Ms Elizabeth Comfort Adomako, Assembly Member for Kokomlemle West Electoral Area, was on Wednesday awarded the Best Assembly Member for 2014.

Ms Adomako, the third to win the award, was honoured for active attendance, community mobilisation and for lobbying the Assembly and non-governmental organisations to bring development to her electoral area.

She beat four other contenders to emerge the winner for the year.

The Award Scheme was an initiative of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) in collaboration with Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to give recognition and commendation to the office of Assembly members.

The Best Assembly Member Award Scheme, which started in 2011, is also to whip up public spiritedness through linking the rewards to a competitive system of selection and in the process deepen the relationship between Assembly Members and the communities they serve.

Mr Frederick Oduro, Inclucity Project Coordinator, said the scheme was part of the broad “Inclucity” project initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by Global Communities, an urban based International NGO in collaboration with ILGS.

He said the project sought to build the capacity of Metropolitan structures and community organisations in inclusive governance, participatory planning and budgeting, and improved revenue generation.

He said the objectives of the project included increased constructive participation of slum residents in governance, inclusive planning and budgeting processes and increased capacity of assemblies to generate adequate revenues for development.

He said increasing urbanization had not been matched with the capacity of city managers to offer the requisite strategic leadership and inclusive management to the ever increasing urban populations and the project is to fill that gap.

Mr Oduro said key identifiable challenges included governance inefficiency, deep socio economic problems and major influences in the provision of municipal services, especially to the poor and low-income populations of the city.

“Ghana is currently experiencing rapid urbanization with the country crossing the 50 per cent urban population mark in 2010.

“Underlying the problem of the management of urban development in Ghana is the capacity inadequacy of local government institutions and other key actors to respond appropriately and adequately to urban challenges and strategically envisaging and pursuing a sustainable future for cities in the country,” he said.

The Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Areas, he said, were among the key urban centres experiencing the strain of rapid urbanization and population growth.

He said the resultant effect was poor urban infrastructure, degrading social amenities, lack of low income-housing, the absence of low level participation of private sector and deficiencies in financial arrangements in local governance.

These, he said, were evidenced by the incidences of urban poverty, development of slums and low level of access to water, sanitation and other services in the urban areas.

Mr Oduro therefore stressed the need for the public to give to support their Assembly members to ensure their electoral areas are always clean.

Ms Adomako thanked her electorates for nominating her to take part in this year competition.

“I’m happy for the honour done me and I wish to dedicate the award to my electoral area and all who are supporting me to do my work,” she added.

She said the work of assembly members was enormous and appealed to the government to put them on monthly salary to enable them perform their duties better.

She said everything that they did in their electoral areas involved money and financial constraint was affecting their work and if government would meet them half way in terms of paying them salaries it would help them to achieve a lot at the grassroots level.

The benefit packages that come with participating in the competition include, certificate of honour, a documentary or media coverage of shortlisted projects, a plaque and an honour roll to be mounted in the Assembly hall.