GHANAIAN COMMUNITY LEADERS HONE LOBBYING SKILLS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 002158

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO SCUL OIIP OEXC PGOV GH
SUBJECT: GHANAIAN COMMUNITY LEADERS HONE LOBBYING SKILLS



1. Summary. Post sponsored a workshop on grassroots
democracy for 35 community leaders in the economically
deprived area of northern Ghana from October 19-21, 2004.
Representatives from government, non-governmental
organizations, and the media met to discuss ways to create a
grassroots constituency, approaches to use in persuading
legislators to take up their cause and methods of using the
media to their advantage. The workshop was enhanced by a
"field trip" to a political rally for Ghanaian President
John Kufuor, who was in the area campaigning for re-
election, and it afforded the group an opportunity to
witness firsthand the ways in which a practiced politician
can work a recalcitrant crowd. End Summary.


2. From October 19-21, 2004, post sponsored a workshop in
Wa, Upper West Region, for 35 community leaders from the
three, predominantly-Muslim Upper West, Northern and Upper
East Regions (or districts) of Ghana. Participants included
members of the Wa municipal assembly, Tumu town council, non-
governmental groups that benefit women and orphans, two
candidates for National Parliament, and three journalists,
two from the government-run Ghana Broadcasting Corporation
and one from a local private FM radio station (Radio
Progress). Two former IVLP participants, Catherine Amy Bob-
Milliar, of the Upper West Rural Women's Association (2002)
and Godfrey Bayon, Wa Municipal Chief Executive (2003),
organized the workshop. Post used speaker funds to bring to
Ghana Dr. Kevin Gottlieb, a former high-ranking aide to four
US Senators and President of Kevin Gottlieb and Associates,
Inc., a Maryland firm that specializes in training
individuals and organizations on how to create grassroots
constituencies.

3. Dr. Gottlieb, the workshop facilitator, is a persuasive
and engaging speaker, peppering his talks with local
examples, adages and other phrases to keep the attention of
his audience. He told workshop participants that the most
effective way to achieve their organizations' goals is to
focus on one priority at a time, and to build coalitions,
internally and externally. Politics is about inclusion, he
said, not exclusion, and one must be vigilant against
discriminating against any member of your network on the
basis of gender, race, age, or sexual preference. He said an
effective network or grassroots constituency is one that
values the contributions of all its members, an essential
quality if the group is to be successful in achieving its
goals. He cited as an example the case of eight people
stuck in an elevator of the World Trade Center towers during
the terrorist attacks three years ago. He said not one of
the high-powered, Wall Street brokers or businesspeople in
the elevator knew what to do when the elevator became stuck
in-between floors. He said they managed to escape because a
maintenance man, who was also trapped in the elevator,
improvised and used a pen-knife to cut through an elevator
wall, allowing the group to escape to safety.


4. Dr. Gottlieb said politics and campaigning is the
practice of promising items to a constituency but that
governing is the art of how you deliver on those promises.
He said effective constituencies hold their leaders
accountable to promises made. One workshop participant
complained that residents of the Upper West, Northern and
Upper East Regions of Ghana feel marginalized by the focus
given to southern regions by the central government in
Accra. Dr. Gottlieb recommended that legislators in the
Upper West Region reach out to colleagues in the southern
Ashanti region for help in securing more resources and
programs for the north in exchange for providing their
support to help meet the needs of people in the south.


5. One of the unexpected pleasures for the workshop
participants and facilitator was a "field trip" to a
political rally by President John Kufuor, who was in Wa at
the same time. President Kufuor was not officially a
candidate for re-election (he filed his papers several days
after the rally),but the durbar, or gathering of chiefs in
the region, was clearly political, with vendors selling
political buttons, banners and sun visors, printed with the
President's face and the red, white and blue colors of the
ruling New Patriotic Party.


6. The rally proved a valuable example for workshop
participants of how a veteran politician can work a crowd,
even one that is not very supportive. Wa has traditionally
supported an opposition political party (the National
Democratic Congress),and the audience for the President was
noticeably sparse, mostly made up of students bused to the
parade grounds. Yet the President smiled, waved and walked
the inside perimeter of the grounds and shaking hands with
audience members in the front rows, including our workshop
participants. The President even stopped for small talk and
a photo with Dr. Gottlieb. Moments later, during his
speech, President Kufuor told residents he was visiting Wa
because he wanted see for himself the status of projects his
government has arranged for the region, and he then
recounted several public works his government has promoted
for the region.


7. The next day, Dr. Gottlieb led a spirited discussion with
workshop participants, dissecting the President's speech and
appearance. Dr. Gottlieb asked the workshop participants if
they thought the President realized the crowd was small and
consisted almost solely of students, to which there was a
resounding chorus of "yes." He also asked if they noticed
that the President mentioned, but did not elaborate on, the
condition of the main road into town, which has remained
unpaved for years, and again, most chimed in with "yes." An
assemblyman from the President's party defended Mr. Kufuor,
saying he did not expand on the road issue because he
probably did not want to make empty promises about its
completion. This prompted groans from other class members,
and one complained that most members of Parliament and other
politicians are unresponsive to the needs of their
constituencies once elected. Dr. Gottlieb said voters must
hold their elected leaders accountable. He urged
participants to use the locally-based University for
Development Studies to document how the main road, once
paved, would promote greater trade and tourism to the
region. Dr. Gottlieb also encouraged workshop participants
to use the news media as a means of pressuring politicians
to fulfill campaign promises, and to press legislators to
build coalitions with political leaders in other regions to
push through the priorities of the northern regions.


8. Results of the three-day workshop were outstanding, with
participants using the opportunity to exchange phone numbers
and addresses and to begin to forge coalitions to work
toward development of the northern regions. Some suggested
that the workshop should be offered to higher-ranking
officials so that they would benefit from the ideas on how
to create a grassroots constituency and follow through on
campaign promises. Some participants recommended that the
workshop should be longer, with more attention paid to
ethics in government, but overall, the evaluations by the
workshop participants were positive with comments such as
"excellent", "I can better mobilize people at the community
level" as a result of attending the workshop and "I am going
to share these experiences with my fellow women and men
friends, and especially my husband."


9. Post appreciates the support of ECA and IIP for their
assistance in arranging this important workshop, coming only
weeks before Ghana's national elections December 7. It was
ECA's International Visitors Leadership Program, which
identified Dr. Gottlieb as a speaker for an IVLP program
last year in Washington. That appearance led IVLP program
participant Mr. Bayon to urge post to seek the IIP Speaker
Bureau's help in arranging for Dr. Gottlieb to be the
facilitator of a grassroots democracy workshop in Ghana.
Post recommends hiring Dr. Gottlieb for similar workshops
elsewhere. He is a high-energy, low-maintenance speaker,
who connects well with people of other cultures.

YATES