It was followed by Ayawaso West Municipality with 81.5 points and Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality with 81.2 points.

Other districts ranked in the top 10 were Atwima Kwanwoma District, Ayawaso North Municipality, Korle Klottey Municipality, Kpone-Katamanso Municipality, Adentan Municipality, New Juaben South Municipality and Shama District.

Adentan Municipality, which ranked highest in the 2020 table, ranked eighth in the 2021 compilation.

The 10 least performing districts were Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, Akrofuom District, Kwahu Afram Plains North District, Lawra Municipality, Kwahu Afram Plains South District, Krachi East Municipality, Nanumba South District, North-East Gonja District, Tatale-Sanguli District and Nanton District.

Some 22 indicators were assessed under seven sectors, namely health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, governance and energy.

The key indicators included gross access rate to kindergartens, completion rate of junior high school , proportion of mothers who made at least four antenatal care visits, proportion of newborns or mothers receiving post-natal care within 48 hours of delivery, and proportion of population with access to safe drinking water.

Others included sources and access to improved sanitation services, percentage of communities covered by electricity, as well as proportion of annual action plan implemented by the districts.

Report launch

The results were revealed at the launch of the 2021 DLT Report by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in partnership with UNICEF Ghana in Accra yesterday.

It showed the performances of districts and the disparities in resource endowment within them.

At the launch, the Director-General of the NDPC, Dr Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampa, acknowledged the disparities in the sectors and called on the government to take a look at the distribution of resources to the districts to ensure an equitable platform for them to improve.

“There is a bit of bias towards the urban because population has become a key parameter in the distribution of these resources, so we need to look at all these things,” he said.

Be innovative

The Head of Local Government Services, Dr Nana Ato Arthur, reiterated the gap, saying while some districts performed better, others fell far below the average, hence widening the existing gaps.

“I, therefore, wish to call on the districts to pay attention to the areas they underperformed by drawing lessons from those that performed better,” he said, and urged them to devise innovative ways to address their challenges.

Dr Arthur expressed the interest of the service to liaise with the poor-performing assemblies per the rankings to determine the shortfalls in their efforts to provide the needed technical and financial support.

The Deputy Representative of OIC, UNICEF Ghana, Mrunal Shetye, called on development partners and non-governmental organisations to use the district league table when considering which districts and regions they would want to support to reduce the high levels of inequalities and disparities across the country.