CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Many nations transitioned from highly centralized, sometimes autocratic regimes to democratic systems dedicated to more effective and responsible administration throughout the 1980s. This new development paradigm, which emphasizes locally planned and executed development methods over centralized development, is gaining traction (Chambers, 1997). Its acceptability may be seen in the increased use of decentralization policies, community-driven development initiatives, and participatory project design and execution methods. The focus on people as important providers of knowledge, time, and other resources to the development process is a distinguishing feature of this paradigm. Advocates claim a number of advantages, including lower project costs, a stronger feeling of local ownership, better beneficiary targeting, community empowerment, and democratization of local government (Beard, 2007). This paradigm change has a number of causes. Decentralization is an efficient technique for reorganizing governments in the Western world in order to make public service supply more cost-effective (Bennet, 1990). It is linked in Latin America to popular political demand for democracy. In Africa, it is credited with acting as a bridge to national unification (World Bank, 1999). According to the report, 63 of the 75 developing nations with populations more than 5 million people are actively implementing decentralized action policies that delegate duties and responsibilities to local governments. Many factors have contributed to the growing interest in decentralization and citizen participation in developing countries, including a worldwide recognition that governments cannot solve socioeconomic problems on their own, and a global recognition that governments cannot solve socioeconomic problems on their own. Due to the failure of government-led development in many Least Developed Countries (Laquian, 2005) and urbanization with its attendant problems of crime, squalor, congestion, and so on, neoliberal economists advocated a reduction in government roles in development through international lending agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). As a result, good local government, also known as democratic urban decentralization (Olowu, 2002), is widely recognized as a tried-and-true remedy for the ‘urban illness.' Advocates think that democratic urban decentralization is the best method to manage urbanization in poor nations (World Bank, 2008), ensuring that employment are created, infrastructure is built, and poverty is eradicated (Davey, 2005). Rapid urbanization poses significant difficulties to cities in terms of enhancing human settlement conditions. Simultaneously, urbanization offers a chance to harness both economic and human resources to address the many issues that cities face (Davey, 2005). This potential can only be realized if cities are managed by effective local governments with adequate institutional incentives and the ability to mobilize financial resources in order to keep up with population and income growth while also managing their finances to promote human and economic development. Inadequate services exacerbate the issue of urban poverty since they disproportionately affect the urban poor. In summary, the current state of urban services puts the three main objectives of urban administration in jeopardy: job generation, infrastructure supply, and poverty eradication (Davey, 2005). The underlying problem is a significant and increasing imbalance between revenue-generating capability and spending requirements, which is created by a mismatch between municipal functions and resources. The fiscal gap often increases when cities' insufficient and inelastic income bases fail to keep pace with rising spending requirements due to fast urban population growth. The issue of widening fiscal gaps is most apparent and common in African cities, although it is not exclusive to them. These bring up the idea of including beneficiaries in the service delivery process in order to guarantee that the limited resources available to many local governments are used wisely and efficiently. “Citizen Participation is the justification for putting decentralization into practice,” according to the Institute of Local Government Studies [ILGS] (2006: ), and that decentralization and participation are essentially intertwined in meaning and substance due to their goals. Beard (2005) supports this assertion, stating that "from a policy standpoint, successful decentralization is predicated on the assumption that citizens, through Civil Society Organizations, will undertake many planning and service-delivery functions previously the responsibility of various levels of government." In reality, this means a shift away from an elitist paradigm in which expert opinion serves as the authoritative source for regulation and toward one in which people have a say in how government policies are framed. Bourgon (2007) believes that public participation has both intrinsic and instrumental value. It has inherent worth since it encourages citizens to be more engaged. It improves public dialogue, openness, and accountability, and expands the range of options available to people. It serves a useful purpose by generating discussions that lead to broad-based support for government policies. In this way, it lowers political costs and increases the chances of government measures succeeding.

