Commonwealth Local Government Forum

West and Central Africa \ Local democracy

This section contains information relating to all aspects of lcoal democracy and good governance at the local level. The Commonwealth principles on good practice for local democracy and good governance - known as the Aberdeen Agenda - which have been adopted by all CLGF members and are incorporated in the Commonwealth Charter, set the framework for the promotion of local democracy in the Commonwealth. The materials in this section relate to the constitutional and legal provisions for local government and include a range of studies, policy and training materials on local elections, leadership, community participation, representative local government, local government management and partnerships between local government and other key stakeholders such as traditional authorities.

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The Social Underpinnings of Decentralized Governance: Networks, Technology and the Future of Social Accountability

Prepared for the USAID/DRG Centre Volume Decentralized Governance and Accountability: Academic Research and the Future of Donor Programming

Author: Erik Wibbels Publisher: USAID’s DRG Centre Publication year: 2016


The politics of municipal fragmentation in Ghana

The scholarly debate over the rival merits of local government consolidation and fragmentation is an old but enduring one. However, in this debate very little attention has been focused on the political dimension of council amalgamation and fragmentation – yet political considerations play a central role in both the formulation and outcomes of de-concentration policy. The purpose of this article is to fill a gap in the literature by examining local government fragmentation in Ghana from 1988 to 2014. The article does this by identifying the key players and analysing their interests and gains, as well as the tensions arising from the fragmentation exercise. The implications from the Ghanaian case for more general theories of fragmentation are drawn out.

Author: Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, Sydney Publication year: 2015


Social accountability for local government in Ghana

Social accountability is considered as one strategy of deepening Ghana’s decentralised development administration. Some attempts have been made to empower local people to demand transparency and accountability from the local government system as required by law. The purpose of this paper was to assess the effectiveness of these attempts in 14 Metropolitan and Municipal Assembles. The data for the analyses were sought through key informant interviews with core Assembly staff, and focus group discussions with selected Assembly Members. The analyses revealed that the legal provisions made room for social accountability but the weak capacity of Assembly Members in terms of resources, the understanding of legislative provisions, and the acceptability of the concept challenged its implementation. It is thus recommended that service provision in local communities should have capacity-building components that promote social accountability.

Author: Rudith King, Amponsah Owusu, Imoro Braimah Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2014


Looking back, moving forward: towards improving local governments' performance in Ghana

This paper, based on a desk study, adopts a path-dependent perspective to explore how local government authorities in Ghana have attempted to institutionalise performance management at the organisational level. It questions the existing performance diagnostic framework that is used to assess local government authorities by arguing that any attempt to consolidate the prevailing ‘performance assessment regime’ ought to re-examine previous government initiatives that had in-built mechanisms for assessing local government performance. The prevailing system, despite its attempt to empower local authorities further promotes central government manipulation of local government administration. The paper concludes that performance assessment of local governments in Ghana will remain ineffective until local government councils genuinely serve local communities and their citizens by achieving goals and objectives that are consistent with the needs and aspirations of the latter rather than relying on annual performance assessments designed to ignore the opinions of citizens.

Author: Hamza Bukari Zakaria Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2014


Local democracy today and tomorrow - learning from good practice

This paper provides an overview of key trends and developments impacting local democracy and is intended to be a broad-ranging background paper to assist in discussions at a workshop organised in November 2014, which brought together academics and practitioners to explore current trends and developments in local democracy. It should be noted that there is no single world view on what local democracy is and globally there are many different systems of local governance and democracy both within and between countries. A number of key areas which have impacted on local democracy and as identified by the authors include the impact of the global financial crisis, the effects of urbanisation, rising conflicts and protests, ways in which engagements occur, ensuring inclusivity and the need for a developmental approach to local governance. Lessons learnt and challenges include the effects of decentralisation, increased participation, building skills, ensuring openness and transparency and ensuring effective and efficient service delivery.

Author: CLGF Publisher: CLGF


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