Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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Annex 3: 26 From the start, the district assemblies have suffered from the failure of the central government to fully implement its decentralisation policies, in both their administrative and fiscal aspects. 22 departments were intended to be decentralised. Only the Forestry Department (now the Ghana Forest Service) was to retain its national status, albeit only in the southern regions, in recognition of the strategic importance of its moist forests to the economy. However, the staff of the departments which were decentralised still depend on their national ministries for budgets, salaries, promotion and conditions of service, and their loyalties were thus divided between Accra and the district. In a partial attempt to rectify this problem of divided loyalties, budgets are to be devolved to district level, and placed under the control of the Assembly. However, while the Local Government Act was passed into law in 1993, the associated Local Government Services Bill has still not been enacted. Plans for the election of all members of the District Assembly, and for the appointment of the District Chief Executives to be fully subordinated to the will of the Assembly, also remain on the drawing board. ii. Lack of skilled personnel A further problem which has arisen concerns the administrative capacity at the district level. While the national appointees to district-level posts (particularly the District Coordinating Officer) retain their national status, under the auspices of the Civil Service Commission, there is no equivalent national service at district level, and thus district staff are limited in their ambitions and career prospects. There have been calls for the creation of a national-level ‘Local Government Service’, with district cadres able to circulate in all 110 districts, but as yet, this has not materialised. One consequence of this is an extreme shortage of qualified technical staff to serve the district assemblies. The following table summarises the situation as of 1997 as regards the primary district function (development planning) on a national basis (Botchie, 2000:37): N o. of district planning officers per district N o. of districts reporting Percentage 4 2 1.8 3 2 1.8 2 41 37.3 1 48 43.6 0 17 15.5 Totals: 110 100 Source: MLGRD (HR Division) records, 1997. The Brong-Ahafo Region is among the better endowed, as illustrated by the following figures: Brong-Ahafo Region N o. of Districts in the N o. of district planning N o. of districts reporting region officers per district 13 4 1 3 1 2 5 1 5 0 2 Total N o. planning officers
Annex 3: 27 (13 districts) = 22 By contrast, the Upper East Region, with six districts, has only two planning officers in all. Even the well-placed Central Region, with 12 districts, has only 12 planning officers, with four of its districts having no one at post at all. Consideration needs also to be given to retention of staff. For example, in 2000, the Ashanti Region lost a quarter of its planning officers (9 out of a total of about 34), mostly, it is said, to NGOs able to pay much higher salaries than the state. Low technical capacity within the district-level civil service is compounded by low capacity within the elected assemblies. Though the local elites are disproportionately represented, elected assembly members often have relatively little formal education, and are easily intimidated by the appointees and professional staff. Local participation is therefore low, and planning has only limited relevance to local needs. (Amanor and Annan, 1999, 13) iii. Lack of a sound financial base Districts have five primary sources of revenue (Botchie, 2000, 31-2): a) Central government transfers, the main of which are the salaries of centrally paid DA staff, and the ‘District Assembly Common Fund’ (DACF). This is calculated on a revenue formula based on a combination of an agreed minimum payment to all districts, supplemented by a population factor and a development status factor relating to access to public services in the principle town, with an additional ‘responsiveness’ component to motivate the districts to increase their local revenue generation. The DACF is fixed, under the Constitution, as not less than 5% of total revenues of the state. b) Ceded revenues, being the total of revenues collected by the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the DAs (as a share of taxes on income, ceded revenue comprised only 1.5% in the period 1993-5). c) Traditional district level revenues such as the basic rate (poll tax), property taxes, and others, to be fixed by the Assembly itself, as well as licences (alcohol sales, hawkers, etc.) and fees such as market tolls and crop levies (for exports across the district boundary). d) External assistance from donor agencies, including NGOs; these are mostly for development projects in areas such as health, education, water and sanitation, poverty reduction, and agriculture and micro-projects. e) Other locally-generated revenues, such as (where applicable) mining and timber royalties. Expenditure of the DACF is controlled by the central government , currently being allocated as follows: Allocation: Percentage ‘Development’ (education, health, agriculture) 50 Sanitation vehicle purchase 5 Capacity building 2 Rural electrification 3 Poverty alleviation 20 Self-help projects 10 Housing 5 Disaster management 5
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Final Technical Report: NRSP Projec
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Acro
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ANNEXES ANNEX 1: A Brief History of
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Abbreviations and Acronyms AgGDP CF
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3 3. The ways in which multiple sta
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5 Underpinning the study is a conce
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7 4. Outputs This study is of a res
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9 Figure 4.1 The Brong Ahafo Region
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11 3. Recent disputes over charcoal
