Good Governance & Human Rights

Good Governance and Human Rights Programme (GGHRP II) 2009-2013.

Good governance and respect for human rights are key pillars of Danish development policy. The Danish Government’s good governance strategy focuses on public sector management, and underscores that the agenda is much wider, encompassing human rights and democratisation, the media, the judicial sector and the rule of law. The Danish funded Good Governance and Human Rights Programme II (GGHRP II) has incorporated this holistic view on governance. The programme, with a total budget of DKK 170 million (GHC 34 million), was signed by the Danish and the Ghanaian government on 12 November 2008.

The GGHRP II has the following development objective: 

‘Good governance, human rights, and access to justice are institutionalised at national, regional and district levels, thus providing opportunities for the poor to improve their livelihoods and their civic participation.’ 

The programme has two components:

Component 1: Support to Independent Governance Institutions – Judicial Service and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)

The main objective of the component is to improve access to justice at the district level with a focus on the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  This will be achieved mainly through strengthening the outreach and district presence of the Judicial Service and CHRAJ.

The approach is to support the institutions develop their medium term Strategic Plans including priorities for improving and sustaining outreach to regions and districts. 
 

Component 2: Support to civil society and the media

Civil society is seen to be a key player interacting with districts and regions to set priorities for the communities, to protect rights and monitor performance of the political authorities. The objective of this component is:

‘Civil society organisations backed by a professional and vigilant media engage in and promote own agendas on human rights and good governance, able to engage government at national and local level in a democratic interface, influence and monitor GoG performance at all levels”.

The strategy of component 2 is to strengthen the demand side for good governance and human rights by supporting the development of an independent civil society and media. The focus is on developing the capacity of civil society organisations by providing them with space, resources and support for own agenda development, and building the capacity of the media to support democratic development through improved professional journalistic standards.

The approach to support Civil Society and media is through a pooled funding mechanism called STAR –GHANA (Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness).  STAR Ghana is currently jointly funded by DANIDA, DFID and the EU.