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Social Action Group (SAG), a concerned youth group under the ‘I Am Aware’ (IAA) project of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has called on duty-bearers to be more responsive in the discharge of their duties.

The group, which has local and area council branches in the Karaga District of the Northern Region, said it was important for service providers to deliver quality work and provide accurate information on all sectors of the economy to citizens in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It indicated that citizens’ demand for accountability was a right adding that the pandemic had created an opportunity for them to hold duty-bearers accountable on the provision of social services such as water and personal protective equipment like face masks, hand sanitisers, Veronica Buckets at health facilities and also at vantage points for use by members of the general public to curb the spread of the virus.

The SAG made the call at Karaga when CDD-Ghana sensitised community members on the COVID-19 and its preventive protocols as part of its IAA Project, being supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The Project, being implemented in 20 districts across the country, seeks to provide citizens the opportunity to understand the relevance of data and how it could be collected and used to demand accountability from duty-bearers.

Mr Balaarah Abdulai, a team member of the Project, explained that the engagement was to build capacities of CSOs, citizens’ groups and other social accountability demanding groupings to enable them to monitor and demand for improved service delivery.

Mr Abdul Ganiu, a member of the SAG, appealed to public officials to use the COVID-19 period to reconnect well with citizens by organising frequent sensitisation programmes on the virus and other service delivery issues.