Dan Botwe
Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, has reiterated the government’s commitment towards deepening decentralisation in the country.
At the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCCOD) press meeting in Accra, the minister said government is poised to continue to champion its decentralisation agenda not to only bring governance and development to the people of Ghana but to improve service delivery and ensure inclusive and sustainable development across the country through a coordinated and collaborative approach.
Mr. Dan Botwe, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere in the Eastern Region, also emphasised the need for a paradigm shift towards promoting local economic development through rural and urban development.
“The status quo cannot remain if we expect to make progress towards an improved local governance system where improved service delivery, access to information, and active participation of the citizenry in the activities of local governments among others are vigorously pursued. It is therefore our ardent hope that going forward, we would do things differently to achieve the results that we all want,” he said.
Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Professor Nicholas Awortwi, said decentralisation is a key policy instrument to achieve the economic and political objectives of the state, adding that the country has practiced decentralisation for almost a century with emphasis on bringing government and services closer to the people.
He, however, noted that it was time the country embraced its decentralisation agenda and pushed for reforms.
“It’s time to shift emphasis towards deepening local democracy and promoting economic competitiveness of localities for job creation and income growth, democratic & developmental local government instead of being bureaucratic and regulatory organisation,” he added.
He said since 2020, the ministry has been working to shift mindset of districts towards promoting local economic development so that the agenda for jobs will also be a localised phenomenon.
“So you can’t have a situation where the central government is pushing for, you know, agenda for jobs and the local governments are doing something else,” he said.
Present at the event were various government officials including the Executive Secretary of the IMCC, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Lim Jung-taek, representatives of the German Cooperation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and other well-known dignitaries as well as journalists.
Mr. Aboagye also emphasised that decentralisation is a process that requires time and effort to achieve results.
He urged local public service managers to fully exploit the economic potential of their localities using all available opportunities and approaches to achieve sustainable development, decent jobs, and improved service delivery.
The ceremony was also used to launch the Decentralist Magazine. The magazine aims to promote decentralisation in Ghana and provide a platform for stakeholders to share their views and experiences on the subject.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri