South Dayi District topped the District Performance League Table (DLT) of 25 municipalities and districts in the Volta Region, scoring 68 percent to also place 30 in the ranking of Ghana’s 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies in 2014.

The Keta Municipal Assembly, came second to South Dayi and 50th in national ranking followed by Kadjebi District at 67 at national level, Krachi-West, fourth in regional ranking and 76 at the national level and Jasikan placing fifth and 84 in regional and national ranking respectively.

The regional average is 54 percent while the national average is pegged at 58 percent.

The assessments carried out by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD)-Ghana and UNICEF were based on performance in Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), skilled delivery, rural water coverage, Open Defecation Certification, police coverage and fulfilling some minimum conditions using the Functional Organisation Assessment Tools (FLOAT).

Tano South District came first on the national league table, followed by Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal, Denkyembour District, Jaman South, Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai as the top five performers in the country.

“The District League Table is a simple ranking tool of the level of development in each of Ghana’s districts,” a Fact Sheet produced by CDD-Ghana and UNUCEF explained.

The Fact Sheet said the DLT aims at “strengthening social accountability for national development.”

The scores on the DLT were based on information gathered from state institutions in the districts.

“The DLT shows that substantial inequities exist between Districts. The top District had a development level five times greater than that of the bottom one,” the Fact Sheet said.

It said “districts with lower poverty like Ashanti did better in the DLT. However there are plenty of exceptions to learn from many districts in poorer regions such as Upper West are doing much better than their high level of poverty might imply.”

Speaking at a stakeholders forum in Ho to share the finding, Mr Francis Tsegah, Senior Research Fellow, CDD-Ghana, said the initiative was not to ‘name and shame’ “those districts that are facing challenges or to punish poor performing ones. Rather, the DLT will help highlight inequities in local development and encourage stakeholders to give more support where it is needed.”

He said the Project sought to empower stakeholders by laying bare the challenges facing local governance and to encourage the sharing of best practices.

Meanwhile stakeholders including some MCEs and DCEs who attended the forum commended CDD-Ghana and UNICEF for the initiative because of its potential to lay bare issues pertaining to the effectiveness of MMDAs to provide public goods and services to the citizenry.

Commenting on the poor attendance at the forum by MCEs and DCEs to the GNA, an official of one of the District Assemblies suggested that future invitations to MCEs and DCEs be routed through the Office of the Regional Minister.

An Official of CDD-Ghana said about 15 MCEs and DCEs were invited to the meeting but only those of South-Dayi, Keta Municipal and Akatsi-North attended with some of the their officials.