The Ambassador Mrs. Margit Thomsen, of the Royal Danish Embassy in Ghana on Wednesday 22nd January, 2014 launched the Right to Services and Good Governance Programme (RSGGP) in Accra with a gestational period of four (4) years (2014-2018). The implementing Agencies are Local Government Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Judicial Service and Star Ghana (a civil society group). Basically, the programme is a merger of two previous programmes namely Local Service Delivery and Governance Programme (LSDGP) and Good Governance and Human Rights Programme (GGHRP), which run from 2009 to 2013.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Mrs. Margit Thomsen intimated that the rationale behind the programme was one of an exit strategy after DANIDA’s continuous support spanning over two decades of targeted intervention in service delivery, human rights and good governance in Ghana.  The programme is designed to inculcate into the people their right to participate in their own development, in local governance and demand for improved local service delivery and above all access to justice. In other words, the programme thrives on a human rights-based paradigm, which operates on the principles of participation, non-discrimination, transparency and accountability at both local and national levels.

 Again, Mrs. Thomsen disclosed that the programme was framed in consonance with the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA), which all Development Partners are interested stakeholders; hence it is a home-grown programme.

In conclusion, she confirmed that future engagement(s) with Ghana will have more commercial undertones as Ghana is now a lower middle income nation.

Mrs. Mabel Amoako-Atta, the National Coordinator of the programme gave an impressive overview presentation of the entire programme and concluded by expressing her profound gratitude to the Government and the people of Denmark for their continuous support to Ghana over the years in her attempt to reduce poverty, improve local service delivery, promote and protect human rights and more importantly, to ensure equal access to justice.