Questions/Answers

The Development Agenda, Agenda for jobs: Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for all, the framework for development planning in Ghana has five thematic areas which among others emphasis Social Development, Economic Development, Environment, Infrastructure and Human Settlement and Governance, Corruption and Public Accountability. The construction of a 20 Bed Capacity Isolation Centre and revenue Mobilization is in line with the Agenda for Jobs objective to develop an effective drainage system. Established in March 2019, as an off shoot from Accra Metropolitan Assembly with zero revenue base, the Municipal Assembly was able to mobilize an amount of Five Million, Three Hundred and Thirty-Seven Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty-Two Ghana cedis and Fifty-Four Pesewas (GH₵ 5,337,382.54) out of a budgeted figure of Five Million, Thirty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred Ghana cedis (GH₵ 5,036,700.00). This represents 105.97 per cent performance rate. In2020 fiscal year, the Municipal Assembly leapfrog the revenue performance by significantly mobilizing Nine Million, Five Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Five Hundred and Ninety Ghana cedis and Eighty-Eighty Pesewas (GH₵ 9,590,590.88) out of a budgeted figure of Nine Million, Eight Hundred and Eleven Thousand Ghana cedis (GH₵ 9,811,000.00). This represents an unprecedented a year-on-year growth of 79.69 per cent. One can only attribute these significant gains to visionary and decisive leadership. The above narrative boosted the financial resilience of the institution towards Covid-19 pandemic.This significantly impacted positively in the provision of quality services to the constituents. For instance, Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly was the only local authority in Ghana that constructed a Covid-19 Isolation center using its Internally Generated Funds (IGF) in order to build the infrastructure resilience of the institution towards Covid-19 pandemic. The use of electronic platform for collection which limits human interface with its attendant consequences, outsourcing hard to collect areas to sub-structures, target settings for revenue collectors, frequent capacity building and refresher trainings for revenue collectors, re-valuation of properties, aligning special service delivery with rate payment, monitoring and update of field revenue data base (data collection)

The Local Governance Act, 2016, ACT 936 and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, ACT 921 mandates local authorities to mobilize local resources for the holistic development of the municipality. These resources are appropriated to provide essential social services to the population of the municipality.Hence the mobilization of resources and its appropriation to construct and furnish a heath facility as well as ensuring the availability of water for hand-washing and other hygiene purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic are linked to category IV (special Category on institutional resilience and innovative responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic) of the UNPS Awards.

The effective mobilization of local taxes and its appropriation to construct and furnish a facility during the COVID-19 pandemic are linked to SDGs 3 and 6. SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages Target: 3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. Contribution of initiative to the implementation of SDGs : The construction and furnishing of the 20-bed capacity gender friendly COVID-19 Isolation Centre increased access to health-care services, affordable essential medicines, and vaccines for reported infected population. SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all Targets: 6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. 6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. Contribution of initiative to the implementation of SDGs: As part of the physical hospital structure, receptables were provided to ensure clean water was availability for hand -washing and other hygiene purposes. Provision was also made within the health facility the management of solid, liquid, and hazardous wastes.

Socially, the initiative will be transforming the lives of the people living in the municipality. this include formal and informal workers, traders and other auxiliary workers.This is based on improvement in health infrastructure and innovation to build a resilient city. economically, active labour force will contribute in organizing effective local economy within the city. Environmentally, the initiatives aim at addressing flooding issues through landscaping and effective sanitation management within the municipality.

The health care needs of the people of Korle Klottey have had pressure just all other facilities in the country. This is because the Municipality serves as a recipient of all travellers to the capital city, thus putting pressure on the available facilities. The Development Agenda, Agenda for jobs: Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for all, the framework for development planning in Ghana has five thematic areas which among others emphasise Social Development, Economic Development, Environment, Infrastructure and Human Settlemnet and Governance, Corruption and Public Accountability. The construction of a 20 Bed Capacity Isolation Centre and revenue Mobilization is in line with the Agenda for Jobs objective to develop an effective drainage system. The proposed initiative project is in the Medium Term Development Plan of the Municipality as well as the Annual Action Plan, the Annual Budget Estimates and the Procurement Plan for 2020. The project was identified as a felt need during the public hearings organised in the preparation of the plan. The women and the entire community identified it as a critical need which had to be met by the Assembly. Again, it is a project whose service is already in demand as it is an existing health facility.

