SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ? ? ? discuss national and international issues and policies; Memoranda presented to Parliament by individuals and various organisations; Peoples' Assemblies, organised annually to provide a forum for the President and the Cabinet for answering ordinary people's questions on policy and other national and international issues; “Meet the Press”, where Ministers take turns on a rotational basis to explain policies to the general public through the media, and to answer questions from media representatives. 82. Many stakeholders feel that important recommendations made at workshops and forums are ignored when it comes to implementation, and that stakeholders outside the authorities have not been given prominent roles in policy-making. 83. At lower levels of government, attempts to institutionalise broad stakeholder participation (the local equivalent of Peoples' Assemblies) in policy formulation have largely been inadequate, ineffectively organised and unsystematic. This has generated public apathy towards policy consultative or participatory meetings initiated by metropolitan, municipal or district assemblies (MMDAs). 84. To broaden participation of the people in the development process, the CSAR suggests that monitoring and evaluation units be strengthened, development programmes well coordinated, decentralisation processes intensified and deepened, and the relationship between MMDAs and civil society strengthened. ii. Findings of the CRM 85. Representatives of the public sector at the stakeholder workshops and meetings acknowledge that there is room for improvement to ensure that mechanisms for increasing participation in policy-making work better and in ways that would assure Ghanaians that the suggestions of ordinary citizens are never simply ignored. These relevant mechanisms include the National Economic Dialogue, the Homecoming Summit, stake-holder workshops and memoranda presentations to Parliament. 86. All participants agreed that long delays in releasing fiscal resources from the DCAF (which many non-government participants believe have delayed the implementation of projects at the local level), need to be investigated and remedial steps taken. The concern of the civil society and private businesses is that such delays undermine the credibility of local institutions. Government representatives seek assurance that accountability and transparency in the processes are adequate, and that procedures are utilised to avert 137