IncluCity: Improving Governance and Services for Ghana’s Urban Poor

IncluCity: Improving Governance and Services for Ghana’s Urban Poor

Through the IncluCity program, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with support from Cities Alliance, Global Communities works with residents and municipalities to improve services for underserved, urban communities in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. Working closely with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), the program increases the participation of slum residents in governance, inclusive planning and budgeting processes, while building the capacity of the assemblies to generate revenue. Global Communities works with national stakeholders and city-wide with municipal leaders, representatives and urban service planners, as well as on the community-level by training residents in inclusive governance and participatory planning and budgeting. With these new skills, residents are able to hold the assemblies accountable for the services they provide. Residents also take part in developing Community Action Plans which feed into the assemblies’ medium-term development plans. In this way, the communities’ needs are identified and then incorporated into the cities’ formal development plans, so that the communities’ priority projects are actually included in the budget and implemented as part of the cities’ wider strategy.
The program also specifically targets 59 underserved communities to help improve the municipal services they receive. Through a small grants program communities are able to secure support and funding to implement projects which benefit the entire community. Such projects have included community water tanks to provide clean, potable water; market structures; street lighting; school and community libraries; and improve sanitation facilities. Through the IncluCity program, the AMA and STMA supported the creation of the Citizens’ Report Card, which is a tool to provide local government with critical feedback on service delivery from resident. The card helps provide citizens and government with information on prevailing standards and gaps in service delivery as well as acting as a monitoring tool to assess improvement in the quality of service delivered over time.