Despite Ghana’s progress in poverty reduction, the northern part of the country is vulnerable in terms of poverty with about 40% of the population living especially in the Upper West Region and the western region according to a study by the World Bank.
This was evident when Majority of districts in the Northern and the Volta Regions in Ghana were ranked at the bottom of the 2016 District League Table for poor performance on the district development process.
While districts in the Ashanti, Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo regions featured prominently at the top half of the table, no district from the Northern or Volta was among the first 20 districts.
The La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal emerged at the top of the League Table with a score of 77.6 followed by Tema Municipal Assembly dropping from its first position with a 77.6 score. The Asante Akim North Assembly scored 71.8, whiles Jaman South Assembly had 70.2, and the Kwahu West Municipal also scored 68.6.
On the other hand, Northern and Volta districts fell below 50 score: Saboba district secured 48.8 whiles Kpandai 47.9, Krachi Nchumuru 46.2, Akatsi South 44.6, East Gonja 43.3 and the least being North Tongu had a 40.9 respectively.
Addressing the gathering, at the launch, UNICEF Researcher, Sarah Hague, blamed the poor performance of the regions on the imbalanced allocation of resources by the central government to various localities.
Sarah Hague however explained that, the position of the various districts on the League Table depends heavily on the central government.
The Researcher suggested that “target districts which are struggling and lagging behind to better allocate resources to achieve better results.”
However, based on the six key indicators including water, health, sanitation, education, governance and security, over 160 districts have improved their score as compared to last year.
The District League Table is a ranking tool showing national progress toward delivering development across Ghana’s 216 Districts. It is compiled by the United Nations Children fund (UNICEF) and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD).
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