info@businessghana.com
The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) has launched three strategic documents aimed at strengthening local governance and deepening decentralisation efforts across the country.
The documents—Gender Strategy, Advocacy Strategy and Communications Strategy—are designed to serve as practical guides for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), particularly in promoting gender equality, effective stakeholder engagement and improved information dissemination at the local level.
The three strategies aim to help NALAG and local authorities integrate gender into local governance by promoting inclusive development, supporting women’s empowerment, encouraging men’s involvement and strengthening grassroots participation.
They provide practical tools for gender-sensitive planning, effective advocacy and improved communication to ensure more equitable and responsive decision-making at the local level.
The launch, held in Accra yesterday, formed part of a broader event which also featured the inauguration of NALAG’s newly constituted sub-committees and the conferment of honorary membership and patron status on selected individuals.
The sub-committees, namely Gender and Development; Economic Development; International relations; Finance and administration; Policy and Resolution; Public relations, Environmental, Sanitation and Tourism, will provide technical guidance and oversight to support the association’s mandate.
Together, these initiatives mark a significant milestone in NALAG’s ongoing efforts to promote inclusive, participatory and accountable development within the country’s local government space.
The occasion further underscored the need for structure, commitment and collaboration in achieving equitable local governance and effective service delivery at the grassroots level.
The Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, urged local authorities to take full ownership of their oversight responsibilities and correct past wrongs in the governance system.
He underscored President John Dramani Mahama’s commitment to revitalising decentralisation, announcing that GH¢6 billion—representing 80 per cent of the approved GH¢7.5 billion District Assemblies Common Fund—would be disbursed among all 261 assemblies.
He further called on assembly members to monitor how funds were utilised, stressing that proper oversight and scrutiny were essential to ensuring transparency and accountability.
Mr Ibrahim criticised the tendency to claim assembly members lacked capacity, citing examples such as President Mahama and other national leaders who began their careers at the local level.
He called on NALAG to add ethical governance to good governance and challenged members to act as vigilant watchdogs, ensuring that funds benefitted communities directly.
The President of NALAG, Alfred Asiedu Adjei, emphasised that the newly unveiled strategic framework was not just bureaucratic paperwork but a visionary roadmap grounded in research and broad stakeholder engagement, designed to bolster accountability, inclusiveness and resilience within the country’s local government system.
He called on all members to study and align their efforts with this blueprint to ensure impactful, community-level development.
He further described the inauguration of staff committees as a critical step toward operational excellence, tasking the newly appointed members with a solemn responsibility to lead with integrity and innovate solutions for decentralisation challenges.
