In 2017, the Ga South District ranked 203th nationally with a district league score of 55.7%, a decline from their 191th position in 2016.

The district performed well in areas such as governance (98%), education (87.5%) and health, which more than doubled from 27.7% recorded in 2016 to 67.3%.

[contextly_sidebar id=”qnyeYTBX0hT3QQJGRBsJRDO1Ax7H3s72″]However, in what seems to be a threat to public health, the district scored 0% in sanitation.

Explaining the rationale behind their visit to the Center, Francis Abofrah, Development Planning Officer of Ga South District said the Assembly is confident that the discussions held with CDD-Ghana will provide valuable input for the district’s medium-term consolidated plan, and help them perform better than their current 203th rank.

“The DLT has highlighted the weaknesses in our planning and overall performance. It has prompted us to want to re-strategize, refocus and resolve the issues that we have control over, such as, education, health and sanitation,” he said.

According to Patience Ackah-Tyireku, the Ga South Municipal Environmental Health Officer, the data from the DLT has spurred them on to put more effort into the promotion of toilet facilities, so as to attain Open Defecation Free Status.

“We have started actively engaging residents in the community about the importance of putting up toilet facilitates, while prosecuting households who refuse to do so,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of CDD-Ghana, Ambassador Francis Tsegah, Senior Research Fellow at the Center advised local government authorities to see the league table as a tool for development and not a means to name and shame districts that are not doing well.

He explained that the DLT provides a tool for accountability and supports citizens’ access to information and knowledge on rights on development in their Districts. He said it is also aimed at helping government better understand and monitor development across the country.

“Our decentralization system is not yet perfected and central government is still very much involved in the allocation of resources. The aim is not to name and shame district assemblies because we know that most of the work that should be done is based on the resources that come from central government.

The DLT rather enables you to find out how you are doing, compared to other districts in the country and stirs the citizens to put a little pressure on the local assemblies with the hope that the central government will allocate the resources to districts that need to improve,” he said.

He added that poor performance of districts on the league table can be attributed to inequity in the allocation of resources, inability to raise Internally Generated Funds, or poor leadership.

Produced by CDD-Ghana and UNICEF Ghana, the District League Table (DLT) ranks the level of development in each of Ghana’s 216 Districts, in the bid to strength social accountability between the state and its citizens for development.

Produced annually with the support of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service., it ranks them in terms of their delivery in six key sectors: health, education, sanitation, water, security and governance.

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Source: CDD-Ghana

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“When I came [into office], I found that almost 60% of the schools run the shift system. It is my vision to end the shift system or to abolish the shift system, and that’s the reason why I am putting up these school buildings to make sure we are able to solve that issue,’ he said.

He added that, “I have given myself a timeline that by 2020, I should be able to end the shift system in this municipality.”

He made this known during a sod cutting ceremony for a six unit classroom block at Kokrobite. The six unit classroom block is to complement the only existing school in the community.

This followed a sod cutting for the renovation of a six unit classroom block at the Domeabra Methodist Basic School.

Both projects are estimated at about GHC 700,000, and are expected to be completed in the next four months.

The shift system allows students to attend classes in turns . They normally attend classes in the morning or afternoon.

The MCE’s predecessor, Jerry Akwei Thompson, failed to deliver on a similar promise he made in 2014 after significant efforts were made in that regard.

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By: Michael Ogbodu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking at the launch of  a book titled “Crucible of the Ages” at the State Banquet Hall, Wole Soyinka said the abduction of over 200 chibok girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram and other incidents in Nigeria could have been prevented if African leaders were more proactive.

Boko Haram is a Nigerian militant Islamist group which has caused havoc in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.

Their main aim of the group is to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

The group has carried out violent activities including assassinations, bombings, and abductions in Nigeria.

Speaking on Nigeria’s current situation as a result of Boko Haram activities, Wole Soyinka said the menace has led to a spread of anti-humanism across the African continent.

“We know very well that the tentacles of that kind of anti-humanism have already spread throughout the whole the nation. We know also that these tentacles do not just exist in the Southward region, but the Westward and Eastward sections as well.”

He said the current situation in Nigeria can partly be attributed to the inability of African leaders to anticipate unforeseen crises.

“I am talking about most of the leaders of the West African community who are not able anticipate the kind of situation we find ourselves in Nigeria today. If those leaders had not gone to Mali when they did, we know very well that we wouldn’t have had that mass abduction in Southern Nigeria,” he explained.

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.

The book, a collection of essays was written to mark Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday.

The authors who contributed include other Nobel laureates- Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison and Derek Walcott; three African leaders- former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and  distinguished writers and scholars: Ama Ata Aidoo, Ngugi wa Thiong o’, Sefi Atta, Ali Mazrui, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Toyin Falola, Nicholas Westcott and Prof. Atukwei Okai.

It was launched in Accra on Tuesday by the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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