Asset Publisher

Single title

Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level

For District Assembly Members

The "Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level", represents a framework for promoting civic education initiated by the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Pastoral Conference (TEPPCON) of the Catholic Church in Northern Ghana. It is the fruit of the joint efforts of TEPPCON and its partners, namely, the Muenster Diocese, Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) and Akademie Klausenhof, all of Germany. The book is called a Manual, because it is meant to be used for the training of district, municipal and metropolitan assembly men and women so that they could effectively discharge their responsibilities as the elected civil representatives of the people at the local level. The firm conviction of the authors of the Manual is that, "assembly members are key actors in the decentralization process, (and) if they do not play their roles properly, the factual devolution of power from the centre to the periphery, to the local level, will never take place."

Asset Publisher

PREFACE

This book, Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level, represents a framework for promoting civic education initiated by the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Pastoral Conference (TEPPCON) of the Catholic Church in Northern Ghana. It is the outcome of a long established tradition and commitment of the Catholic Church to apply education for transformation of lives and integral development.

The contributions of the Church to education in Ghana have been widely acknowledged. The quality and impact of the education provided by the Church has touched many people in all spheres of our national life, and across many sectors of our economy. The Church has worked tirelessly to make its message relevant to the political development and socio-economic transformation of Ghana. The Church has consistently spoken out against injustice and urged successive governments to rise up to the challenge of good governance and pursue programmes that will produce the optimum conditions for the well-being of all Ghanaians.

It is contended that many Heads of State of Ghana since independence have been Catholics. It seems logical, therefore, to construe both the gains and challenges of development of Ghana in terms of the quality of leadership that has brought our nation thus far. Leadership quality is not unrelated to the quality of the led. It is estimated that 15% of the Ghanaian population is Catholic. It seems tempting then to also attribute 15% share of both the challenges and gains of Ghana's development to the Catholic faithful.

This reasoning may sound rather simplistic but it goes to make the point that the Catholic faithful cannot plead an alibi in the national struggle for social justice, good governance, and sustainable development. The Catholic faithful are implicated by a shared destiny, a common nationality, a common faith in Christ Jesus and a unifying commitment to work towards the realization of God's plan for human beings on this earth which, ultimately, is to bring all peoples to live together in peace and love.

The Church has a legitimate stake in good governance and the sustainable development of Ghana. The Catholic faithful comprise both the clergy and the laity; one without the other is not complete. It is widely recognized that the Laity of the Catholic Church is "a sleeping giant" whose full potential has neither been explored nor realized. The situation has often been attributed to "the all-knowing and doing-all clergy", who have failed to encourage the laity to fulfil its indispensable mission, namely, the sanctification and renewal of the temporal order.

The proclamations and provisions of the Second Vatican Council of 1965 have been unambiguous about the role of the laity. It represented a call to the laity to wake up from its long slumber and assume its proper role in the Church and apply its vast potential to the transformation of our troubled world into a better world, as God wants it to be.

The TEPPCON "Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level" is designed to provide the awakening giant (laity) with an effective tool to contribute to the sanctification of the temporal order by fulfilling its own particular vocation in the Church. As the encyclical, Christifideles Laici, says: "Lay people are called in the Church to seek the plan of God by engaging in temporal affairs and ordering them according to the plan of God, (Christifideles Laici, No. 15).

This Manual is an outcome of twenty odd years of partnership between the Catholic Diocese of Muenster in Germany and the five Catholic Dioceses of Northern Ghana that make up the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province of the Catholic Church in Ghana. The partnership agreed at the onset to operate under the theme: "Mission, Justice, Peace, and Development", which would thread together various development activities and initia- tives. Motivated by their common faith in Jesus Christ, the partners have worked together for the realization of their common vision expressed in the theme stated above. The agreed theme has been proposed by the partners as a rallying focus for Catholics to become more aware and proactive in applying their faith to the social and economic dimensions of development.

The theme represents the rallying motivation of efforts being marshalled to deal with the worrisome situation confronting Africa today. The social scenario of Africa is a menu of wars, ethnic conflicts, large-scale violations of human rights and pervasive poverty. The lack of progress in many African states is obviously due to the widespread lack of public accountability, situations of social injustice, widespread corruption, increasing poverty, wanton destruction of the environment, and the related problems of mismanagement of national resources.

The space for citizen participation in development discourse, in the formulation of policies that affect the lives of ordinary people and in development interaction generally is constrained by lack of democracy and/or the weakness of governance institutions.

The answer to the gloomy situation on our continent and in our country is not to throw up our arms in despair. We could become accomplices by acquiescing to the dehumanizing conditions of our societies, by doing nothing, or actively condoning the injustices.

Catholics are required to take a stand for Mission, Justice, Peace, and Development. This means taking action to promote wider citizen participation in decision-making and in the governance structures of our country.

Catholics must see themselves not just as citizens but also as persons with a mission to transform society to make this world a better place for everyone to live a decent human life. This awareness could only be created through the kind of civic education programme espoused in the TEPPCON "Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level". The Manual urges Catholics to be part of the frontline instigators of action for social justice according to their Catholic faith. A sense of civic obligation and the teaching of the Church on social issues call them to this duty.

The lofty ideals for a civic education programme may not have seen the light of day but for the partnership with the Muenster Diocese of Germany. The Bishops of the Province discussed the urgent need for a civic education programme for Catholics and the funding required to implement it with Bishop Friedrich Ostermann, the Auxiliary Bishop of Muenster, when he visited Tamale in January 2001. Bishop Friedrich Ostermann promised to speak to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) about the programme and its funding requirements.

