• Local Government and Decentralisation in Ghana

    Developments since the publication of the First Edition of this book in 2010 have compelled the revision and publication of this Second Edition.

    In 2011, the Fifth Government of the Fourth Republic launched a new ‘National Decentralisation Policy Framework’ (NDPF 1) and an accompanying National Decentralisation Action Plan’ (NDAP 1). The Local Government Service was operationalised in the same year, resulting in the migration of over 30,000 civil servants from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service.

    Prior to these, the Local Government Departments of District Assemblies) (Commencement) Instrument, 2009, L.1. 1961, had been enacted, allowing for the conversion of the de concentrated Departments at the district level into devolved Departments of the District Assemblies. The Local Government (Urban, Zonal and Town Councils and Unit Committees) (Establishment) Instrument, L.1. 1967, was enacted in 2010. The long-awaited Composite Budget was introduced in 2012.

    With the expiry of the NDPF 1/NDAP I in 2014, a new NDPF 11/NDAP 11 was launched in 2015 for the period 2015-2019.

    A new Local Government (Sub-Metropolitan District Councils of Metropolitan Assemblies (SMDCs)) (Establishment, Composition and Functions) Instrument, 2015. 11. 2223, was enacted to provide for uniform composition and functions for the SMDCs in all the six Metropolitan Assemblies.

    A National Development Planning (System) Regulations, 2016, enacted to support the National Development Planning and Act, 1994, 148. A Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016, Act 925, was passed to establish a Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and to devolve the Department of Country Planning to the MMDAs.

    The disparate laws on local government were consolidated into one Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936. A new Sports Act 2016, Act 934 and a new decentralised National Youth Authority Act 939 were also enacted.

    It is these reforms that the Second Edition of the book has sought to capture, in addition to some elaborations on some of the theoretical underpinnings of local government and decentralisation in Ghana. The sections of Acton Civil Society Organisations and Non-State Actors and Women in Local Governance have been improved. Some aspects of the proposals of the Constitutional Review Commission on local government and decentralisation have been used. Some textual changes have also been made.

  • Decentralisation Reforms in Ghana: The Experiences of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic

    What were the decentralisation reforms? What did they consist of? What were their origins? Who authorised them? What were their outcomes? What Impact have they had on the local governance and decentralisation landscape In Ghana?

    The answer to the first question is that they were new initiatives and innovations designed to accelerate the pace of and improve upon decentralisation implementation in Ghana.

    The answer to the second question is that they consisted of a National Decentralisation Policy Framework and a National Decentralisation Action Plan I (2010-2014) and II (2015-2019), an Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC), an expansion in the number of districts, a consolidated Local Governance Act, a re-branding of the Office of the Head of Local Government Service, the operationalisation of the Local Government Service and the introduction of a system of Inter-Service/Inter-Sectoral Collaboration and Cooperation. It also covered the enactment of National Development Planning (System) Regulations and a Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, the introduction of a Regional Integrated Budget System (RIBS) and blueprints for an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Framework (IGFF) and an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfer (IGFT) system.

    The answer to the third question is that the reforms were traceable to the 2008 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party which won the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2008 and 2012 and therefore formed the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.

    The answer to the fourth question is that the reforms were authorised by Presidents John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama who successively were Presidents of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.

    The answer to the fifth question about outcomes is the new structures, procedures and processes for decentralisation implementation, the improved quality of human resources in the local government sector, and the more efficient systems of checks and balances in the sector.

    The answer to the sixth question lies in the District Assemblies (MMDAs), the better service delivery by the Metropolitan, Municipal and of service delivery, the renewed interest in local governance by the citizenry and the claro Si rate reforms such as the elections of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDC Wand making the MMDAs partisan.

    These and answers to other questions posed by the reforms are answered in this book by the two people who should know, namely, the authors Professor Kwamena Ahwoi and Dr Callistus Mahama.

    Professor Kwamena Ahwoi is the longest-serving Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana (1988-2000). He was the Chairman of the High Level Strategic Task Force that produced the Decentralisation Policy Frameworks and Action Plans, He chaired the Legislative Review Task Force that resulted in the enactment of the Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936 and was consultant to both the Ministry of Local Government and the IMCC during the period.

    Dr. Callistus Mahama was a member of the High Level Strategic Task Force, a member of the Legislative Review Task Force, the Executive Coordinator of the IMCC and the Head of the Local Government Service during the period.

    The two authors therefore write from a position of knowledge and experience and this is reflected in the contents of the book.

  • Next Level Education Game Changer

    **Available in Ghana from 20 January 2021

    Next Level Education Game Changer seeks to engage our readers on how the theme “Quality Secondary, Technical & Vocational Education; A Catalyst for National Development” for the 91st Speech & Prize Giving Ceremony at Achimota Secondary School in Ghana on November 3rd 2018, inspired research work and findings that could contribute to a change in the educational landscape in Ghana.

    The book provides insights from students at Achimota Secondary School in 2018. Singapore’s educational system, considered the best in the world, was adopted as a benchmark, against which some educational proposals have been made.

