Decentralization not owned by any political party – Ahwoi
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, a local government expert, has urged Ghanaians to unite their efforts to ensure that Ghana’s local government and decentralization policy becomes more efficient and workable.
He stated that the nation’s decentralization process was not any political party’s policy but rather, a constitutional requirement, which bound the State to take steps to devolve power from the top to the bottom.
Prof Ahwoi was addressing a Stakeholders’ Consultation Workshop on health sector decentralization in Kumasi.
The meeting was meant to collate views of stakeholders from the Ashanti, Eastern and Brong-Ahafo on the draft Health Sector Decentralization Bill and incorporate these in the final document.
He underlined the need to change the current top-down planning approach to the bottom-up approach to allow for local participation in decision making.
Mr. Samuel Sarpong, the Ashanti Regional Minister, said the preparation of the Bill demonstrated the desire of the government to decentralize health care delivery.
He said besides allowing the active participation of the local people, decentralization would help the health directorates to generate enough resources to achieve their targets.
Dr Callistus Mahama, Head of the Local Government Service, said the decentralization of the health sector would promote accountability and transparency in health care.
He said the draft bill had gone through many amendments as a result of the input from key stakeholders.
He noted that input from people at the regional and district levels were crucial in perfecting the Bill and called for free and frank discussions to fine-tune it.
Source: GNA