Decentralisation drive gains momentum with German-Swiss support

By Deborah Asantewaah SARFO

The government’s decentralisation agenda has gained traction as the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) join forces to advance local governance, public service delivery and improved accountability processes in the country.

German-Swiss Cooperation, through the programme Participation, Accountability and Integrity for a Resilient Democracy (PAIReD), seeks to assist the country in good financial governance and its decentralisation reforms.

Speaking at the launch of the SECO’s contribution to PAIReD, Acting Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland to Ghana Togo and Benin, Magdalena Wuest, indicated their support in assisting the country with its decentralised system and underscored the system’s potency in giving direct power to the people and delivering services directly to ordinary citizens.

“Decentralisation is in Switzerland’s DNA. We have seen first-hand how important it is to deliver services as close to the citizens as possible. We are very pleased to support Ghana in the implementation of the PAIReD project. By strengthening the MMDAs, the districts will be better able to deliver much-needed services to Ghanaian citizens,” she emphasised.

SECO combined their support with a contribution of €4 million to implementing PAIReD, focusing mainly on three areas – intergovernmental fiscal framework, improving data management and strengthening accountability.

PAIReD is commissioned by the BMZ, co-financed by the European Union and SECO, and implemented by GIZ jointly with the Ministry of Finance and other key implementing partners like the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD) and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

The Minister of MLGDRD, Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, in a statement read on his behalf, highlighted the successes of the National Decentralization Policy Strategy 2020-2024 in the area of administrative, physical, political decentralisation and social impact.

He further noted that some “efforts have been made to strengthen the capacities of local authorities to enhance local revenue generation through property rates and other taxes, allowing districts to become more self-efficient financially”.

Despite the successes of the policy, he stressed that limited citizen participation, evaluation of bureaucratic partners, political interference and lack of capacity-building among others are some challenges which undermine the efforts made.

In addressing issues of revenue at the district level, the Director for Development Coordination Division at NDPC, Dr. Winfred Nelson, said they have proposed that the district be treated as a “business entity” by leveraging the resources in the districts and partnering with other companies to monetise the resources.

Commenting on the continuity of the PAIReD, he emphasised that with projects of such nature, there are available programmes to support it and the commission keeps working with key institutions at the different governance levels… of the ministries’ departments and agencies. He, therefore, concluded: “There is no cause for alarm” irrespective of the government in power.

For his part, the Country Director of GIZ Ghana, Dr. Dirk Aßmann, stressed their commitment toward the project and underscored the essence of trust in international cooperation.

“Trust is key, especially when dealing with sensitive information and sectors within the country. We are very aware of the special responsibility this presents,” he noted.

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