ISD staff urged to rededicate themselves to support the government to achieve its goals

Dr Nafisa Mahama, Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), has asked staff of the Department to rededicate themselves and work hard to support the government to achieve its developmental goals and objectives.

She said the placement of the Department under the Presidency, puts an onerous challenge on the staff to work extra hard to explain government policies and programmes to the people at the grass roots and provide the needed feedback to the government to help it make informed decisions that would help improve the livelihoods and living conditions of the people.

 Addressing a collaborative programme to build the capacities of some selected District Information Officers (DIOs), on the mandate and operations of the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) in Kumasi, Dr Mahama said efforts were underway to equip the district and regional offices of the Department with the needed logistics to discharge their mandate effectively.

The officers were provided with the necessary information on the ongoing household registry to enable them to provide the needed publicity at the targeted communities to elicit the by in and active response and participation of the people in the beneficiary communities.

The participants were selected from the Ashanti, Eastern, Western, Western North, Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo regions.

Dr Mahama said very soon every district would set up computers and routers to enhance their work, while a new reporting template would be rolled out to ensure timely reporting of all activities at the district levels.

She said it was important for the field officers to understand that they had an important task to perform to ensure the successful implementation of the National Household Registry.

Dr Richard Adjetey, Head of the GNHR at the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, said the District Information Officers had a critical role to play to ensure the active participation of every community member in the targeted communities in their districts.

He said the household registry was to provide a comprehensive national data on all vulnerable groups in the Ghanaian society, adding that, under the new framework, beneficiaries of all government social intervention programmes would be selected from the data provided by the GNHR.

Dr Adjetey urged the participants to ensure the message went to everybody in the beneficiary communities so that no vulnerable person was left behind in the various intervention programmes being implemented by the government.

Nana Akrasi Sarpong, Ashanti Regional Information Officer, said management was committed to ensuring that the staff stayed put to their core mandate of educating the public on government activities.

Source: GNA