Kasa Initiative Ghana has called for a deliberate involvement of Civil Society Organisations in policy formulation to address sustainable management of natural resources and achieve an overall sustainable environment.
Kasa Initiative Ghana coordinator, Jonathan Gokah, who made the call at the B&FT’s maiden Environmental Sustainability Summit, noted that CSOs are instrumental as they have direct influence and access to grassroot information that can help inform policies geared toward achieving a sustainable environment.
He was speaking as a member of the first plenary under the theme: ‘The Socio-Economic Impact of Pollution on Natural Life’.
“Civil Society Organisations, as one of our advantages is that we are located in the nook and cranny of the country in terms of the communities that we work in. Every community has some form of CSO initiatives being undertaken and that is one of our advantage in terms of our spread.
A majority of CSOs working in these remote areas are not involve in any form of policy discussion or making any input into the policies being made; as a result, they are not really feasible when they go to the grassroot. That is where a broader stakeholder consultation and formulation of policies is important. And when CSOs are involved, they can inform these policies,” he said.
He noted that very little attention is paid to the contribution that CSOs make in helping to build thriving communities and secure future growth potential, adding that bringing CSOs on board can also help broaden the data on climate change.
“Government can bring us onboard to support what they are doing to make it holistic. Government has little or no records of the initiatives that CSOs are undertaking, meanwhile we are attracting a lot of money into climate actions, yet no one is taking note.
“If government or EPA is reporting on climate change activities in Ghana, they only write and present data on the ones they are doing. Meanwhile, they can add on to what CSOs are doing in order to make it big in terms of climate change,” he added.
The first plenary session focused on the the impact of pollution on environmental sustainability where experts shared knowledge on how to create environmental sustainability awareness and explore the socio-economic impact of environmental pollution on natural life.