The initiative addresses gender inequality by not living no one behind. Experience in countries such as India, Thailand, Namibia and South Africa and our own experience with the Ghana development Planning process indicates the bottom up approach with broad based participation of all stakeholders, by design and in practice) have encouraged women to take on central roles in community development processes – initially through savings and as a result in planning and managing development schemes. Women make up between 50-65% of all development engagement in Ghana and make up a majority of the leadership in all of the countries mentioned above.

The target group was people in the Municipality especially women, aged and low income groups through provision of quality-oriented, service delivery. The initiative has improved the following outcomes: • Increased ability to shape urban planning, policy, legal, and regulatory environment • Reduced risks or enhanced ability to cope with risks: associated with natural disasters/climate change, illness or accidents, deaths in the family, or other factors • Enhanced Better services and infrastructure, including shelter, water and sanitation

The initiative, was implemented by the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA) after all tendering processes were completed. It was supervised by the Municipal Works Department and monitored by the Municipal Planning and Coordinating Unit. There were regular site meetings between the Engineers and the contractor. Two monitoring made up of health directorate team, Traditional Authorities, youth groups, women groups, Assembly member of the area, Unit Committees members among others. Comments and views were discussed and actions were followed up in our subsequence monitoring to see how it has shape the initiative. Ex-ante evaluation was done by project team to appraise the initiative, field visit including questionnaire were used to solicit information to answer question posed by the team. The result revealed that land cost should not be added because existing facility had space for the new facility. Electricity Company of Ghana was to be contacted to facilitate relocation of light pole.

major obstacle was getting material to site due to the lockdown, shorter period of the delivery of project put much stress on the worker and the supervisor, difficulty in getting certification from the Public Procurement Authority. To overcome the above contractor had to convince other project contractor to use their materials; extra cost was incurred to provide workers and supervisors a place to sleep to finish the project on time. The Municipal Chief Executive had to call the PPA director to arrange for emergence meeting to the approval.

The municipality is located at the heart of the Central Business District of the national capital (Accra) with a high concentration of businesses and population density. The initiative was implemented when restrictions were imposed on movement of persons and goods (lockdown) and there was the need to offer specialised service and care to the population to save lives. Among the total municipalities in the country, the Korle Klottey was the first to mobilise the neded resource to support the speedy construction, furnishing and operationalisation of the COVID-19 Isolation Centre.

As a result of this initiative the nation has included its annual budget to construct One Hundred and One hospitals ‘christened Agenda 101’ countrywide. This government policy on increasing access to healthcare was to be implemented in selected municipal and District Assemblies.

Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly was able to perform this initiative due to the introduction of the improved digital system of generating bills, tracking and collection of imposed local taxes and levies using the point-of-sale devices.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister who commissioned the project expressed appreciation of the project and tasked the remaining twenty-eight (28) local authorities in region to develop a robust system of response to emergencies such as the COVID-19 Isolation Centre. This was carried in the print media radio station in the reviews. The Municipality has shared all the process to other municipalities who wants to undertake the same steps. The municipality is also trying to equip it sub-structures take advantage of the digitalisation to rope in adequate revenue for development.

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The Assembly supported the building of capacity of Revenue Collectors in Information Technology in their desire to own their messages, convert our aspirations to vision, conduct rapid profiling and mapping and improve the collection, and otherwise increase their chances of informing a transformational process also a Multi-Skills Project Team which ensured that related activities were delivered. Of the total revenue mobilized from internally generated sources, an amount of GHC342,169.99 (US$56,659.62) was dedicated to the construction and furnishing of the health, water and hand washing facility.

In terms of local level financial sustainability, Internally Generated fund was set aside to support operations and maintenance of the project. Funds helped to deal with vulnerability on a day-to-day basis, laying a foundation for sustaining a whole other range of individual and community activities. Finally, documenting the experiences and sharing those ideas both amongst the MMDA’s and with appropriate policy-makers, helped to ensure sustainability by promoting the principles that emerge. In terms of institutional terms the health facility has been handed over to the Health Directorate upon its completion and installment of equipment for use. The assignment of requisite Staff to manage the facility is the primary roles of the Health Directorate.