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13 ! The local interests which can
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15 The first purpose of this report
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17 ! Where densities are higher, th
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19 In recent years, new factors hav
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21 4.1.8 Main circuits for land acq
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23 With the increasing commodificat
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25 In many instances, the relations
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27 environment. The framework of na
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29 Table 4. 5 Distribution of crops
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31 4.1.13 Agricultural intensificat
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33 economy may also have unforeseen
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35 Table 4.7 Usage of inputs and me
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37 In the more northerly yam farmin
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39 4.1.17 Farmer adaptation and inn
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41 Systems perspectives have domina
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43 and youth migrate in search of a
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45 the northern transition zone whe
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47 As regards decentralised environ
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49 These three are not mutually exc
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51 4.2 Output 2: ‘Potential alter
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53 It requires District departments
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55 government will strengthen natio
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57 4.2.5 Entry Points for research
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59 6. This information should also
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61 The final output of this compone
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63 4.3 Output 3: ‘Increased aware
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65 4.3 Comparison between planned a
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67 The statistics used here were si
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69 5.1.2 Study sites " In the north
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71 Geography, University of Ghana,
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73 6. Environmental Assessment 6.1
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75 7. Contribution of Outputs As a
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77 The District administration is a
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CN00/057: ‘Poverty dimensions of
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81 Activities: Milestones: Budget:
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Annex 1: 1 Annex 1: A brief history
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Annex 1: 3 At both state farms the
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Annex 1: 5 and knowledge. Thus, ong
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Annex 1: 7 Regions, originally to t
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Annex 1: 9 • Rights of spouses. W
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Annex 1: 11 Table 1.3 Sources of me
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Annex 1: 13 reflected in the larger
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Figure 1.2 (continued) Annex 1: 15
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Annex 1: 17 User rights in land bec
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Annex 1: 19 1.2.4 Migrants’ Acces
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1.4 Supplementary livelihoods Annex
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Annex 2: 1 Annex 2: Cropping system
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Annex 2: 3 Table 2.1 Distribution o
Page 115 and 116: Annex 2: 5 Table 2.2 Crops cultivat
Page 117 and 118: Annex 2: 7 Table 2.3 Percentage of
Page 119 and 120: Annex 2: 9 Given the abundance of l
Page 121 and 122: Annex 2: 11 Table 2.6 Fallow interv
Page 123 and 124: Annex 2: 13 Table 2.8 Usage of inpu
Page 125 and 126: Annex 2: 15 2.5 Case studies 2.5.1
Page 127 and 128: Annex 2: 17 around Ejura, for insta
Page 129 and 130: Annex 2: 19 Given recent dramatic c
Page 131 and 132: Annex 2: 21 This capacity for adapt
Page 133 and 134: Annex 2: 23 Table 2.11 Tree varieti
Page 135 and 136: Annex 2: 25 Within charcoal produci
Page 137 and 138: Annex 2: 27 cocoa, which was plante
Page 139 and 140: Annex 2: 29 interest to the researc
Page 141 and 142: Annex 3: 1 Annex 3: Managing the En
Page 143 and 144: Annex 3: 3 for local government bas
Page 145 and 146: Figure 3.1: Structure of the Distri
Page 147 and 148: Annex 3: 7 and a functioning secret
Page 149 and 150: Annex 3: 9 The Forestry Service has
Page 151 and 152: Annex 3: 11 council, their mandate
Page 153 and 154: Annex 3: 13 the needs of their cons
Page 155 and 156: Annex 3: 15 Given the poor linkages
Page 157 and 158: Annex 3: 17 transport the charcoal.
Page 159 and 160: Annex 3: 19 produced from live tree
Page 161 and 162: Annex 3: 21 does the extent of thei
Page 163 and 164: Annex 3: 23 1978, the PNDC formed P
Page 165: Annex 3: 25 ! Integrating sector pl
Page 169 and 170: Annex 3: 29 argue, the reforms are
Page 171 and 172: Appendix to Annex 3: 2 administrati
Page 173 and 174: Appendix to Annex 3: 4 The overall
Page 175 and 176: Appendix to Annex 3: 6 i. Problems
Page 177 and 178: Appendix to Annex 3: 8 c) Tradition
Page 179 and 180: Annex 4: 1 Annex 4: The Way Forward
Page 181 and 182: Annex 4: 3 4.1.1 Institutional mech
Page 183 and 184: Annex 4: 5 be submitted to the dist
Page 185 and 186: Annex 4: 7 and tractor ploughing, t
Page 187 and 188: Annex 4: 9 4.4 The Proposed Program
Page 189 and 190: Annex 4: 11 To cover the second of
Page 191 and 192: Annex 4: 13 Coursey, D.H. (1976) "T
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