With high prospects of empowering more Ghanaians to
achieve their developmental potentials, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Abbey-Quaye, Acting
Secretary General of the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS), urged Catholics
and people of goodwill to learn more about Caritas Ghana and support its work.
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| Fr. Abbey-Quaye |
As the main vehicle of the Church’s development
agenda, he called for full support for the progress of Caritas Ghana, noting
that it stands for the total development of the people.
In an interview, the Acting Secretary General stated that the service of charity is at the heart of
the Church’s nature and mission, and that Caritas Ghana will coordinate the
Church’s efforts in the areas of health, education, livelihood support
programme and other interventions in a holistic and systematic way.
Fr. Abbey-Quaye, highlighting the Church’s commitment to
continue in a sustainable way the integral development of all people, he
reiterated the Church’s readiness to bring together societies to setup
foundations to cater for the needs of the poor, as well as encourage
individuals to do same.
In the spirit of self-reliance, and the eminent drying
up of donor funds for projects, the Acting Secretary General called for a
paradigm shift and attitudinal change, urging people to embrace positive mind-set
that we are capable of doing things for ourselves.
Stating that the service of charity does not mean the
Church has do everything, Fr. Abbey-Quaye, reiterated the duty of the Church to
lead the way to ensure the sustenance of the charity work.
He noted that the Church through Caritas Ghana would
strive to maximise the donor funds they receive; and implement rigorous
accountability regime to ensure the judicious use of funds and investments that
will sustain the charity works of the Church in the long run.
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| Archbishop Anokye |
This ties in with the vision of Caritas Africa to “…I
came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10),
which it’s President Most Rev. Gabriel Justice Yaw Anokye, says he would ensure
it is owned and implemented by everybody.
Said the Archbishop: “The mission to achieving this is
surely to bring people to know it, talk about it more, form people and also
commission people do precisely that… ensuring that we achieve our mission of
reaching out in love to our brothers and sisters who are in need”.
Similarly, Most Rev. Gabriel Akwasi Ababio Mante, President
of Caritas Ghana, stated that the official launch of the body introduces
significant changes in standard and quality of the social services that the
Church has rendered to humanity over the years, in areas of health, education,
livelihoods, relief and incomes.
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| Bishop Mante with some dignitaries lighting the Caritas Candle |
For it breathe a new life and vitality for the
Church’s charity, the Bishop stated that “the global management standards, code
of ethics and code of conduct of staff of the Caritas Confederation would be
the benchmarks that guide the operation of Caritas Ghana,” while the principle
of Catholic Social Teachings will underpin its actions and relationships.
Caritas Ghana, with the emblem of the holy Cross of
hope, has shown its readiness to empower the people of Ghana attain equitable
development and help them live in freedom, peace and dignity.
It handles policy engagement and advocacy, livelihoods
and social protection and emergency response, with specific areas including
public policy advocacy, social research, relief services, education and health
delivery service.
Other areas consists of Livelihood Promotion and Institutional
Development and Capacity Strengthening.
As it is with every organisation, Rev. Fr.
Abbey-Quaye, agrees there would be challenges in areas of staffing, managing
relationships between the national Caritas, the Diocesan and Parish level
structures, but added quickly that there are programmes in place to organise
workshops and provide support for the Diocesan Caritas offices to work with the
Caritas Agenda.
Likewise, Mr. Samuel Zan Akologo, Executive Secretary
of Caritas Ghana, has explained how Caritas Ghana was introducing the Caritas
International (CI) Management Standards as a means of improving the management
of the members which will also serve as a capacity building initiative, aimed
at sharing knowledge and mutual continuous learning.
The Management Standards which falls under
Institutional Development and Capacity Strengthening (IDCS) drive of the
Caritas Ghana, will empower and strengthen Diocesan structures to reform and be
more innovative to seek funding.
Key innovative
interventions
With effort to establish a systematic
process to enhance its operations in the country, Caritas Ghana has adopted processes,
including an effective engagement of the Government and other major
stakeholders to among other things enhance the implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) in Ghana.
To do this, the Executive Secretary of Caritas Ghana, states that the organisation
will tackle two main objectives of increasing citizens’ awareness and
participation in the implementation of the SDGs; and to contribute to achieving
National level policy coherence and planning for the implementation of the
SDGs.
The expected impact according to him, would be
measured by increased citizens’ demand on government for implementation of the
SDGs, especially around the 2016 General Elections; increased multi-stakeholder
engagement on the proposed 40-year National Development Plan with key references
to SDGs, targets and indicators in Ghana.
Caritas Ghana thus, proposes three key interventions
during the period from June to December, 2016 as its contribution to civic
engagement. This consists of preparing a national monitoring report on SDG
Implementation status with a detailed terms of reference to be undertaken by
qualified research Consultants using participatory action-research
approach.
Under the National Policy Engagement, schedule to take effect in
September 2016, Caritas Ghana proposes to use the national monitoring report for
a national policy engagement, which will involve diverse stakeholders from civil
society, faith-based organisations, private sector and public institutions.
Moreover, Caritas Ghana in its proposed participation in Regional and
International policy dialogue on follow up and review, intends to use the
lessons learned from the initiatives to feed into Regional and International
advocacy efforts for the implementation of the SDGs.
In line with this, Caritas Ghana Executive Secretary, Mr. Akologo will be leading the Caritas
Confederation delegation to participate in the July 10-20th UN High
Level Political Forum (HLPF), on follow up and review of the SDGs in New York.
The delegation would together with Alliance of Catholic Development
Agencies (CIDSE) hold a side event to share Africa’s experience so for in the
implementation of the SDGs.
The Symposium for Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)
Secretariat in Accra is expected to be involved to learn from the process and
use its outcome for their advocacy at the AU level. Expectation are that
outcome of the initiative will also feed into Caritas Africa and Caritas
International advocacy efforts by hopefully representing those institutions in
any Regional and International policy dialogue meetings on the SDGs.
Background
Caritas Ghana (until now the Department of Human
Development), was established in 1971 by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference
and now has twenty Diocesan Offices and four Directorates: Social Development,
Education and Religious Education, Health and Governance, Justice and Peace.
Focused on Integrated and Holistic Human Centred
Development, Caritas Ghana undertakes relevant service delivery projects within
the country. This includes promoting self-help projects in agricultural
development, rural health and micro-credit for small businesses and coordinates
relief operations after emergencies, and work on public policy advocacy on
behalf of the poor and the promotion of the common good.