  • Everything That Happened and The People Who Made It

    The book is a concise and comprehensive profile of the Top 10 entertainment brands in Ghana who dominated the 2010-2020 decade. Its simple language vividly describes and provides clarity of behind-the-scene happenings of Showbiz events within the decades.

    The author made a trip down memory lane by actively seeking expert knowledge and witness accounts of crucial events in the Ghanaian entertainment industry, even beyond the decade under review.

  • Ga-English Dictionary (3rd Edition)

    Suitable for the general public, basic schools, JHS, SHS and Colleges of Education.

    Suitable for the Ga and non-Ga speaker and learner.

  • 5 Presidents, 8 Elections, 30 Years Later: How Ghanaians See Their Democracy

    Ghana’s Fourth Republic, a multiparty democracy, has seen five presidents, held eight successful elections and, as of this writing, is in its thirtieth year. This makes it unique in several ways, compared to previous attempts at multiparty democracy, in that it is the longest-lasting republic so far in the country’s post-independence history. It has outlived the first, second, and third republics combined by more than eighteen years.
    What explains this unique period and change in the political trajectory of Ghana? Why has the country’s most recent attempt at multiparty democracy lasted this long?
    Drawing on answers to questions in the Afrobarometer survey, administered nine times at periodic intervals between 1999 and 2022, this book describes in twenty themes and fifty-one observations, how Ghanaians see their democracy. The book covers themes such as trust in institutions, partisanship, support for democracy, governments handling of the policy priorities of Ghanaians, among many others. The book points out the key lessons of the last thirty and the challenges ahead in the country’s efforts to deepen democratic governance.

  • Chasing Facades

    Young and ambitious, Tayo Dabi is a rising star at Regent Detective Agency where she is a trainee detective. Driven by her passion to solve crimes – even as her brother’s murderer walks free – Tayo immerses herself in the job, delivering results that belie her newbie status.

    But when Tayo is assigned a new, high-profile case, her confidence is shaken. Lawrence Gbade, a popular, wealthy contractor is murdered in his home, and as Tayo digs deeper things become less certain. Was Gbade’s murder a robbery gone wrong, or something much more sinister? Even as self-doubt sets in, Tayo has to battle resentment from older, more experienced detectives, an obnoxious male colleague and her growing attraction to Tony, the victim’s brother.

    Romance meets crime thriller in this gripping story of betrayal, rage and the facades we put up to hide our true selves.

    Chasing Facades

    95.00
  • The Stress Test

    Taramade Johnson seems to have it all. But she is stuck in a dead-end marriage, consumed by her desire for Adam Okoya, a male colleague, and burdened with a secret that could cause her to lose everything.

    Things start to come undone when it is revealed that the Johnsons’ Marine Compact Bank, led by the tyrannical Damelda Johnson, Taramade’s mother-in-law, is not as healthy as it would appear. A bureaucratic reformer, Banke Olumide, soon emerges and takes Damelda’s place as MD of the troubled bank.

    Meanwhile, Damelda retires to hatch a plan that will put control of the bank in her grip again. But there are others who want the bank just as much as Damelda does. And for some, it is a battle worth dying – or killing – for.

    The Stress Test

    95.00
  • Blackass

    Furo Wariboko – born and bred in Lagos – wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo is amazed to find the dead ends of his life wondrously open out before him.

    As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster – except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, his ass remains robustly black…

    Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative – this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail.

    Blackass

    95.00
  • The Chameleon Girl

    University lecturer, Soumaya Dramé, abandons her job in England to go after her mother, Pearl, who, in the wake of a quarrel with her Senegalese father, AI, has fled to Senegal. Determined to track Pearl down before her despondent father does something foolish, Soumaya enlists the help of a charismatic photographer, Aziz. As they navigate a place she is from but not quite a part of, Soumaya meets her Senegalese relatives – and also runs into a beautiful older woman who seems to be stalking her.

    Set mostly in sunny Dakar, The Chameleon Girl is the story of a woman of dual identities confronting her parents’ past amid secrets, stereotypes and cross-cultural family tensions.

  • Pet

    Age Range: 12 years and above

    There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster—and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also uncover the truth, and the answer to the question—How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

    Pet

    95.00
  • The Whispering Trees

    The magical tales in The Whispering Trees capture the essence of life, death and coincidence in Northern Nigeria. Myth and reality intertwine in stories featuring cat-eyed English witches, political agitators, newly-wedded widows, and the tormented whirlwind, Kyakkyawa. The two medicine men of Mazade battle against their egos, an epidemic and an enigmatic witch. And who is Okhiwo, whose arrival is heralded by a pair of little white butterflies?

  • ….and so, She Wrote (A little book of poetry)

    A book of poetry that draws on nature as well as the poet’s personal experiences, conversations and observations, it includes a variety of poems that will elicit tears, laughter and provoke thought

  • Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651)

    The Six  Hundred and fifty-first ACT of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana is an Act to amend and consolidate the laws relating to labour, employers, trade unions and industrial relations; to establish a National Labour Commission and to provide for matters related to these.

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