Providing Top Notch Consultancy and research services for Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), MDAs, MMDAs and Development partners in Ghana and beyond.
Do you know much about local Governance and Decentralization in Ghana?
Because DevtPlan Consult is one of the leading consultancy firms in Kumasi, Ghana,we have been certified by the Local Governance Service Secretariat to provide generic and demand driven consultancy services to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana.
Under the Government of Ghana’s decentralization and local government reform initiative, Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been assigned a wide range of responsibilities, including the provision of basic social service and infrastructure and the coordination of local economic development.
The MMDAs thus have critical role in addressing national poverty reduction objectives and, as such, in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Over the years, resources have been transferred to the local government to finance the construction of basic infrastructure as well as deliver basic social services. Additionally, it is evidently clear that the MMDAs have limited capacity to manage and utilize data for decision making and planning, thus hampering their overall performance and effective development of their plans in particular. To provide additional resources and improve the performance of the MMDAs, Government together with its Development Partners has introduced a Performance Based Grant System (PBGS) called District Development Facility (DDF).
With the District Development Facility initiative, the MMDAs’ access to the discretionary development funds will be related to regular performance assessment under the Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT). Central to this initiative, the Government of Ghana and Development Partners that support local governance in Ghana have earmarked part of their development support for implementation of the performance-based funding. MMDAs which meet the minimum conditions and excel during the assessment are rewarded with additional fiscal transfers whilst tailor-made capacity building support is designed for MMDAs which exhibit capacity gaps.
The Sekyere Afram Plains District Assembly therefore contracted Devtplan consult to organize and facilitate a five -day training workshop on selected topics for key personnel and heads of departments in the district.To read more about the Five day training workshop watch out for our next Post.
Devt Plan Consult has been playing key roles in facilitating Capacity Building Workshop for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana.
In April 2011, Devt Plan Consult facilitated a Capacity Building Workshop for Assembly member of the Upper Manya Krobo District assembly.Because we do not want to enjoy the office cake alone,this a brief blog post on the Capacity Building workshop we organized and facilitated at the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly in the Eastern Region to keep you updated and to bring our business close to you.It is our belief that this post would be informative as well as educative.Please do drop us your comment or send us your feedback , we would just love to hear from you.
Why a Capacity Building workshop?
Among the key challenges confronting Government’s determination and commitment to ensuring efficient local government administration has been “how to sustainably develop the human resource capacity and competence of the technocrats, the legislators (i.e. Assemblymen and women) sub-district officials and civil society in all the metropolitan, municipal and district Assemblies throughout the country on a coherent and systematic manner to enhance their delivery capabilities for improved productivity.”
In December 2010, elections of assembly members were held in the country to satisfy the requirement of constituting a new legislative arm of MMDAs upon the expiry of the term of office of the existing assembly. There was therefore the need to build the capacity of these new assembly members after they have been duly sworn into office to enable them effectively perform their functions. Consequently the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly in the Eastern region applied part of its capacity building grant from the district development facility to train members of the newly inaugurated assembly to enable them effectively perform their functions.
DevtPlan consut,being one of the leading consulting firms in Ghana was contracted by the district assembly to organize and facilitate a two-day orientation workshop for the assembly members.
WHAT WAS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE WORKSHOP?
The overall workshop objective was to educate the newly elected and appointed Assembly Members on the work of the Assembly and also equip them with the requisite knowledge and skill for them to effectively perform their duties.
HOW WAS THE WORKSHOP ORGANIZED?
In order to ensure effective transfer of practical knowledge and to build participants’ understanding and application of skills acquired, the facilitators Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Adam and Mr Percy Anaab Bukari all of DevtPlan Consult made little use of the traditional lecturing approach. Rather, they made extensive use of:
·Presentations
Experience Sharing
Discussion
Synergies
CONTENT OF THE WORKSHOP
Sessions
Session Objective
Session Content
Ghana’s Local Governance System
·To understand the concept and tenets of Ghana’s Local governance system.
Objectives of Ghana’s decentralization, Elements of the decentralization policy, Key legislations on decentralization.
The Assembly as a system
·To understand how the assembly works as a system
·To identify critical issues hindering the smooth functioning of the assembly as a system.
