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MMDAs urged to pay attention to resource mobilization, gender parity

The Head of Local Government Service, Dr Ato Arthur, has urged stakeholders to pay attention to resource mobilisation, gender parity and the availability of social amenities to ensure that Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) thrived.

That he said was because these issues were the pertinent challenges inhibiting the smooth operations of the MMDAs.

He was speaking at the launch of the 2021 District League Table (DLT) Report in Accra on Wednesday on the theme “Generating Evidence for Addressing Unequal Access to Services and Development Opportunities for Children.”

The 2021 DLT Report was the seventh edition which was built on the progress of work accomplished over the six editions and provided an assessment of the levels of development across all the 261 Metropolises, Municipalities and the Districts (MMDs) in the country based on selected indicators from health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, energy and governance.

It saw the Tema Metropolis emerging on top after scoring 81.78 per cent with the Nanton district in the Northern Region emerging the lowest ranked district with a score 38.66 per cent of the 2021 DLT.

Dr Arthur said there was a deep gap between the best-performing assemblies where a huge percentage of the population was left behind in local-level development.

“Considering that the burden on Central Government keeps growing by the day, MMDAs should endeavour to devise innovative and concrete ways of mobilising adequate funds to undertake their activities,” he added.

Dr Arthur said there was an array of avenues that could be used in the collection of rates, revenues, and levies especially through digitalisation to aid developmental projects in the MMDAs.

“As stakeholders, we should also endeavor to promote better planning and effective implementation and monitoring of projects within our MMDAs. We should all embrace the spirit behind the DLT as an initiative that seeks to promote transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making,” he added.

Dr Arthur further said that the Service was interested in liaising with the Assemblies which did not perform per the rankings of the DLT to determine the shortfalls to provide the needed technical and financial support in giving life to policies in such MMDAs.

He also used the opportunity to congratulate all the MIMDAs who received the topmost rankings in the various indicators and challenged the low-ranking Assemblies to draw lessons and inspirations in efforts to discover innovative ways of addressing pertinent issues arising in their respective districts.

BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR

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