The Upper East region has been ranked 5th out of 10 regions in terms of development level in the 2015 District League Table (DLT) designed by UNICEF Ghana and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD Ghana)in partnership with the Ministry for Local Government and Rural Development.
The District League Table was first launched in 2014 with an aim of increasing social accountability for development across Ghana’s 216 districts so as to improve responsiveness in service delivery.
The DLT according to UNICEF and CDD is a simple tool that ranks the level of development in each of Ghana’s 216 districts. It ranks districts in terms of their delivery across six key public service sectors which include Health, Governance, Education, Security, Sanitation and Water.
In this latest ranking, there was a target score of 100% for all regions with the upper east region scoring 59% for the regional averaged scores nationwide placing it 5th out of 10 regions in terms of development levels.
Eleven out of the thirteen districts in the region have scores above 50% whilst all the remaining two districts have scores of 48.8% and below. Also, there is a clearly wide range in terms of development level between the district at top and district at the bottom.
Bolgatanga Municipal sits in the 1st place with an average top score of 67.1% whilst Binduri district occupies the 13th position with the lowest averaged score of 47.5% making up a difference of 19.6%.
The top five ranked districts are Bolgatanga municipal, Bawku municipal, Bawku West district, Bongo district and Nabdam district. On the other hand, Talensi district, Garu-Tempane district, Builsa South district and Binduri districts are at the bottom of the regional league table in terms of ranks.
In an interview with a1radioonline.com, the Chief of field office at UNICEF Ghana Clara Dube said the DLT does not aim to “name and shame” any district but rather to promote proactive development.
“It’s not about competition but it’s about improving performance and social accountability at all levels including the national level, regional level and district level plus sub district level and civil society organizations partnering with government. It’s for everyone to contribute and not about naming and shaming,” she said.
She added that policy makers can use the DLT to allocate resources to areas where there are gabs whereas at the national level, government and other policy makers can use the League Table to allocate resources to districts that need support. According to her, the sectors that are doing well in some districts can serve as a source of motivation and learning for other districts that have performed poorly in those sectors.
Ms. Clara noted that other countries can adopt the DLT in order to empower citizens and institutions like the media to ask relevant questions and seek answers to issues of development in their various districts.
The DLT in its latest ranking has highlighted major weaknesses in the accessibility of Ghana’s data and its communication to wider audiences. The situation according to the League has not changed and noted that no sector provides annual, up-to-date district data in public documents or online. Retaining such crucial information on service provision within a small group at the central level means that citizens remain unaware, the media uninformed and government decision-makers unable to best plan and target resources based on need.
By: Azongo Albert | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
