US embassy cable - 04ACCRA2158

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