Accra, Ghana//-The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on April 13th officially launched its a year-long activities to mark 25 years of bridging policy research and practice to promote good governance in Ghana and beyond.
According to the governing board members of CDD-Ghana, the Center would initiate, stimulate, and lead conversations with diverse audiences and actors around the anniversary’s theme: -‘Civil Society and the Quest for Democracy and Inclusive Development in Ghana and Africa: The Next 25 Years’ with the aim of forging an agenda for the future.
The year-long celebrations included an editors’ forum, regional engagements, an international conference Ghana’s democracy at 30, a virtual homecoming for CDD alumni around the world, among others, they said.
Achievements
Since its inception in 1998, CDD-Ghana has made significant achievements in helping chart the path to democracy in Ghana.
The Center has emerged as a leader in the generation and dissemination of high-quality public opinion surveys and other relevant data for effective advocacy and policymaking in Ghana and across the African continent.
The Center also led in the mobilisation and organisation of civil society voice and activism on key national issues through the building of effective national coalitions and networks.
It has also led and have provided important technical and analytic input for relevant public institutions and committees of Parliament and championed decentralised and inclusive local governance.
In the area of elections, the Center has helped enhance voter participation in elections and improve the credibility of Ghana’s elections.
Speaking at the editors’ cocktail to officially launch the 25th anniversary celebrations, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, said he was proud of the role the Center had played in Ghana’s democratic journey.
Thanks to media, and others
25 years of helping shape Ghana’s democracy has not been without its challenges and frustrations. But thanks to the strategic direction of the Center’s governing board, staff’s hard work and the unflinching support of the media and other stakeholders, they had managed to stay on course and grow, he said.
Prof Prempeh identified three main reasons behind the commencement of the 25th anniversary celebrations with the media instead of any other stakeholder group.
Common birthmark
He said: “One of the reasons is that civil society in the Fourth Republic and media in the Fourth Republic share a common birthmark”.
Prof Prempeh explained that both civil society and media have been around since the time of Mensah Sarbah and the Aborigines Rights Protection Society.
“So, the media and the civil society share a common ancestry. Especially the electronic media-Radio Eye and those media houses which emerged before the Fourth Right. We and them share a common ancestry”.
The second reason is that the media and the civil society are siblings because both fight the same fight, he added.
“We know that the kind of things we do as civil society whether CDD-Ghana or IDEG won’t have made any impact without the media”.
The media has also relied on the civil society not just for people to appear on their shows and the like but for capacity building, useful information, among others. So, the media and the civil society share a common bond, Prof Prempeh said.
The third reason, he mentioned, is that both the media and civil society are non-state actors although there is a public media. Both are largely non-state actors.
“It is fair to say that if you look at the Fourth Republic and the way things have pawned out, but for civil society and the media, there won’t be virtual no-checks and balances in the system. Our democracy is virtually log-sided. There is clearly no check on governmental power……”
Symbiotic relationship
The Governing Board Chair of CDD-Ghana, Prof Audrey Gadzekpo added: “The same symbiotic relationship that exists between media and democracy, is the same symbiotic relationship that exists between media and the vibrant civil society. There cannot be one without the other”.
Where there is no free media, there is no democracy. It is the same for civil society”.
Prof Gadzekpo explained that because of the existence of free media during colonial times, “we were able to use the media as an agent for transformation to achieve our independence” on 6th March 1957.
So, the kudus doesn’t go only to the Fourth Republic, but it starts from the lessons of the pre-colonial era where media were the voices of the people so that they could agitate and hold accountable the colonial government”.
She thinks that it is the same role that the media are playing in the Fourth Republic and how the media play that role influences the quality of the country’s democracy.
Prof Gadzekpo was therefore excited that think-tanks link CDD-Ghana which started this journey 25 years ago.
“I have been privileged to be there right from the beginning and I have been astonished at how this little idea of having a civil society organization, a think-tank that could do the things that we now take for granted that CDD-Ghana does.
Research to produce quality evidence to feed into advocacy, activism, monitoring the quality of democracy, the quality-of-service delivery, and many more”, she said.
Prof Gadzekpo was quick to add that she is particularly proud as a board chair of how far CDD-Ghana has gone in its 25 years journey.
Center’s 25 years journey
The Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement of CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Asante took the participants of the cocktail event through the Center’s journey.
He explained that in the Center’s bid to delve deeper into its mandate to promote democracy, good governance, and inclusive development in Ghana and Africa, it has restructured its program areas into five main segments.
These include Political and Constitutional Governance, Social Inclusion and Equity, Economic and Corporate Governance, Justice, Peace and Security and Civil Society.
In addition to the five programme areas, the Center Dr Asante assured would continue to implement two special projects: the Afrobarometer which collects public opinion data on political and socio-economic issues in more than 35 African countries, currently headquartered at CDD; and the Center’s Regional Initiatives like the West African Election Observers Network (WAEON) and other Africa-wide initiatives of the Center.
Attendees
Present at the editors’ cocktail event was the Co-founders of CDD-Ghana, Prof Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, and Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah.
Also present was the Board Vice Chair, Mrs Clara Beeri Kasser-Tee; Kweku Awortwi, a board member; and the two Senior Fellows of CDD-Ghana-Prof Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh; and Ambassador Francis Tsegah.
