and citizenry.

 Mr Abeliwine explained that it was possible to strengthen the relevant institutions of government for responsiveness and effectiveness and, raise the political consciousness of the people towards positive attitudes regarding their civic responsibilities.