Sunyani, May 28, GNA – Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, said the District League Table (DLT) of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) remains a realistic index to measure the well-being of the people.
She has, therefore, tasked the Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the region to take the DLT seriously for the public interest.
The DLT is a simple ranking tool for assessing, comparing and tracking development in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies based on selected indicators, and the NDPC is implementing the concept with support from UNICEF.
Madam Owusu-Banahene indicated that a true reflection of the DLT would well position the MDAs to access funding support from donor partners to address the development deficit in the region.
The Regional Minister gave the advice when she was addressing the opening session of the regional dissemination workshop on the 2020 DLT and the pre-launch of the preparation of the 2021 DLT, held in Sunyani and attended by planning officers, budget analysts and other key staff of the MDAs in the Bono and Ahafo regions.
It was on the theme, “Generating Evidence for Addressing Unequal Access to Services and Development Opportunities for Children.”
The NDPC with support from UNICEF launched the sixth edition of the League in December 2021.
It complements efforts to strengthen the national monitoring and evaluation system and further provides evidence on levels of disparities across the regions and districts to inform development priorities, strategies and programmes.
Madam Owusu-Banahene explained that the development of the two regions largely depended on the Assemblies and asked the MDAs to endeavour to gather reliable data that would inform better decision-making to benefit the people.
“As much as you work hard to meet the indicators of the DLT, try never to manipulate figures, but provide realistic data on what is exactly happening in your Assemblies to enable the Government to make informed decisions that would benefit the citizenry,” she advised.
In a speech read on his behalf, Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, the Director-General of the NDPC, called on all MMDAs and other stakeholders to strengthen their commitment toward the DLT and effectively engage and communicate the findings of the DLT to their respective Assembly Members and citizens.
He said the NDPC was making constant reference to the results of the DLT in its interactions with the various state bodies like the Office of the President, Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and international development organisations and partners to ensure that investments and support were targeted at the low ranking districts.
The DLT, Dr Mensah-Abrampa explained further followed a bigger objective of generating action by the government and its MMDAs towards ensuring better prioritization and equitable resource allocation while engendering positive competition among MMDAs, thereby, stimulating good performance.
Certificates were later presented to the Sunyani Municipal Assembly and the Asutifi North District Assembly for emerging first in the Bono and Ahafo regions in the 2020 DLT.
GNA