·Discover practical techniques and approaches by which the assembly can work effectively as a system
The Assembly system,
components and characteristics of the assembly as a system, Critical issues affecting its functioning, techniques and approaches through which the Assembly system can function effectively
Roles and responsibilities of Key actors of the Assembly
·To understand and appreciate the roles and responsibilities of key actors of the assembly
Key actors of the Assembly, Roles and Responsibilities of key actors.
Assembly committee system
·The various committees of the Assemblies.
· The functions of the various committees under the Assembly.
·Understand the importance of the committee system and how it works at the assembly.
Committees at the assembly, how they are formed, types of committees, functions of the committees
Meeting procedures at the assembly
·Understand and appreciate the procedures guiding meetings at the assembly
Types of meetings at the assembly, procedures in conducting assembly meetings. Some bad meeting practices during assembly meetings.
Understanding the model standing orders
·Be familiar with some important provisions in the Model Standing Orders for the Assemblies
·Know how the Model Standing Orders guide Assembly deliberations.
The session discusses the Model Standing Orders, Some important aspects of it and how it is used to govern deliberations at Assembly meetings
The Public Procurement Law and process
·To sensitize participants on the essentials of the procurement law
·Essentials of the procurement law, Procurement planning, Tendering process
Let Us hear from you
Where you part of the training? What did you take home? Drop us your comment below. Or perhaps you want to know more about DevtPlan Consult ,Why don’t you give as a call on 024 4666458 / 024 4694634/026 6598157 or walk into our office located at Plot Number 8A Block IX, Asafo- Dadiesoaba, opposite the offices of the registrar general’s department, Kumasi. Alternatively, you can drop as a mail at info@devtplanconsult.org
Towards ensuring that qualified personnel exist to deliver quality services that meet our clients’ requirements and satisfaction, DevtPlan’s approach has been to work with both in-house consultants and a pool of associate consultants to undertake specific assignments as and when required. Our pool of experienced consultants consist of individuals who have undertaken consultancy assignments for both local and international organizations such as the WORLD BANK, DANIDA, European Union, UNDP, DFID, African Development Bank, CARE International, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana, Financial institutions among others.
The firm has a Chief Executive Office who also doubles as the managing partner, four permanent consultants, and four senior associate consultants with whom the firm has contractual arrangements. Profiles of DevtPlan teamare presented below:
Name
Qualification
Position
Professional Team
Abdul Ghaffar Adam
MPhil. Planning, M(GIP)
BSc. Planning
Managing Partner
/ C. E. O
Percy Anaab Bukari
Msc. Development Planning and Management, M(GIP)
Bsc. Planning
Partner/Senior Consultant
Godfred M. Aawaar
MSc. Finance and Management
Chartered Economist
BA (Hons.) Economics and Law
Senior Consultant
Barnett Quarcoo
Mphil Educational Planning
B.Ed Social Science(Economics)
Senior Consultant
Paa Kwasi Opare
MSc. Telecommunication engineering
BSc Electrical/Electronic Engineering
Consultant
Aisha Adam
B.A Publishing Studies
Administrative Officer
Emmanuel Fordjour Kumah
Bsc. Physics
Diploma Human Resource and Financial Management
Intern
Below are the profiles of our Associate Consultants:
Name
Qualification
Position
Dr. Michael Poku Boansi
PHD(Planning), Bsc (Planning)
Senior Associate Consultant
Kwabena Owusu- Mensah
MBA (MIS)
BSc. Computer Science, Statistics
Senior Associate Consultant
Isaac Awuah Boateng
B.COM
EMBA (Finance), CA(Gh)
Senior Associate Consultant
Isaac Decardi Nelson
Msc Development Policy and Planning
B.sc Planning
Senior Associate Consultant
Want to know moreabout DevtPlan Consult? Call us on 024 4666458 / 024 4694634/026 6598157 or walk into our office located at Plot Number 8A Block IX, Asafo- Dadiesoaba, opposite the offices of the registrar general’s department, Kumasi. Alternatively, you can drop as a mail at info@devtplanconsult.org
Under the Government of Ghana’s decentralization and local government reform initiative, Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been assigned a wide range of responsibilities, including the provision of basic social service and infrastructure and the coordination of local economic development. 
