SOCIAL

District League table not meant to name and shame districts - Dr Afriyie
Western Regional Minister, has stated that the District League Table was not a ‘name and shame poor performing districts’, but to enable them find out development deficits and seeks the necessary support.

Date Created : 3/29/2018 7:59:45 AM : Story Author : GNA

He said the District League Table which was in its fourth year of production provided a multi-sectorial integrated assessment of how Ghana is developing across all its 216 districts.


Dr Afriyie said this during the post launch meeting of regional and district stakeholders in the Western Region at Sekondi on Tuesday.


The Post Launch programme  organized by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD)   Ghana and UNICEF  for district coordinating directors, planning officers , environmental health and sanitation officers from seven out of  the 22 district assemblies in the Western  Region.


The Minister was unhappy that the programme covered only seven districts in the Region and asked that it should be extended to the rest of the districts in the Region to ensure development and social accountability.


Dr Afriyie was hopeful that the programme would help put the Region in a good standing next year, stressing that “the best comes from the west” and the Region has no business failing, and should be at the forefront of the league table.


He commended Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai District Assembly for becoming 15th in the league table and urged the Assembly not to rest on its oars but to work harder to reach the ultimate the top position and also encourage the other MMDAs to work hard.


Mr Mohammed Awal, Research Officer with CDD-Ghana, explained that the DLT was aimed at strengthening social accountability in the development efforts of the country.


He said DLT also supported the government to better understand and monitor development in the country, while creating the platform for citizens to access information and knowledge on their rights to development in their respective districts.


Mr Awal appealed to management and staff of the various district assemblies to have open minds about DLT, emphasizing that though some assemblies may rank very low on the table, the purpose was not to name and shame any district, adding that “if anyone is to be named and shamed then it should be the government”.


Mr Charles Dzradosi, Social Policy Specialist with UNICEF, who took the participants through the DLT methodology said the DLT was in its fourth year of production and that it was a useful tool for national monitoring and planning across the 216 districts.


Dr  Dzradosi  pointed out that  it was expected that as the results of the DLT were used , non-state actors  would become increasingly  informed on how development was progressing across the country and also expected that  the Ghanaian government and other stakeholders at the national , regional and district levels would be  empowered  to use the results to identify areas lagging behind, better target support and monitor progress year on year.


Touching on the Western Region, he said the Region scored 64.7 percent same as the national average score placing it 6th out of 10 regions in terms of development levels.


According to him, analysis of districts scores showed that all the 22 district in the Region scored above 50 per cent, adding that the number of districts with scores of 70 per cent and above increased to three districts in 2017 from two in 2016, adding that only one district was among the top 20 ranked districts in the country.


On service sector score analysis, Mr Dzradosi pointed out that there was a disparity in service provision within each district, and that on the average districts have high level of service provisions in sectors such as education, health, governance, security and rural water compared to sanitation services, adding that no community in the 22 districts in the Region was certified as Opened Defecation Free.


He noted that district scores on the DLT indicators over the four years has been mixed, noting that whereas there has been improvement around some indicators others either stagnated or declined, stressing that the main sector which had led districts to low scoring and ranking, had been sanitation, where the districts scored zero percent for each year since 2014.