THE GHANA Living Standards Survey, 2007, launched by the Ghana Statistical Service some weeks ago indicated that Ghana has attained some reduction in poverty levels across the country and was thus likely to meet the Millennium Development Goal I (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015 by next year.
However, the same report noted that in spite of the fact that poverty levels were reducing nationwide, urban poverty remained a challenge as many people.
It is in view of this that the ministries of Finance and Economic Planning and that of Local Government and Rural Development in partnership with the World Bank has put together a draft report on "Urban Development and Growth Policy in Ghana" to find ways of addressing the many challenges of urbanization.
At a round table discussion by stakeholders on the subject in Accra on Tuesday, the World Bank Country Director, Mr. Marts Karlsson stated that the challenges of urbanization, of urban poverty and of managing modern urban lives was one big risk that was facing the country.
He said a look at Ghana today gives thought that progress was being made, such that poverty was down, saying, "now we have more numbers to the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) that this is indeed the case and in an accelerating way allowing Ghana to achieve the MDGs of reducing poverty by half."
He added, "So lets look at the GLSS, which is showing that while poverty is going down all across the country, we have seen a challenge in the urban areas with a new phenomenon of urban poverty."
According to him, other figures such as that of traditional export, which was going up also indicate that Ghana was transforming in some way, noting that Ghana was currently developing without funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but was focused on macro stability and considering the use of the international market in a sustainable and responsible way, stressing, "so a lot of things are moving in the right direction."
Mr. Karlsson said in spite of this, when one asked people about whether the country was moving in the right direction, "many people will say we are not. We don't see the jobs being created, look at this floods that just washed away our houses and killed people without reason."
He pointed out that this was not the way to create a future Accra and Ghana where people lived together in urban areas because urbanization is a significant part of development.
Further, he noted that some identified reasons for the poor state of urbanization that arise include the unsustainable use natural resources as a country since government's coordination with some development partners on natural resources showed that the country lost 1% point of growth and 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) of wealth every year due to mismanagement of natural resources.
The World Bank director indicated that urban poverty may not be at that level of minimum living standards but it is certainly challenging for the people who live there, saying, "so this new generation of challenges has to be faced with a concerted approach and result targeted."
He mentioned that this was where the quality of life is challenged, a new generation of people is subjected to a lot of bad conditions and Ghana perhaps can yet avoid situations such as the slums of Nairobi among others.
He stated that these issues were obviously related to governance, democracy, how mayors are elected or appointed, how districts and municipal councils were formed and the level of participation as well as ensuring accountability and transparency in municipal affairs.
"Secondly, its about finances and physical decentralization, size of the common fund, many other of those issues and that in turn is closely related to of course how land issues and management, property registration, street naming as basics would allow land and property taxation to earn them more resources for municipal councils and creating a better livelihood of services to be provided."
As a response to the situation, he said, "we join together and now we are responding to that as partners to a government direction as was set with a new natural resources and environment governance programme."
In addition, he noted "and on top of that, we are creating a partnership that is really innovative, looking at results, resources and simplifying the way we do business and taking new steps forward in a way that will allow Ghana to lead its development partners in a new way."
According to him, the World Bank has a history of engagement with urban policy in Ghana and a long series of projects in past years but noted, "there are good aspects of development we are associated with but I think we need a new generation of engagement."
He pointed to current engagements such as projects in the area of urban environment and sanitation, urban water, saying there was $3 million in grants waiting to be used and an additional $45 million for urban transport.
He expressed hope that suggestions in the joint draft policy would respond to some kind to urban projects in the years to come to help support government's strategies both at the central and municipal levels.
"These are some of the ideas that are being put forward and you can use the methodology of urban planning to create better hopes of growth and employment generation."
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