Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Gyan Baffour, has stated the District League Table (DLT) complements efforts to strengthen the national monitoring and evaluation system and provides evidence that could be used to inform priorities, strategies and programmes.
According to him, decades of implementation of the decentralisation system have targeted improved resource allocation and provision of quality service to bridge the wide disparities in well-being among district assemblies.
He noted, however, that the system nevertheless has been plagued with challenges impeding development, which has resulted in a significant segment of the population being left behind with regard to service delivery and quality of life.
He made the statement at a roundtable meeting on Thursday 9th March 2023 on the 2021 Ghana District League Table (DLT) with the Special Parliamentary Committee on Poverty Reduction Strategy and the United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF).
He said, “This calls for a critical review of efforts both financially and administratively at national and sub-national level to ensure that the citizenry benefits totally from development.”
“The DLT provides an opportunity for a better understanding of the status of citizens’ well-being across the districts in the country and provides a basis for better prioritisation and equitable resource allocation while engendering positive competition among Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).”
He assured the NDPC is committed to ensuring the strengthening of the DLT and utilizing it as a tool for assessing development and advising management.
Acting Deputy Representative of Unicef, Pauliina Mulhoro, in her remarks appealed to Parliament to use the DLT to strengthen effectiveness of the national budget, DACF, Sector MDA budgets and programmes of DPs towards addressing the existing inequalities and disparities in order not to leave any district or child behind.
The 2021 DLT report has exposed wide disparities between districts even in regions whose performs have been very good indicating some districts in well endowed regions still struggle in sectors such as sanitation, health, and education among several others.
The report urged stakeholders to do more to address these disparities else more people in these districts would be punished down further into poverty and deprivation, which are not good for the development of the country.
Pauliina Mulhoro stated the DLT should not be considered only as a social accountability tool but also an effective instrument for monitoring and evaluating progress in Ghana’s development.
The meeting, she said, will foster a dialogue around equitable resource allocation to the 261 districts, and to explore ways by which the DLT can be a national framework not only for assessing the spread of development outcomes across the districts, but also how it can serve as one of the tools for enhancing equitable resource allocation.
She said, “Today, we can report that thanks to the partnership between UNICEF and the National Development Planning Commission since 2021, the District League Table index is now a government owned incorporating data and information from the Annual Progress Reports of MMDAS.”
“This has provided government at the national and decentralized level greater opportunity for understanding better, the spread of development and wellbeing across the 261 districts.”
She stated the stark disparities identified between districts in the 2021 DLT in sectors such as health, education, sanitation and the water sector should be a concern for all duty bearers at the national and district levels to work to
Chairman of the Special Poverty Reduction Committee of Parliament and MP for Talensi, Hon. Benson Tongo Baba, in an interview after the programme observed that the development of rural areas is the affirmed cure to rural-urban migration.
According to him, if rural areas develop with social amenities, people would not be migrating to the cities for better lives and end up exposing themselves to harsh weather sleeping outside and becoming victims to all manner of criminal activities.
He noted that people who have descent homes per their standards and are able to work and take good care of themselves will choose to stay in rural areas than migrate.
He argued that Ghana is not a poor country but the way its resources have been managed is the problem.
The DLT, he said, therefore offers a practical way of identifying the challenges and needs of rural areas and the commit resources to addressing them.
He indicated that agriculture is the largest employer in Ghana and the world over and yet the sector has not been enhanced to address the problem of jobs and livelihood in rural areas.
He stated that developing the sector can ensure people stay and work and still get whatever they would need and wish for rather than moving to the big cities in search of green pastures.