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The recent Africa Union Day celebration must be one of reflections and to do that, I am choosing to examine the local governance system across Africa with Ghana as my field.

Ghanas Fourth Republican regime has served us largely well by holding the country together for close to 32 continuous years of our democratic process after failed several attempts in the past. There are however gaps that we have to fill as we move, especially as we build on our democratic governances and development processes.

For some time now, I have been trying to find out what could be holding us back to - progress and rapid development. As the setting of African Union countries looks almost the same in terms of the problems, it would possibly mean the solution could as well be same direction although no one- size -fits all solution.

One legacy left by the colonial administration was the centralized public sector. That was considered an inefficient way of accessing government services.

The Structural Adjustment program in the late 80s and 90s had a reform of the public sector embedded, which introduced the Decentralization concept.

The concept loosely transferred political, financial and administrative control to Sub-national level of government to render public services and embark on developmental projects and interventions with the people at the Centre of it.

There are varying approaches across the world but one dimension which is 'devolution' is the most democratic model and it's considered participatory as it had the inclusive participation of the people in mind.

One key value of the concept was mass participation of the serving communities in their own development process and leading it at every stage. We are mindful of recent development theory with reference to the classical modernization paradigm that the west imposed their will on the people without recourse to our cultural context.

Most countries in Africa have implemented far-reaching policies which make the Subnational top leadership 'electable' following the Commonwealth Local Governance Forum (CLGF) in 2005, otherwise called the Aberdeen agenda. It called for an "effective, electable local government as an important foundation for democracy"

Government still has the responsibility of providing financial commitment to the subnational government as we call it the assemblies in Ghana. Similarly, the Assemblies also have the autonomy to embark on generating financial resources to plan developmental projects and other interventions.

The challenge, however, has been the history laden governments continuous delay in releasing funds from the statutory District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) to the subnational government. Equally, the allocations in piecemeal tranches dont either as it denies them the full scope of what must be a develop programme and following through for the year. Their Internally generated Funds (IGF) have also been abysmally collected and always fraught with inefficiency and corruption.

The other challenge is that the Assemblies do not carry the communities along with their policy formulation, planning, monitoring and implementation processes. They embark on development interventions and you find out that there was no broader consultation with community stakeholders

So policies do come across as not having the needed input from the communities including the vulnerable on matters that concern them, policy opaque on gender mainstreaming, youth and general deficit on sustainability mechanisms. When such overtures are made, the communication engagement becomes ineffective.

Mechanisms to ensure effective and efficient downward accountability to the communities are not properly located. The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) charged with ensuring that the assemblies follow a national plan and monitor the assemblies program, mechanism to collect their data are without recourse to community stakeholders.

The framers of the Decentralization concept had in mind a clear objective that it was one pathway to eradicating poverty, giving the voiceless a voice, and building a confident community that hold the Subnational level of government accountable.

The Decentralization program also mandated the assemblies to lead the process for local economic development, providing support, inclusive participation and empowerment to vulnerable amongst others.

However, several research studies and fora on the reform program across Africa agree that the decentralization program to a large extent has failed to achieve its core objectives. As (Shikha Vyas-Doorgapersad et .al) describes the lack of the exogenous factor of "political will", which is a necessary condition for guaranteeing effective and efficient local government.

For us in Ghana, we call on the government to as a matter of urgency to bring reform to the local government sector by amending Article 55(3) which gives the Executive president the powers to nominate the top leadership of the Assemblies. The reform would, as a start, transfer true autonomy to the Subnational government and also make them accountable to the serving communities rather than to any appointing authority.

Local governance continue to remains important in the national discourse primarily because according to the World Indicators Database 2010, which largely unchanged,70% Ghanaians live and work in that space. To that extent, our communities would be ready to contribute their quota for their own development when at every stage of the process as they are engaged.

Session 16 of the Local Governance Act, (Act 963 ) spells out the duties of the Assembly Members, which in part, mandates the Assembly Members to consult community stakeholders on the agenda and matters to be discussed in the Assembly meetings and also report back to the community on the decisions arrived on. For the larger part of my adult life, I have never witnessed this happen before! So you ask the question? Where is my representation?

As the participation of the communities are not actively engage and consulted, its always a difficulty winning the serving communities to the side of the Assembly when it comes to paying their taxes, levies and other responsibilities. More so when one does not see much improvement across the communities.

True democracy at the local level is participatory and because the people took part in the formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring, they are able to own the development effort and reporting on any challenges.

As Mahmood Mamdani (1993) noted, the development problem in Africa centers on the form of state and the absence of mass participation in its affairs.

The World Bank Africa is embarking on promotion and advocacy on the Future of Government: Reimagining Government for Good.

African countries ought to take a look at this and reimagine the Africa we want, noting that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are won locally and the local government policies must integrate all shared value stakeholders like the youth, vulnerable groups like women and the girl child amongst others in their programs and policies and interventions.

I am of a firmer belief that, and as noted by Irene Khan, poverty is what we occasion for ourselves. With leadership and political goodwill, we can turn the tables.

African leaders must make a commitment to ensuring effective and efficient decentralization program, and as the concept is - we would be reducing poverty, empowering the communities, building livelihoods and living - democracy and development.

Achieving the Global goals is seven years away from here. The Africa Union must resource and empowers the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) to work closely with Africa countries and civil society organizations to work in this respect as the decentralization reform programme across Africa cannot point to any notable success story. This largely underlies the stark poverty, inequality and social injustice.

The AU Day must serve as a solemn reflection for African leaders and the political class, civil society including NGOs from the global south and north as we reimagine an Africa Without aid in the context of shift the power.

Ebenezer Annang,A community Development Advocatecommunityfocusgh@gmail.com

Disclaimer:"The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhanas position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

See the article here:

Africa Union at 60 years! What must change in achieving grassroot democracy and development; Ghana in focus - Modern Ghana