The Central Region has been ranked 7th out the ten regions of the country in terms of development.
The region with 59 points managed to beat regions like the Eastern, Northern and Volta region which had 56 , 55 and 54points respectively with the Ashanti region topping the chat with 63 points.
This was revealed by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) in its ‘2016 District League Table’ at a workshop held for Local Government authorities in Cape Coast.
The District League Table, which is an initiative of CDD-Ghana and UNICEF-Ghana, is a ranking tool used for measuring the level of development in each of Ghana’s 216 Districts.
Districts are ranked based on their service delivery across six key public sectors, including health, Governance, Education, Security, Sanitation and Water.
Among the 20 districts ranked across the region in CDD’s development analysis, Awutu Senya East Muncipal Assembly took first place with an average top score of 74.4% whilst Ekumfi came last with the lowest average score of 41.9%.
The analysis also reveals poor sanitation as a major challenge facing the region as no community in the 20 ranked district attained an Open dedication Free status.
According to a research officer at the CDD, Mr. Mohamed Awal, the purpose of the exercise is to strengthen social accountability in development across the 216 Districts of the country aimed at improving responsiveness in service delivery.
He added that the data will help equip the citizenry with the facts to demand accountability from the various local assemblies especially on service delivery thereby causing the authorities to come up with policies that will improve livelihoods in the various parts of the country.
Meanwhile the Central regional Minister Kwamena Duncan has lauded the work of CDD in coming out with the chat and says it will guide the coordinating Council in its policy implementations especially in monitoring the various assemblies to bring about the needed development in the region.