Decentralization is not working - Project officer

Wa, March 16, GNA - Mr. Eugene Yirbuor, a Project Officer of SEND Foundation, has observed that the current Unit Committees in the Upper West region were constitutionally illegal because none of them had been inaugurated.

He said the committees had become unattractive and as a result very little was being seen in terms of popular participation in decision making regarding the allocation of development resources beyond the District Assemblies.

He made these observations in an article on 93Citizens Participation in the Development Process" in the latest issue of HIPC Watch Update, the Foundation's News Letter at Wa. Mr. Yirbuor noted that community members had been reduced to voters' status in the decentralization process with little or no other right in the development process of their communities.

"The Area Councils and Unit Committees which are purported to provid= e a window of political opportunity for grass root participation have become dysfunctional".

He said out of the stipulated total membership of fifteen, most of the Unit Committees in the region could not boast of more than three members. "Elected Assembly persons who are supposed to represent the views of the community members at the Assemblies have also failed the people woefull= y in this regard", he added.

He said his organization believed that decentralization could be deepened through the promotion of direct citizen's engagement in policy which he termed as promoting decentralization on the demand side.