The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur on Wednesday, stressed the need for all stakeholders to have clear understanding
of what good governance constituted to enable them to contribute towards its promotion to facilitate the deepening of democracy in the country.
He explained that good governance largely depended on ensuring adherence to fundamental and universal human rights, right to free and fair elections without discrimination, and an independent judiciary.
Nana Arthur, made the call at a day's stakeholders' workshop on "Good Governance", on the theme; "building domestic capacity for good governance: the participatory approach" organized jointly by the Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM) and the German Development Services (DED), at Cape Coast.
It was attended by representatives of the Cape Coast and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) assemblies, queen mothers, opinion leaders, house of chiefs and non-governmental organisations and was aimed at, among others, deliberating on key issues that militate against good governance and developing strategies to address them.
The Regional Minister observed that the wider business and investment community was turning its attention to Ghana as a prime investment destination, because they were confident of the safety of their legal rights, due to the country's functional democracy and the prevailing peace in the country.
He cited the grant of 547 million US dollars under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), for the pursuance of sound economic development policies and programmes as one of the rewards for the country's good governance.
He mentioned the introduction of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II), to enhance the national development agenda as another strategy of good governance, adding that, foreign investors are only attracted to countries where good governance and good democratic practices exist.
Mr John Akowuah, Executive Director of CEDECOM said the district assemblies serves as engines in the decentralization process, which enables
the citizenry to pursue development programmes peculiar to their needs and environment, while human right issues are also pertinent for the sustenance
of democracy.
He said, it was against that background, that the workshop was being organized to facilitate the acceleration of the decentralization process, which is a key factor of the government's development agenda.
Ms Annette Truman, of the DED, for her part said CEDECOM has an important role to play in the development agenda of the region and urged all stakeholders to support the Commission to achieve its objective.
Other areas discussed included electoral offences and empowering women to promote democracy.