1.2 Statement of the problem

In underdeveloped nations, public confidence in the public sector's ability to provide services that are in line with citizens' desires has traditionally been low since public input is seldom solicited. Politicians and bureaucrats are often seen to be more interested in rent-seeking activities than in providing services that their constituents want. Drawing medium-term development plans, determining fees, and preparing municipal budgets are all done in Techiman without sufficient public participation, and even when it is done, the comments are seldom incorporated into the plans and budgets. As a consequence, there is a widespread lack of interest in the Assembly's operations, as shown by the abandoned GTZ-funded contemporary market in Tuobodom and trade groups' indifference toward tax payment as the Assembly struggles to achieve its income goals. It is argued that, because the ultimate goal of government (whether central or local) is to promote development in order to improve people's quality of life, the government's business must encourage people (the ultimate beneficiaries) to participate in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the development process. The "decentralization thesis" of Oates (1972) proposes that "each public service should be supplied by the authority having control over the smallest geographic region that would internalize the benefits and costs of such provision." “The authority that decides the degree of supply of any public benefit should encompass exactly the set of people who consume the product,” according to the idea. The state is required under Chapter 20 of Ghana's Fourth Republican Constitution of 1992 to include ordinary people in the decision-making process: Act 462, which requires MMDAs to start their own programs with public participation in planning, execution, monitoring, and assessment, puts this constitutional requirement into action. Despite all of these legislative protections, and as previously mentioned, decision-making on service delivery in most districts, including Techiman Municipality, is not without issues. This is demonstrated by the non-use of existing amenities in certain villages within the Municipality, such as public restrooms, teachers' bungalows, market stalls, and nutritional centers, to name a few, as well as residents' reluctance to pay their taxes. This kind of policy direction requires empirical data to guide plan development and execution.

1.3 Objective of the study

The primary objective of the study is as follows

i.          To Identify the various forms of citizen participation in the Municipality;

ii.        To Examine citizen participation in decision-making in the Techiman municipality;

iii.      To Examine citizen involvement in service delivery in the Techiman municipality

iv.      To know if improvement in  citizen participation of service delivery

1.4 Research Questions

The following questions have been prepared for the study

i.          What are the various forms of Citizen Participation in the Techiman Municipality?

ii.        How do citizens in the Techiman Municipality participate in decision making?

iii.      How do citizens in the Techiman Municipality participate in service delivery?

iv.      What problems does the assembly go through, in their quest to engage citizens?

v.        What opportunities exist in the Assemblies to facilitate Citizen Participation?

1.5       Significance of the study

The significance of this study cannot be underestimated as:

1)        This study will examine  An analytical examination of Citizen Participation And Service Delivery In Techiman Municipality in Ghana

2)        The findings of this research work will undoubtedly provide the much needed information to government organizations, service delivery agencies in Ghana and academia

1.6       Scope of the study

The study will examine  An analytical examination of Citizen Participation And Service Delivery In Techiman Municipality in Ghana

1.7       Limitation of the study

This study was constrained by a number of factors which are as follows:

 just like any other research, ranging from unavailability of needed accurate materials on the topic under study, inability to get data

Financial constraint , was faced by  the researcher ,in getting relevant materials  and  in printing and collation of questionnaires

Time factor: time factor pose another constraint since having to shuttle between writing of the research and also engaging in other academic work making it uneasy for the researcher

1.8       Definition of terms

Citizens participation:  a process in which ordinary people take part – whether on a voluntary or obligatory basis and whether acting alone or as part of a group – with the goal of influencing a decision involving significant choices that will affect their community.

Service delivery: a component of business that defines the interaction between providers and clients where the provider offers a service, whether that be information or a task, and the client either finds value or loses value as a result. Good service delivery provides clients with an increase in value.

REFERENCES

Beard, A. V. (2007). Household contributions to community development in   Indonesia, World Development 35(4). Retrieved on 24/06/10 from www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev’t.

Bennett, R. J. (Ed.). (1990). Decentralization, local governments and markets. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Bourgon, J. (2007). Why should governments engage citizens in service delivery and policy making? Retrieved August, 24, 2010 from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0WX6k1vMi7IJ:btstk.org.t

Chambers, R. (1997). Whose reality counts (2nd ed.): Putting the Last First. Accessed on 29/09/13, from http://www.google...=bv.53217764,d2G4.

Davey, N. (2005). Metropolitan governance and urban poverty. Public administration and Development, 25(4), 351-577

Laquain, A. A. (2005).Metropolitan governance reform in Asia. Public Administration and Development Studies, 40(3), 1-26.

Oates, W. (1969). “The effects of property taxes and local public spending on values: An empirical study of tax capitalization and tiebout hypothesis.” Journal of Political Economy, 77, 957-71.

Olowu, D. (2002). Better governance and public policy: Capacity Building for Democratic Renewal in Africa. Bloomfield: CT Kumarian Press.

r/oecd/oecd-yonetisim-canada.pdf+Bourgon+2007.

World Bank. (1999). World development report 1999/2000: Entering the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Get this material NGN 5,000

Message Us on WhatsApp  »