By Edward Dankwah
Accra, July 11, GNA – The Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs (MLGCRA) has inaugurated the governing board of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) and the governing council of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS).
The LUSPA Governing Board is required to devise strategies and programmes to ensure full implementation of provisions in Act 925, especially with respect to development and building permits in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The ILGS Governing Council is also expected to assist in evidence-based research to inform national policies and programmes on local governance and development in the country.
Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim, the sector minister, said the ILGS was a strategic research, training and academic institution established to organise professional training programmes for staff and political functionaries of Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and MMDAs.
He said ILGS had organised a series of orientations and training programmes for officials working in the RCCs and MMDAs, as well as higher degree programmes for people interested in deepening their knowledge and understanding of sub-national governance and development.
Mr. Ibrahim said the government was keen on building the capacity of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), Assembly Members, and by extension officials of the MMDAs for effective and efficient service delivery.
The Minister said there was the need to deepen appreciation in decentralisation, local governance and sub-national development and build the capacity of many people that believed in subsidiarity principles, that is local problems, local solutions.
He said efforts were being made to upgrade the ILGS to a specialised University, dedicated to providing professional and higher education, critical for effective local governance without compromising on its core mandate of training staff and political functionaries in the RCC and MMDAs.
Mr. Ibrahim said all the issues relating to urban management and development such as housing, transportation, flooding, urban mobility, and haphazard developments in cities and towns were as a result of non-adherence to provisions in the Act by some MMDAs.
Pursuant to Sections 37, 38 and 39 of Land use and Spatial Planning Act, the Minister assured that the Ministry would cooperate with the Board and by extension LUSPA to ensure the functionality of the District Spatial Planning Committees and Technical Sub-Committee.
“This is to ensure that physical development in the MMDAs is carried out in accordance with the Act. These include preparation of Spatial Development Frameworks, Structure and Local Plans and approved all applications for permits to address the challenges of land use and spatial planning in Ghana,” he said.
Mr. Ibrahim said in line with Section 47 of the Act 925, the Ministry would further issue directives to all MMDAs to set up a permanent physical Public Data Room at an openly accessible place and open to the public during normal working hours to promote orderly development in the MMDAs.
The Minister commended the work of the previous Board and Council of both Institutions, urging the newly appointed members of the Board and Council to continue from where their predecessors left off and project the two Institutions to the next level of development.
Dr. William Kofi Ahadzie and Mr. Jonathan Kwasi Azasoo, who are the chairmen of the ILGS Governing Council and the LUSPA Governing Board respectively, expressed the fullest support of both institutions for the purposes with which they were formed.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah