MMDAs lack LED initiatives
Thorough investigations on the development profiles of almost all the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the country clearly show that greater percentage of their resources have been devoted to the provision of social infrastructure.
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Consequently, there is little or no effort directed at creating the economic opportunity and partnership with private sector for the development of the local resources which have the potential to create employment and income to improve the overall local economy.
This means that there are no conscious effort and processes to deliberately and strategically foster local economic development (LED) initiatives in the total development processes of the MMDAs.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, said this in an address to open the 18th annual general conference of the Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, last week.
A total of 1,080 delegates attended the biennial conference which had the theme: ‘‘Energising Local Economies: Partnerships for Accelerated Development at the Local Level.’’
The three-day meeting was initially scheduled to take place from October 23-26, 2013, but had to be postponed to November 12-15, 2013 at the same venue.
The national executive committee of the association cited the recent called-off strike by members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) as one major reason why conference could not come off as planned, since some key staff of the various assemblies were not available.
The minister said it was against that backdrop that the ministry in collaboration with the Local Government Service, with the support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), had developed a national framework for LED to strengthen economic development at the district level.
That framework, he indicated, sought to guide all MMDAs in promoting local level development and mainstream LED in their medium term plans.
Mr Oppong-Fosu announced that already, MMDAs in the Central and Western regions had been trained in that framework, and that training and capacity building of the remaining assemblies in the other regions would continue.
The President of NALAG, Mr Ebenezer Akuoko-Frimpong, in his address, indicated that local government in many countries had a growing responsibility to support and promote local economic development.
That, he said, covered a range of different issues for the local government sector; setting overall local strategic priorities, providing an enabling environment and efficient services for economic development to flourish and also promoting domestic investment.
The coverage, according to him, extended to supporting training and skills development, directly attracting jobs and investment, working with central government, the private sector and other partners to implement joint investment and job-creating strategies.
Mr Akuoko-Frimpong, who is seeking a second two-year term, paid glowing tribute to the German Development Co-operation (GTZ) for its immense contribution and unflinching support towards the progress of the association.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, expressed regret that some MMDAs were reluctant to endorse the president’s nominees as executives and called for co-operation among the assemblies.