The NDC Manifesto recognizes a range of reforms that it would like the government to undertake (see Page 30). There is also the advantage of several reviews, reflections and articles on Ghana’s decentralization experience from which the key priorities for reform can be distilled. These must also be collated to prioritize the areas for reform.
However, it is important to conduct the stakeholder review in keeping with the government’s philosophy of inclusion and social democracy, the tenets of the Constitution (particularly Article 35, section 5, sub-section d), in line with best practice and the “Blue Book” and “PARDIC” traditions that gave birth to the assembly system of local government.
The guiding imperatives for the conduct of the stakeholder conference process include the following:
- The desired review process should provide an opportunity for all sections of the population, irrespective of education, gender, geographical location, political affiliation, employment, socio-economic status, religion as well as other distinctions to participate, contribute and to feel that their issues have been taken into account; this will enhance the sense of ownership and recognition of the direction that is being taken in relation to decentralization.
- The review process should actually lead to deepening local level democracy, accelerating decentralization and facilitating local level development and empowerment. This requires clear next steps after the consultation process – how the products are going to be (a) collated (b) analyzed and (c) used. In other words, it is imperative that the process consider stakeholder consultation as an end in itself but a means to an end. In all of this, clear products must be identified and worked towards.
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- Linked to this, there should be concurrent processes to harness the conclusions, proposals and lessons learned from previous reviews and consultations, efforts to finalize outstanding products such as the decentralization policy framework and its accompanying action plan. This should therefore signal a sense of building on the past, not re-inventing the wheel, consolidating our gains and enhancing efficiency.
The review process should also aim at being an opportunity to harmonize ongoing national initiatives and commitments that have roles for assemblies and influence their effectiveness. The review process should therefore aim at achieving a strategy for coordinating local level development management and promoting cohesion in our efforts.
The “Blue Book” (2007) was the result of various consultations and reflections that provided a basis for the design of the assembly system of local government and PNDC Law 207. PARDIC or the Public Administration Review and the Decentralization Implementation Committee represented the culmination of the work of a series of committees between 1981 and 1984 that had focused on making public administration more relevant and accessible to ordinary Ghanaians.
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