KAF showed great interest in the programme and agreed to support it financially, provided it would target all who were already involved as leaders in the political or civic life of their communities. At this time the District Assembly elections were around the comer, so candidates for District Assembly elections became the immediate target of the initiative.

Many good things can be said about Ghanaian Christians in general, but there are also many distressing facts about them. One of these is the fact that individually and collectively Ghanaians have not always lived up to the gospel values and the teaching of the Church on social and ethical issues such as the common good, justice, honesty, accountability, service, etc. Instead we have often allowed ourselves to be guided by worldly values of personal prestige, wealth, greed, extravagance, etc.

We cannot deny the fact that, by and large, Christians have had a large share in the political, economic and moral chaos that our country has been experiencing since independence. Many good Christians are reluctant to involve themselves in the political and civic life of their communities because of the deep-seated corruption in these areas. Yet unless people of probity get into these areas the vicious cycle of deception, lies and vote buying can never be broken. Our body politic will always be led by crooks that think only of themselves.

This Manual therefore encourages the education/training/formation of all persons in Ghana seeking election, or who have been elected by their communities to represent them at the lowest level of government, i.e., the District Assembly. The Manual is also intended to help assembly persons or prospective assembly persons to acquire the right attitudes, necessary knowledge and skills to perform their role effectively. There are clear role expectations of assembly persons and these ought to be understood by all seeking office as assembly persons.

The "Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level" will help them to know the opportunities that exist for citizen participation in the structures of decentralization and their roles as district assembly persons, and how to bring their religious/ethical principles to impact on their work for the benefit of all.

Most Rev. Gregory Ebo Kpiebaya

Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale

--------------------------------------------------

FOREWORD

In August 2003 a book entitled "Manual for Development work at local level for District Assembly Members of Northern Ghana" was published. It was edited by Rogelio Villegas of Akademie Klausenhof, Germany. The book itself was the fruit of the joint efforts of TEPPCON and its partners, namely, the Muenster Diocese, Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) and Akademie Klausenhof, all of Germany. The book was called a Manual, because it was meant to be used for the training of district, municipal and met- ropolitan assembly men and women so that they could effectively discharge their responsibilities as the elected civil representatives of the people at the local level. The firm conviction of the authors of the Manual was that, "assembly members are key actors in the decentralization process, (and) if they do not play their roles properly, the factual devolution of power from the centre to the periphery, to the local level, will never take place."

In the course of 2005 TEPPCON, with financial support of KAF, organized a series of training workshops for assembly persons (Catholics and non-Catholics) in the three regions of Northern Ghana. The purpose of the workshops was precisely to test the contents of the Manual. At the end of the workshops, an evaluation was made to see how adequate the Manual was as an effective training tool. It was realized that this first Manual was not really as suitable as expected for training purposes, because the contents had not been adequately structured for such purposes. Hence the decision was taken to thoroughly review, and to re-design the Manual to make it suitable for training assembly persons in good governance and development work at the local level. An expert in manual designing, Donald Amuah, was contracted to put into training form the technical information that had been provided by the group of experts. The present Manual is therefore totally revised and given a new title: Manual for Good Governance and Development at Local Level.

The focus of the Manual is good governance and development at local level, much in line with the Ghana government's decentralization policy to devolve power from central government administration to the districts. But for this policy to succeed, and for development to meaningfully take place at the local level, good governance is a must. Good governance has to do with the judicious management, and also use, of available resources by those in authority for the benefit of all. At the local level, the Assembly plays the crucial role of managing well the Common Fund, and evolving and implementing programmes that would benefit every sector of the district or municipality. But the assembly persons need training for them to discharge efficiently their duties. Unfortunately this training in civic responsibility is often lacking. The TEPPCON civic education programme is thus meant to supplement government's effort in remedying this lack. And the Manual would be a great help in this direction.

This new Manual is divided into four Sections and each Section is co-terminus with a Module, and each Module is made up of a couple of Units. This allows for the addition of more Modules under each Section if the need arises - hence the Manual becomes an organic one that has opportunities to grow based on benefits from new experiences. A common format and structure has been adopted for the Modules in order to make it easy for them to be used for training sessions and for effective teaching and learning.

Section One is dedicated to Foundation Issues. It has three Units:

  • The Psychology of Adult Learning and Teaching,
  • Communication Skills and
  • Civic Action.
Section Two is on Decentralisation and Good Governance, and has five Units:

  • Definition and Legal Sources of Decentralisation,
  • Components and Institutional Arrangements,
  • The Role of the Assembly Member,
  • Financial and Legal Literacy; and
  • Performance Assessment of the Assembly and Assembly Persons.
Section Three deals with Tradition, Culture, Faith, Good Governance and Development, and has four Units:

  • The Relevance of the Catholic Social Teaching in Politics and Society,
  • The Relevance of Islamic Values in Decentralization in Ghana,
  • Traditional Religion and Culture, Good Governance and Development, and
  • Traditional Authorities and Good Governance.
Section Four addresses some Perspectives on Good Governance in two Units:

  • Peace Building and Development, and
  • Corruption and Development.
The Manual is a rich source of information, and is practical in offering techniques for training not only of assembly persons, but all manner of persons who do social and development work at the local level.

Rev. Dr. Paul K. Bekye

St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale

Asset Publisher

comment-portlet

Asset Publisher

Asset Publisher