'The Ghana's Strengthening Accountability Mechanism (GSAM) activity has contributed immensely to promoting accountable governance, which has helped accelerate development at the local level.

The Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, who made this assertion, noted that the eight years of the implementation of GSAM through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had been beneficial to the country, especially the lessons learned to deepen democracy and good governance at the local level.

Mr Botwe, in a speech, read on his behalf at public accountability conference in Accra last Wednesday, said the GSAM had strengthened the capacity of civil society to advocate, monitor, and investigate efforts of primary actors, particularly metropolitan, municipal, district assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure sustainable, accountable and inclusive delivery of quality services to citizens.

The conference was part of the eighth-year activities of the USAID-supported Ghana

Strengthening GSAM activity designed to deepen and sustain responsive and accountable governance at the local level.

The rationale for GSAM activity was to address inadequate citizens' engagement in local governance processes, increase access to information on MMDAs development processes, deal with real or perceived corruption due to weak oversight and poor service delivery.

The interventions from GSAM, the minister said, had contributed to improving the responsiveness of MMDAs to citizens' demands and efficiency in the management and implementation of development projects in communities, working in close collaboration with key stakeholders. 

The rationale for GSAM activity Is to address inadequate citizens' engagement in local governance processes.

Commendation

Commending USAID for the initiative, Mr Botwe said: "We are, therefore, interested in consolidating the gains made with regard to the management interventions that have generated positive results relating to accountability and transparency practices in the MMDAS."

The Deputy Chief of Party for GSAM, Samuel Boateng, said key lessons learnt from the project included the fact that there was a need for mixed communication methods to reach citizens with needed information.

He noted that prior to the GSAM activity, MMDAs relied mainly on assembly and unit committee members, traditional authorities and some opinion leaders to provide information to citizens on capital projects.

However, many citizens remained poorly informed about capital projects because these leaders mostly did not relay such information to citizens.

Other lessons were that the MMDAs had less control of centrally-funded projects. He explained that MMDAs had little control over projects that were implemented by the central government and as a result exercise weak oversight of these projects.

He said the impact of GSAM had been positive, revealing that 51 per cent of 880 community priority needs identified with GSAM support were integrated and budgeted for in the 2022-2025 Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs) in 50 districts.

Setbacks

The Chairperson for Star Ghana Foundation, Dr Esther Ofei Aboagye, said interventions such as the GSAM provided civil society organisations (CSOs) opportunities to initiate action, collect data, build capacities, engage district-level authorities, and back communities to exact accountability.

The mission director of USAID, Kimberly Rosen, said a USAID-commissioned impact evaluation of the GSAM activity revealed that citizen action with the support of local CSOs had improved consultation between citizens and their respective local governments on infrastructure development.

Source: Daily Graphic

The Honuorable Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Daniel Botwe has said of strengthening of the capacity of local actors is key to the deepening of the decentralisation process, and Ghana welcomes external cooperation to this effect.

He noted that Ghana is benefiting from World Bank support for the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) aimed at integrating and finding a holistic response to fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) and also addressing climate-related challenges faced by four countries in the Sahel region.

He said under the support, Ghana, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, and Benin are benefiting from an amount of $450 million from the World Bank to prevent the spread of FVC in their countries.

These came up when the Ambassador for the US, H. E. madam Virginia E. Sulivan called on Hon. Daniel Botwe at his office in Accra on the 6^th of September 2022.

Under the SOCO project in Ghana, 48 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies located in the Oti, Northern, Savannah, Upper west, Upper East and North East Regions were supported with an amount of $150million from the World Bank.

The objective of the project was to improve regional collaboration as well as the socio-economic and climate resilience of border communities in the targeted northern regions of the Gulf of Guinea countries exposed to conflict and climate risks.

The project is structured on five components; community resilience and inclusion, strengthening foundations and capacities for the vulnerable, regional coordination platform and dialogue, project management, and contingent emergency response component.

On her part, H. E. Virginia E. Palmer said her country also has funding for strategy of prevention of violence and promotion of stability thus, the need to collaborate with Ghana.

She noted that Ghana was far ahead of its neighbours in the sahel region in terms of peace and stability and the US has earmarked some funds to support security cooperation and inclusive development in the sub-region.

1. E. Sulivan was accompanied by the Head of Policy and Research, US Embassy, Christopher Cunning and Ms. Kimberly Rossen, from USAID.

Source:   PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT (MLGDRD)

The Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Simone Giger has called on the Honourable Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD), Daniel Botwe at his office in Accra on 6^th September 2022.

Receiving her, Hon Botwe described Switzerland as an important partner in the area of decentralisation for Ghana and expressed the government’s appreciation for the Swiss support.

He said the District Assemblies Common Fund and Responsive Factor Grant (DACF-RFG) by the Swiss Government have supported the machinery for his Ministry to ensure systems were put in place for efficient and effective domestic revenue mobilisations at the local level and the Government desired to ensure measures were put in place to satisfy the aspirations of the people at the local level. He called for an extension of the DACF-RFG for a year.

He gave an assurance that government prioritises decentralization; thus, new appointments have been made for the Inter-Ministerial Steering Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation which was responsible for the coordination of all decentralization reforms initiatives to continue its work.

Hon Botwe disclosed that the Committee would start work with its Technical Working Group by October to ensure decentralisation work well. Also, work on the Local Governance Finance Bill is being expedited to be passed as soon as possible.

In her remarks, The Ambassador, H. E. Mrs. Simone Giger said the SECO mission was satisfied with the work the Assemblies have done with the DACF-RFG support funding and promised to consult on the one-year extension for the DACF-RFG.

Source: PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT (MLGDRD)