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By Internal Evaluation The Medium Term Dev’t. Plan (MTDP 2018-2021) of the Assembly in its third year of implementation required a Mid-Term Review. The overall purpose of the Review was to provide management and stakeholders with an assessment of the performance and outputs of the Project towards achieving the Project Development Objectives. A three-member team was appointed by management of Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly to Review the MTDP (Mid-Term) between 13th March and May 20, 2021. The Team consulted with all stakeholders and beneficiaries of the Isolation Centre. The team also reviewed project documents (Annual Reports).

The evaluation was guided by indicators such as percentage of IGF committed to project, environmental safeguards issue, number of beneficiaries, availability of medical services among others. The approach of the Review is factual and is inclusive and participatory. Hard data on implementation, progress and impacts were collected, analyzed and presented. At the same time, the evaluation analysis considered the perspectives and viewpoints of all relevant stakeholders (both internal and external). This implies that the span of methodological tools applied included basic hard data collection and analysis interviews, group discussions and observations.

The main findings of the evaluation indicate that resource was adequate for the project; quality work was done to the admiration of the Hon. Regional Minister, the staff of the facility and other stakeholders. The project was completed on schedule. Disbursement was initially slow, delay in acquisition of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit. Environmental and social safeguards recommendations were not fully included in bidding documents for prospective contractors to price. Outcomes were not explicitly stated in the project Result Frame Matrix. The above information was used to determine whether the project initiative had value for money and reshape future project design.

The Nation’s Local Governance Act, 2016, ACT 963 and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, ACT 921 mandates Local Authorities to mobilise resources to promote human and physical development. To this end, the Municipal Assembly has the legal mandate to appropriate its resources to resolve developmental challenges or gaps. The decentralized system of governance established departments of the Assembly of which Health is one. The Health Department being responsible for the management of public health facilities, its services both preventive and curative as well as the personnel collaborates with the Municipal Assembly and other agencies to ensure increase coverage of the population. The construction and furnishing of the 20-Bed Capacity COVID-19 Isolation Centre was a response to physical infrastructure deficit in the municipality during the outbreak of the pandemic. It presented the opportunity for testing, screening and vaccination whiles also providing for the infected population within the catchment area to be quarantined to receive the requisite treatment.

The Municipal Assembly’s responsibility is to provide infrastructure to support delivery of municipal services. In the implementation of interventions, it identifies and engages all stakeholders in the project management cycle. These are officials from the Ghana Health Service, Civil Engineers- Quantity Surveyor; Architect, Environmental Protection Agency, Public Health, Environmental Safety and Sanitation Officers and Revenue Collectors. 1.Stakeholder: Municipal Assembly (Classification: Primary) Responsibility: Revenue mobilization, Project design, implantation, monitoring and evaluation Involvement in designing, implementation and evaluation: compilation of Revenue Improvement Action Plan (RIAP) The adoption and deployment of electronic revenue mobilization devises led to significant improvement in revenue mobilized. This provided resources to support the expansion of health facilities. To ensure that the structural design conforms to acceptable health and safety standards, the relevant public sector officers (Estates Officers) assisted the Civil Engineers to design the structure to reduce reinfection within the facility and also ensuring smooth work flow. 2.Stakeholder: Ghana Health Service (Classification: Primary) Responsibility: Healthcare delivery (Service) Involvement in designing, implementation and evaluation: Compliance and inspection of project design. To ensure that the structural design conforms to acceptable health and safety standards, the relevant public sector officers (Estates Officers) assisted the Civil Engineers to design the structure to reduce reinfection within the facility and also ensuring smooth work flow. 3.Stakeholder: Environment Protection Agency (Classification: Primary) Responsibility: Ensuring compliance to national health and safety standards Involvement in designing, implementation and evaluation: Environmental Impact Assessment was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and and Sanitation Officers Identification and integrating of mitigation measures during the project design Meetings.

The intervention was implemented under a health emergency (COVID-19). Difficulty in mobilizing building materials to site under the restriction of movements of persons and goods. Safeguards issues were difficult to control as the facility was constructed within the premises of an existing medical facility. The project output was achieved and is currently in use. Our organization, intends to use lessons learnt to improve upon project planning and designing by advocacy and influencing policy and mobilizing resources to execute future development infrastructure effectively, efficiently and in a sustainable manner for the people.