Tema Metro Tops District League Table

The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) took the first position on this year's Ghana District League Table, with a score of 80, the highest score ever reached.

Krachi East District in the Volta Region placed 216th with a score of 50.6.

This was in the 2017 Ghana District League Table (DLT) launched in Accra on Thursday.

The DLT was launched in 2014 to provide a multi-sectoral and integrated assessment of how Ghana is developing across all its 216 districts and it has since then become a key tool in national dialogue, providing direction and information on Ghana's overall level of development and highlighting parts of the country that continue to lag behind.

It is to increase social accountability in the country for improved development by providing and tracking essential information on wellbeing across districts of the entire country, using six indicators, namely; Education, Sanitation, Rural Water, Health, Security and Governance.

According to the Report the placement of the two meant that the top and the bottom scores have both improved since last year, yet the gap is still substantial and required concerted and targeted efforts to close it.

It said increased funding for deprived districts was crucial to boosting district assembly's ability to effectively plan for and deliver progress through increased capacity.

'The national average is 64.7, below which 102 districts are found - this compared with an average of 58.9 last year. With an eventual target of a score of 100 per cent, it is clear that the majority of districts are still far from this goal,' the Report said.

Some districts have made impressive improvements in their scores as Lambussie Karni in the Upper West Region was adjudged the most improved this year, improving its score by 23 percentage points due to increases in its sanitation and health indicators.

Other districts also showed substantial increases in their score including Ekumfi in the Central Region by 20 percentage points due to increases in education and health indicators, and Afadzato South in the Volta Region by 19 percentage points as a result of increases in education, sanitation, health and security indicators.

The Report indicated that while Greater Accra still ranked high, regions traditionally considered poorer such as Upper West and Upper East had slightly higher scores than regions such as Ashanti Region.

It said there were clearly important shift in those regional rankings as lower ranked regions had witnessed improved indicators for districts in their regions, adding that the progress of districts in the Upper West Region is worthy to note.

This year, 190 districts managed to improve their score as compared to last year while 26 districts saw their score worsen.

The Report stated that inequality remained a concern as there were still big differences in development levels between districts, including between the same districts in the same region.

Although the gap has narrowed this year, the Report stated that those districts at the top of the ranking were doing almost 60 per cent better than the lowest ranked districts.

'While districts in better-off regions are likely to rank higher in the District League Table and those from poorer regions rank lower, this pattern is not a reliable predicator of district ranking.

'Indeed, Ghana's two poorest regions; Upper West and Upper East, still do not have the lowest average district score,' it added.

The Report, therefore, emphasised the need to revisit the District Assemblies Common Fund's resource allocation through the inclusion of the District League Table in the DACF formula, so as to better address developmental needs across the country.

It cited data accessibility as a major challenge in Ghana and a barrier to sustainable development.

DLT is an annual production by UNICEF and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD Ghana) with the support of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Office of the Head of Local Government Services.

GNA
By Patience Gbeze, GNA