The United Nations Children's Fund, has urged government to make districts in the rural setting a priority in the distribution of the national cake following their low scores in most indicators in the District League Table rankings.
The DLT, which is an initiative of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development(CDD-Ghana) and UNICEF, in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, has over the years been assessing the level of development in all the 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in some key areas of national life.
During a pre-launch of the DLT in Bolgatanga of the Upper East Region, a Chief of Field Office at UNICEF, Margaret Gwada, said most of the districts in the marginalized areas are vulnerable to compete for higher spot because of lack of resources.
She has challenged government to make the development of districts and municipalities in deprived communities a priority, adding that government should use equitable mechanisms to allocate resources to the districts in the country.
"I think the poor districts should be given urgent attention in terms of allocation of resources because they are always on the bottom of the District League Table. They have all the personnel alright but they lack material resources," she pointed out.
"I want to also caution that when government allocates resources to the districts, management should sit down and do a proper planning with the amount of resources they are given. They have to prioritize the sectors of the economy that are suffering," Mrs. Gwada added.
She further noted that sanitation had become a major challenge in the country, and called for all hands on deck to fight the canker to enable the country attain the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) in all areas of national life by 2030.
Mrs. Gwada lashed out at the people's lukewarm attitude towards positive sanitation practices in many parts of the country, tasking the District Assemblies to come out with 'biting' bye-laws which would descend heavily on perpetrators of open defecation, which poses health hazards to the citizenry.
Turning the spotlight on the national score on the League Table, UNICEF Field Officer, Mrs. Gwada observed the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Upper East Regions have been consistent in their performance in all the indicators, including education, health, security, water, sanitation and governance noting that these three regions have to be applauded for their consistent good performance since the inception of the DLT.
They have never slipped in their positions-indeed, their performance is worth emulating, she maitained
Meanwhile, CDD-Ghana and UNICEF are calling on MMDAs to always endeavour to provide them with accurate, reliable and timely data so they would be able to make proper assessment by putting the districts on positions they warrant.
Source: Francis Dabre Dabang/upper East
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