USAID/Ghana Local Governance Decentralization Program Holds Closeout Workshop

The USAID/Ghana Local Governance Decentralization Program (LOGODEP) is holding its closeout workshop on November 11 and 12, 2015 in Busua, Ghana. The two-day workshop brings together national and local government officials, traditional authorities, project staff, stakeholders, and USAID officials to discuss the project's accomplishments, lessons learned, and issues related to open space and spatial planning.

LOGODEP was a five-year program that worked in 22 districts in the Western Region of Ghana to strengthen local governments' ability to provide services to their citizens and provided small grants to civil society organizations to expand public participation in local governance. Central to these activities was a spatial planning initiative, which gave district assemblies information technology hardware, mapping software, and training so they could oversee an initiative to ensure streets were named and properties were numbered in their districts. Between 2013 and 2014 in five target districts, LOGODEP's activities directly led to increases in Internally Generated Fund revenues between 18 and 45 percent. LOGODEP's work on spatial planning served as a model for the national-level Presidential Directive on Street Naming.

“LOGODEP's activities have helped district assemblies improve transparency, boost citizen participation, and plan more effectively,” said Emmanuel Mensah-Ackman, Deputy Director of the Office of Democracy, Rights, and Governance at USAID/Ghana. “It is critical that each and every one of us put our shoulders to the wheel to ensure that Ghana's decentralization program succeeds over the long term,” he said.

USAID/Ghana's Democracy, Rights and Governance programs support improved local government performance, increased accountability to citizens, and transparent electoral processes.

About USAID

USAID is the lead U.S. government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. Since 1957, USAID has supported Ghana in increasing food security, improving basic health care, enhancing access to quality basic education, and strengthening local governance to benefit all Ghanaian people.