TMA tops District League Table

The 2015 District League Table (DLT) has been launched, with the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) emerging as the best performing assembly in the country with a score of 76.58 per cent.

It placed 20th in last year’s ranking.

The DLT is a ranking tool of progress aimed at helping to track which districts are doing well and which are struggling and need greater support.

In the latest ranking, the TMA was followed by the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Assembly with a score of 76.35 per cent; Atwima Nwabiagya, 75.54 per cent; Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai, 72.84 per cent, and Awutu Senya, 70.02 per cent in that order.

 Gomoa West emerged the worst performing district, placing 216th with a score of 37 per cent.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) placed 37th with 65.0 per cent, while the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly placed 131st with a score of 54. 5 per cent.

 Kwaebibirem was named the most improved district, moving from the 206th position in 2014 to 103rd in 2015.

Overall, 98 districts managed to improve their ranking over last year’s.

 Indicators

Indicators used in ranking the 216 districts included the quality of education, sanitation, rural water supply, health, security and governance.

The project, conceived and developed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana (CDD), is run in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and based on the global practice of developing indices for measuring and monitoring progress.

It seeks to support central and local governments to better understand progress in development across the country, as well as strengthen social transparency and accountability in national development.

 Objective

Launching the report, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, said the report would be used by the ministry as a basic tool to assess the performance of chief executives of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).

That, he said, was because the DLT served as a catalyst to make the MMDAs work harder to address the challenges in their vicinities.

The initiative, he said, was not intended to name or shame any MMDA but encourage them to better plan their resources, as well as learn from one another.

Nii Lante said while providing the platform for public officials and citizens to engage in constructive discourses, it also informed development partners about the disbursement of funds on projects.

He said due to the misunderstanding of last year’s report by some chief executives and even the public, a sensitisation programme was held in all the regions to educate the officials on the project.

The Chief of Policy of UNICEF, Mrs Sarah Hague, who presented the results, said the 2015 DLT report could be used to better allocate resources, so that individual districts that ranked low could be better supported.

The Programme Coordinator of CDD Ghana, Dr Franklin Oduro, said in as much as the country had made some progress, there was the need to stimulate citizen engagement with duty bearers over issues affecting their lives, hence the initiative.