District Assemblies must strengthen local revenue mobilisation and make better use of their economic potential if decentralisation is to deliver meaningful development at the community level, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC), Dr Gameli Kewuribe Hoedoafia, has said.
He said reducing the dependence of local authorities on central government transfers was essential to enabling District Assemblies to respond more effectively to the development needs of their communities.
Dr Hoedoafia therefore urged District Coordinating Directors to identify and harness economic opportunities within their respective districts to generate additional resources for development.
He made the call at the 8th Annual General Meeting of the Association of District Coordinating Directors of Ghana (ASCOD) in Cape Coast, held on the theme, “Transforming District Assemblies for Sustainable Development: The Role of the Coordinating Director.”
According to him, stronger financial management and improved revenue mobilisation should form part of efforts to make decentralisation more effective.
He also encouraged the Coordinating Directors to deploy technology, including the District Local Revenue (dLRev) software, to improve revenue collection and strengthen financial management at the local level.
Dr Hoedoafia said the effectiveness of decentralisation should ultimately be assessed by the tangible improvements it delivered to citizens rather than merely by the formulation of policies and administrative procedures.
He said Coordinating Directors had a critical responsibility to ensure that national priorities were translated into practical development outcomes within their districts.
Turning policy into results
Dr Hoedoafia also introduced participants to the National Decentralisation Policy and Strategic Framework (NDPS) 2026–2030, which sets the direction for advancing Ghana’s decentralisation agenda and strengthening local governance.
The framework covers six thematic areas: political decentralisation, administrative decentralisation, decentralised planning, fiscal decentralisation, local economic development, and popular participation and accountability.
He said the success of the framework would depend largely on its implementation at the district level.
He therefore urged Coordinating Directors to move beyond administrative compliance and concentrate on effective planning, coordination, resource management and service delivery.
He described them as central to the functioning of District Assemblies, saying their coordination was necessary to keep local authorities focused on their mandates and development priorities.
Dr Hoedoafia said decentralisation should ultimately move “from policy to practice, from practice to results, and from results to a better quality of life for Ghanaians.”
