Tamale, Nov. 13, GNA – The Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), a non-governmental organization (NGO), has developed an advocacy action plan to help boost Internally Generated Funds (IGF) at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The document, titled: “Compendium of Best Practices and Challenges in Local Revenue Generation in Ghana,” was designed under the NGO’s Empowerment for Life Programme (E4L) and contained strategies needed to increase revenue generation at the local government level.
It is to serve as a reference document for MMDAs to strengthen their capacities to better generate adequate revenues for their planned development projects.
Stakeholders at the workshop included representatives from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), NGOs, media practitioners and E4L Coordinators, among others.
Participants suggested some of the advocacy actions, including, the need for the GDCA to engage some influential officials at the various MMDAs and explain the contents of the document to them.
They also said the NGO should develop a clear and concise communication strategy that would enhance effective education on the document among members of the public to help achieve the desired results.
“One best way to also get the MMDAs to adopt the Compendium is to organise town hall meetings, community durbars and other engagements that can bring relevant stakeholders together and explain its concepts and importance to them”, they added.
Mr Philip A. Gmabi, Technical Advisor, Policy and Governance at GDCA, said over the years MMDAs had had challenges in mobilizing IGF to meet their targeted expenditure.
He said the situation had resulted in Assemblies’ inability to undertake development projects to meet the needs of citizens.
He noted that the main objective of the tax intervention was to ensure that MMDAs improve the well-being of the citizens through an adequate collection of IGF.
“This document describes the model and approaches developed and used in the intervention as well as experiences and recommendations,” Mr Gmabi added.
He, therefore, called on MMDAs to adopt the concept of the Compendium to enhance revenue mobilization in their various Assemblies to undertake the needed development interventions.
GNA