District Local Economic Development Platforms

The District LED Platform is a multi-stakeholder forum constituted to promote dialogue and the participation of relevant stakeholders in the planning and implementation of LED initiatives at the district level. The Berekum Municipal Assembly has a District LED platform comprising of the Municipal Co-ordinating Director, the Presiding Member of the Assembly, the Municipal Planning Officer, the Municipal Manager of the Business Advisory Centre/National Board for Small Scale Industries, the Municipal Co-operative Officer and two representatives from the private sector. The Bongo District Assembly even has a more expanded membership than the Berekum LED platform. The Bongo District LED platform comprises of the District Planning Officer, District Co-ordinating Director, and representatives from the Department of Community Development, Department of Co-operative, the Civic Union, the National Board for Small Scale Industries, Market Women, the Bongo Rural Bank, traditional authorities and representatives of the three priority economic areas. These platforms are recommended as effective institutional arrangments that could draw key actors together for the organisation of local economic development (Meyer-Stamer, 2004: 10). As Rodriguez-Pose and Tijmstra (2009: 43) point out, the success of local economic development is “based on the formation of broad coalitions of actors, including local stakeholders, international organisations and NGOs, but with local stakeholders owning and taking the lead role in the process.” The platforms are thus intended to bring all relevant actors from diverse backgrounds together to work collectively and make local economic development promotion a shared agenda.

The existence of a multi-stakeholder partnerships, like the District LED Platform or LEDA is indispensable in the successful design and implementation of local economic development initiatives, (Helmsing, 2003; OECD, 2010; ILO, 2012). The convergence of actors does not only facilitate information and knowledge sharing, it also allows for joint action in the formulation of

110

local economic development strategies/initiatives, (Helmsing, 2001: 72). Aside the identification of district comparative and competitive advantage(s) and planning for their promotion, the District LED platforms are also expected to develop proposals and solicit financial support to implement their LED initiatives. The District LED platforms are also expected to intensify revenue mobilisation efforts to support the implementation of local economic development initiatives in the districts.

The idea of District LED platforms as mooted by the international development agencies in Ghana was to provide an institutional arrangement on which LED activities in the districts could revolve. As Meyer-Stamer (2003: 12) notes, the literature often depicts “a romantic view which cycles around concepts such as dialogue, consensus and roundtables.” But the formation and sustenance of such institutional arrangements at the district level in Ghana remains a big challenge to the District Assemblies. In addition, the District LED platforms have not been effective or responsive to their mandate. From the South African experience, where LED platforms have been instituted in almost every municipality, research has shown that these local economic development agencies are bedevilled with a lot of challenges. It has been observed that:

• The status of LED fora and their responsibilities were not clearly specified.

• Many actors in the fora did not have a fair idea of the LED concept, and the functions of the fora.

• The fora in most cases entail a large number of actors who often engaged in “unstructured brainstorming processes”.

• The effectiveness of the fora activities “suffered from time constraints, particularly on the part of the private sector representatives in the fora” (Meyer-Stamer, 2004: 10). The picture of District LED Platforms in South Africa is not different from that of Berekum and Bongo Districts in Ghana. In both districts, it is difficult to distinguish between District LED platforms and the District Planning and Coordinating Unit, which is an organ of the District Assemblies. The only distinguishing feature I found was the inclusion of some representatives of the private sector and traditional rulers in the District LED platforms. In both districts, I observed that the District Planning and Coordinating Units (DPCU) of the Assemblies virtually perform the function of the District LED Platforms. From my participation in the Bongo LED action planning session, I noticed that the few additional participants added to the District Planning and Coordinating Unit to form the District LED platforms were more or less observers than active participants as planning activities were basically undertaken by the DPCU. Nonetheless, key decisions like the selection of priority areas for LED interventions were taken by the District LED platform. In addition, members of the platform actively participated in the LED action planning sessions in Bongo.

111

The survey results depict mixed feelings among the micro and small scale enterprise operators in both Berekum and Bongo Districts about efforts by their District Assemblies to promote District LED platforms. As shown in Table 5.7, while a good number of the respondents in Bongo (45.34%) rated the effort of the Assembly in promoting LED platforms as good, an overwhelming majority of their counterparts in Berekum (90.67%) rated the effort of their Assembly as poor.

Table 5.7: Promotion of Local Economic Development Platforms

DISTRICT

BONGO BEREKUM TOTAL

N % N % N % Poor 15 10.00 136 90.67 151 50.33 Fair 65 43.33 12 8.00 77 25.67 Good 68 45.34 2 1.33 70 23.33 Excellent 2 1.33 0 0.00 2 0.67 Total 150 100.00 150 100.00 299 100.00

Source: Field Survey, 2011

Yet, during my interviews with officials of the Berekum Municipal Assembly, they blamed the artisans for contributing to the collapse of the LED platform. Although the officials admit that the Assembly’s inability to pay ‘per diem’ de-motivated members of the LED platform, they accused the artisans for always complaining of time when LED fora were organised. In the view of officials of the Berekum Municipal Assembly, the artisans have to show more interest in the activities of the LED platform since it exists to promote the development of their economic activities. This state of affairs does not provide common grounds for a multi-stakeholder partnership involving local government authorities and private sector actors to function effectively. I noticed that whereas the ‘activeness’ of the Bongo District LED platform slowed down after the formulation of the District Medium-Term Development Plan, the Berekum District LED platform has virtually become non-functional. In both districts, it was revealed through my interviews that members of the district LED platforms were disappointed that they were not given ‘per diem’ or sitting allowance when they participate in the LED platform deliberations. As Moss et al (2008: 263) note “the common practice of paying cash ‘sitting fees’ for civil servants attending donor-funded workshops, where the daily rates can exceed regular monthly salaries, turn even training into a rent to be distributed.” In both districts, people saw their membership in the District LED Platform as an office that should attract financial remuneration in the form of sitting allowance. In Berekum for instance, the members of the platform openly demanded the payment of their ‘per diem’ or sitting allowance. When they were told that it was a voluntary exercise, many of them also started withdrawing ‘voluntarily’.

112

By the time my research ended in Berekum, the institution of District LED platform was virtually non-existent. The inability of the District Assemblies to sustain these institutional arrangements is a clear indication of a big problem in the organisation or promotion of the contemporary local economic development approach at the district level, which hinges on multi-stakeholder partnerships. As Meyer-Stamer (2003: 13) notes, public-private partnership functions effectively where the public sector actors show interest and commitment in economic development, particularly in facilitating private enterprise development. But the relationship between the private sector operators and the District Assemblies, particularly the Berekum Municipal Assembly is characterised by mistrust. It appears that the District Assemblies are yet to be convinced about the need to prioritise private sector development in the district development agenda.

Clearly, some form of institutional arrangements has been put in place to promote LED in the country. But as discussed in this chapter, these institutional arrangements especially those at the district level are not only becoming ineffective, they appear to be dying out. Similarly, as discussed, it is extremely difficult to have a concrete partnership arrangement at the district level to promote local economic development. As it stands now there is no network of actors in the districts working towards the formulation of a joint vision and strategy for the promotion of local economic development strategies/initiatives.