Monday, September 01, 2014

Penplusbytes undertake Social Media Campaign for citizens input in 2015 Ghana Budget

The International Institute of ICT Journalism – Penplusbytes has launched a social media drive to reach out and encourage citizens and other professional bodies to send their inputs electronically into the shaping of the 2015 national budget which would be read in November 2014.

As a lead organization in the development of tools and applications that promote citizen participation in governance, Penplusbytes’ latest effort which is currently in full flight, involves getting citizens attention and soliciting their participation by sending them messages and alerts via  online/social media platforms - twitter and  Facebook, mashed up with mailing lists and bulk SMS.

According to Jerry Sam, Director of Projects at Penplusbytes, “most people, basically, have a general awareness of the importance of the National budget but only a few know of the existence of an opportunity to play an active participatory role in determining what or which key areas of the National economy is impacted upon by making their contributions known.”

“The purpose for this rigorous publicity drive falls perfectly in line with our Citizens’ budget project which aims at simplifying the National budget statement into an easy-to-read and comprehensible document to court and sustain citizens’ interest in the governance process to ensure accountability.” He added

This campaign is under the project “Producing A Citizens’ budget For Ghana” (www.myghanabudget.org) and is being implemented by Penplusbytes and FAT-Africa with technical support from STAR-Ghana with the aim of increasing access to national budget by citizens through development of simplified citizens' budget. It is also in response to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning’s invitation to receive from recognized professional bodies, associations, civil society organizations and individuals, ideas and contributions that may be considered during the formulation of the 2015 budget statement.

The window of opportunity to make such valued input into the National budget however closes on the 5th of September, 2014.

Editor’s Note

FAT-Africa is a Civil Society Organization and a Think Tank that advocates and promotes Good Financial Governance with the aim of creating an enabling climate to nurture a culture of efficient public sector and financial management principles in Africa.

Penplusbytes established in 2001 seeks to empower the media through the use of ICTs to advance the course of journalism in 3 areas: governance and accountability, new media and innovations and oil, gas and mining.www.reportingoilandgas.org is a project of Penplusbytes.

STAR-Ghana is a multi- donor pooled funding mechanism (Funded by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana’s government, traditional authorities and the private sector.

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