A delegation from the Covenant of Mayor Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) implemented in Ghana by GIZ, led by the Ghana Project Manager, Shea O’Neil and the Technical Advisor, Urban Planning, Mr. Gary Bonney called on the Director of the Institute, Prof. Nicholas Awortwi on Tuesday 30th January, 2024.
Their visit was to explore areas of mutual cooperation and explore possible partnership programmes between both organisations. The CoM SSA team noted that as part of the sustainability principles of GIZ and efforts to enhance country ownership, they were seeking to explore opportunities for ILGS to mainstream key products of the CoM SSA initiative into the curriculum as well as the provision of capacity building support not only to the CoM SSA signatory cities in Ghana but to all local governments.
Specific products highlighted included the Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP), the Local Adaptation Booster and the Climate finance courses. The CoM SSA delegation noted that the SEACAP was a tool to realise Ghana’s commitments to international treaties and national laws in the area of climate change such as the Paris Declaration and Ghana’s Update Nationally Determined Contributions. The SEACAP serves as a critical planning tool for local authorities to prioritise their development interventions and also serves as a tool for project preparation to assess climate finance.
Prof. Awortwi commended the team for the visit and their contributions and support towards enhancing and developing the skills of District Assembly functionaries through capacity building programmes.
He briefed the team on some achievements of the Institute since its 20 years of existence and stated that ILGS is mandated to organise the training of members and staff of the Regional Co-ordinating Councils, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and lower local government units, as well as other persons interested in local governance to enhance their managerial, administrative, financial and operational efficiency.
He continued that ILGS has increased its number of Master’s degree programmes from 4 to 12 and introduced 4 Bachelor’s degree programmes. It has also developed and delivered many customised professional certificate training programmes to over 4000 central and local government officers in the last 2 years.
Hence, he expressed his appreciation to the team for recognising the significant role ILGS can play in mainstreaming key products of the CoM SSA initiative into its training programmes and said the Institute is ready, equipped to train and interested in conducting joint training programmes with them. ILGS will add a session on climate change in the upcoming Assembly Member training.