Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Chairman of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has called for a critical review of financial and administrative efforts at national and sub-national levels to ensure the citizenry’s total development.
He said in these critical times resources needed to be channelled to the areas of need to ensure that no one was left behind as advocated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of which Ghana was a signatory.
Prof Gyan-Baffour said this during a discussion on Inequalities and Resources Allocation in Ghana: A Place of the District League on Thursday in Parliament House.
Organised by the Committee on Poverty Reduction Strategy, Parliament in collaboration with NDPC and support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the discussion was on the theme: “Generating Evidence for Addressing Unequal Access to Services and Development Opportunities for Children.”
It had the objective of sharing outcomes as contained in the 2021 District League Table (DLT) Report with members of the Committee and stakeholders, soliciting views on selected indicators that were used to assess the disparities and inequalities and using the information to review the current framework for policy dialogue as well as generate concrete programme suggestions.
The DLT is a simple tool for assessing, comparing, and tracking developments in the Metropolis, Municipalities and Districts (MMDs) in the country based on selected indicators.
Per the 2021 DLT, the Tema Metropolis emerged as the overall top ranked MMD with an overall score of 81.87 per cent.
This is the second time that Tema had been adjudged the best MMD in the DLT, mailing it the only local authority to achieve this fete.
Meanwhile, with a score of 38.66 per cent, the Nanton in the Northern Region was ranked the lowest district on the 2021 DLT
In terms of the Regional scale, the Greater Accra Region scored 72.37 per cent to place first while Savannah was 16th with a score of 52.61 per cent.
The report further provided evidence of wide disparities in the levels of social development across the country and highlighted how some segments of the population, including children, were left behind in access to service delivery and development outcomes simply because of where they resided.
Focusing on education, health, nutrition, water sanitation, energy, and governance indicators, the DLT reported that MMDs performed very well in governance with scores exceeding 80 per cent.
For the Sanitation sector, two Municipalities Krowor and Adentan scored 100 per cent, while Sekeyre South District recorded the lowest score of 6.65 per cent.
Under Energy, 30 MMDs according to the report had universal access to electricity with over half of them being the Greater Accra Region.
“Yunyoo-Nansuan District in the North East Region had only five per cent coverage,” it said.
In general, the average regional scores for education were not good with the best-performing region being Greater Accra scoring 34.41 per cent compared to 14.46 per cent for the worst-performing region.
While the Greater Accra Region topped with 92.43 per cent the North East Region came at the bottom with 80.61 per cent in Governance.
“In the health sector, seven MMDs Asutifi South District, Korle-Klottey Municipality, Awaywaso North Municipality, Tema Metropolis, Ayawaso East District, Birim Central Municipality and Chereponi District scored 100 per cent while Ga Central ranked bottom with a 7.74 per cent score,” it said.
For water, 12 MMDs scored 100 per cent with Okere District in the Eastern Region topping with a 100 per cent score under the nutrition sector.
Mr Benson Tongo Baba, Chairman of, the Committee on Poverty Reduction Strategy, said the Committee had collaborative efforts with the NDPC, Ghana Statistical Service and African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) to address the issue of poverty with data support from these institutions.
He said the relationship which started in Parliament, especially with NDPC, had progressed since last year to discuss the League Table and its implications on all districts.
“Thankfully, we were able to discuss the issue of some members of the Committee and is included in their monitoring going forward, especially when similar monitoring works have been ongoing with ACEPA last year.
“Last year, for a fair report representation we chose Talensi Nabdam, Garu-Tempane and Busilsa South and North,” he said
Madam Paulina Mulhovo, Acting Deputy Representative of UNICEF, said the equitable distribution of resources guaranteed harmony and improved the well-being of all citizenries.
She, therefore, called on the government to ensure the distribution of the maximum number of resources at all levels.
Dr Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampa, Director General, NDPC, said the report, which complemented efforts to strengthen the national monitoring and evaluation system, also provided evidence that could be used to inform priorities, strategies, and programmes.
He said decades of implementation of the decentralisation system had targeted improved resource allocation and provision of quality service to bridge the wide disparities in well-being among district assemblies.
“The system, nevertheless, has been plagued with challenges impeding development, which has resulted in a significant segment of the population being left behind in service delivery and quality of life,” he said.
Dr Mensah-Abrampa pledged NDPC’s commitment to ensuring the strengthening of the DLT and its utilisation as a tool for assessing development and advising the government.
He, therefore, called for the support of critical partners.
Mr Issifu Lampo, Senior Governance Advisor, ACEPA, urged the Committee to use the data to make informed decisions.