The Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly has received a team from the Palermo city in Italy as part of the Twin-cities in sustainable partnership project.
The delegation, made up of members from the Sicily Business Forum led by Honorary Council Francesco Campagna, Councillors Maurizio Carta and Antonella Tirrito would assess the progress of the implementation of the three-year project in its first year of activities.
Mr Abdul-Mumin Issah, the Chief Executive Officer of the STMA said the partnership involving Palermo Municipality, Ghana Sicily Business Forum, Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud (CISS), and Kumasi Technical University fitted well in the medium-term target to improve upon the quality of life of the people in the Metropolis within a public-private partnership to ensure growth and reducing poverty. That, he said, would expand opportunities for all.
He described it as a game changer to help achieve the Assembly’s medium-term plan overall focus on building a prosperous society, creating equal opportunities, for wealth creation, safeguarding the natural environment and ensuring a resilient built environment.
The project was borne out of a proposal for the European Union’s Local Authorities Partnerships for Sustainable Cities Programme which was launched in 2019.
The STMA and its partners proposal, was selected for a grant of €3,000,000.00 to implement interventions aimed at improving urban management, fostering transnational cooperation, enhancing socio-economic development through employment creation, and raise the cultural heritage of both Sekondi-Takoradi & Palermo.
The project would be implemented in both Sekondi-Takoradi and Palermo to contribute to enhancing urban management by addressing challenges such as urban sprawl, climate change, poverty and exclusion.
He prayed that ultimately, the teeming unemployed youth, vulnerable, deprived, and marginalized groups in the Metropolis and beyond would benefit from the three-year project.
Mr Isaac Aidoo, the Project Coordinator mentioned that the first year of implementation had seen various activities undertaken covering all three clusters of the project: Multi-Level Urban Governance, Culturally- Sensitive and Inclusive Urban Strategies and Urban Climate Change Resilience.
He mentioned the planting of over 5000 tree crops in various institutions, training for assembly members and staff, the institutions of climate smart green house agriculture and education on gender and reproductive health as some key activities within the first year.
Mr Francesco Campagna, the leader of the delegation noted how communities were becoming key players in the global space and the need for strategies to position oneself very well to drive the change and development anticipated.
He said the interconnection created among the Twin-cities must therefore live to the new phenomenon of co-creating to find solutions to challenges in and around.
Mr Campagna said women were also key drivers of change and as such integrating them in all decision making was critical to achieving great outcomes.
SOURCE: NEWSGHANA.COM.GH