If a community has a broken streetlight, a choked drain, an uncompleted market project or a road that has become almost impossible to use, why should the solution always have to wait for someone sitting in an office in Accra?
That simple question goes to the heart of Ghana’s decentralisation debate.
Decentralisation was designed to bring government closer to the people.
The idea is straightforward: decisions about local development should increasingly be influenced and implemented by institutions that understand local problems.
Ghana’s Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), provides the legal framework for this system, while the Local Government
Service supports Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in delivering local services.
Yet, decades after decentralisation became a major feature of Ghana’s governance system, many citizens still feel that development is moving too slowly.
The problem may not be decentralisation itself.
The problem is how much power, money, responsibility and accountability we have actually transferred to the local level.
Decentralisation must mean power
We cannot tell District Assemblies to solve local problems while they depend heavily on approvals, transfers and decisions from the centre.
A District Assembly cannot effectively plan its development if it does not have predictable resources.
A local authority cannot respond quickly to an emergency when every important decision requires several layers of approval.
True decentralisation means giving local institutions the authority and resources to act while ensuring that they are properly supervised and held accountable.
The Local Government Service itself identifies its mission around helping local governments mobilise, harmonise and utilise human and material resources to promote local and national development.
That principle should move from policy documents into everyday practice.
Citizen knows
Imagine a community in the Volta Region where a major road has deteriorated.
The people living there know exactly where the problem is.
Traders know how it affects business.
Drivers know the dangers. Residents know how it affects access to schools, hospitals and markets.
Yet, too often, communities become spectators in decisions about their own development.
We must make local development more participatory.
Town-hall meetings should not be ceremonial gatherings where officials speak for two hours and citizens are given five minutes to complain.
Communities should help identify priorities, rank projects and monitor implementation.
Money must follow responsibility
One of the biggest obstacles to effective decentralisation is finance.
If Assemblies are responsible for local development but lack sufficient and predictable financial resources, decentralisation becomes decentralisation in name only.
This does not mean giving public institutions money without controls.
It means establishing a system where local authorities have access to predictable funding while being required to publish how every cedi is spent.
For example, every Assembly should have a simple public dashboard showing: Money received; Projects approved; Contractors engaged; Amount paid; Project completion status; and Expected completion dates.
A citizen should not need to know a politician or travel to Accra to find out what happened to a development project in their community.
We need fewer delays, more results
Ghana has no shortage of policies, committees, institutions and strategic documents.
Our bigger problem is implementation.
The Local Government Service recently emphasised that national priorities cannot be achieved through policy pronouncements alone, but depend heavily on effective implementation through Regional Coordinating Councils and MMDAs. This is an important point.
A government can announce an excellent policy in Accra, but its real value is determined in Ho, Keta, Wa, Tamale, Kumasi, Takoradi, Bolgatanga and hundreds of other communities.
Development must therefore be measured by outcomes, not simply by the number of meetings held or reports produced.
3 Simple things to do
First, give Assemblies predictable funding. Local authorities should know, as early as possible, what resources they can realistically plan with.
Second, publish local projects and budgets in simple language. Put the information on notice boards, Assembly websites and social media platforms. Let citizens know what is being done with public money.
Third, introduce stronger performance contracts for local leadership and management.
The conversation should move from “What did you promise?” to “What did you deliver?”
Accountability must work both ways. Citizens should demand results, but local officials must also have the authority and resources necessary to deliver those results.
Decentralisation also about local development
Decentralisation should not focus only on roads, drains and sanitation. District Assemblies can become powerful engines of local economic growth.
The Volta Region, for example, has enormous opportunities in tourism, agriculture, creative arts, culture and small businesses.
Instead of waiting for every initiative to come from Accra, local authorities should actively develop partnerships with businesses, traditional authorities, tourism operators, young entrepreneurs and creative professionals.
A district that understands its economic strengths can create a local development strategy around those strengths.
The same principle applies across Ghana.
Citizen must become centre
The ultimate test of decentralisation is simple: Does the ordinary citizen feel the difference?
If decentralisation produces more offices but does not improve the quality of roads, sanitation, education, health care, local businesses and public services, then we must honestly ask whether we are decentralising power or simply decentralising bureaucracy.
Ghana does not necessarily need more complicated systems.
We need systems that work.
We need local institutions with authority, resources, capable personnel and measurable responsibilities.
We need citizens who participate and demand accountability.
And we need central government to provide national direction without unnecessarily controlling every local decision.
The power of decentralisation is that it can turn citizens from passive recipients of development into active partners in development.
Our development is too slow, not because Ghana lacks ideas.
We have brilliant people, policies and institutions.
Perhaps what we need now is to move power closer to the people, resources closer to responsibility, and accountability closer to where decisions are made.
If we get that right, decentralisation will stop being a constitutional aspiration and become what it was always meant to be: a powerful engine for Ghana’s development.
Communication strategist
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