Amplify Governance
38 Independence Avenue, Ridge Accra
C/O Canadian High Commission
PO Box 1639 Accra Ghana
Tel: 233 (0) 54 256 4672
merlinchatwin@amplifygovernance.com
Introduction Amplify Governance The Issues Poverty and under-­‐developed infrastructure limits people all across Ghana from realizing their full potential. Citizen’s energies are necessarily spent on securing their basic sustenance needs, often leaving little available energy or effort for anything else. Rural, economic and social infrastructure is inadequate and acts as a barrier to the citizenry being able to address their own poverty alleviation and improvements in livelihoods. Development decisions within Ghana’s levels of government are currently being made based on position, power and resources, typically by external stakeholders or donors that struggle to understand the wants and needs of citizens. Being able to give the decision-­‐making ability to local government (MMDAs -­‐ Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies) through administrative leaders, has the potential to increase the engagement between citizens and government. Local assemblies are better positioned to engage with, and understand, what communities are requesting. The Opportunity Basic service delivery has the ability to impact entire populations, improving quality of life and giving citizens the chance to overcome their current challenges. When governments focus attention and resources on providing basic needs, it allows citizens the capacity to concentrate on their personal growth, establish their livelihoods and make meaningful contributions to the development of their country. With better access to economic and social infrastructure, such as water, education and health, people‘s standards of living are directly impacted. In addition, the service delivery is provided through local government structures supporting their own constituents. Locally generated development and service delivery creates more community ownership than those originating through other external stakeholders (National government, Donor partners, Non-­‐governmental Organizations). The Role Amplify works to support the development of a governance system that can adapt to the various challenges and complexities experienced within Ghana’s movement towards decentralization. We focus specifically on four areas of governance; 1) Developing adaptive leadership culture through creating learning opportunities for political and technocrat officials in positions of responsibility at Assemblies, 2) Enhancing local revenue collection systems with support for the technical and human capacities of property tax and business licenses, 3) Creating opportunities and incentives for citizen engagement in development and service delivery decision making, 4) Improving the efficiency of data collection, management and analysis systems to support people-­‐centered decision-­‐making. Our belief is that interventions can focus on one of these areas as an entry point; however, they must incorporate aspects of each in order to effectively and sustainably impact the ability of local government to provide adequate service and development to their citizens. Amplify’s vision is to see people flourishing through participation with governance systems that continuously improve their quality of life. We contribute to this vision by building pathways to meaningful interactions between governments and the people they serve through partnership development at the national and local level and by engaging in conversations that enable people-­‐
centered decision-­‐making. Amplify engages in projects that create opportunities and incentives for meaningful interactions between local government and its citizens. Increasing levels of participation provides citizens with a meaningful role in determining how services are provided, empowers citizens to hold their government accountable for its actions, and encourages a culture of citizen ownership over service delivery and development decisions. Amplify believes that overcoming systemic challenges requires an investment in people-­‐ people within the system with an aptitude for leadership and the intrinsic ability to navigate change; people who can bring their nation from its current reality towards its full potential. These people are found throughout the system from politicians to technocrats to citizens. The Current Projects Ghana Internally Generated Funds Technical Support (GIFTS) This project is funded by Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and implemented in partnership with the Local Government Services Secretariat (LGSS) in Ghana. The overall objective of this project is to strengthen local governments’ ability to generate revenues and use them for development and service delivery, in response to the needs of their citizens. Taxpayers have a legitimate right to expect something in return for the taxes they pay and are more likely to hold their government accountable for their allocation of resources creating a social fiscal contract. Amplify Governance will be piloting the GIFTS project in the Savelugu-­‐Nanton (Northern Region), Sunyani (Brong Ahafo Region), and HoHoe (Volta Region) Municipal Assemblies. All Voices Matter: Speak Up! This project is funded by STAR Ghana, and implemented in partnership with Savana Signatures, GINKS, VOTO Mobile and participating local assemblies in Ghana. The overall objective is to utilize mobile technology to increase the voices and opinions of marginalized groups to allow local assemblies to be better informed during their annual planning period. The marginalized groups that will be targeted include women, youth and people with disabilities. Through increased participation of these groups, local assemblies will be able to better serve their needs and lessen the poverty these groups experience. The project has identified 4 major milestones: • Increased clarity on the current participation of women, youth and PWD in MMDA planning • Awareness created about social inclusion in developmental decision making • Data on the opinions of marginalised groups generated and analyzed by MMDAs for development planning • Opinions of marginalised groups captured in development decisions of MMDAs