Nii Welbeck

In Ghana, the fundamental problem confronting local assemblies is the widening gap between the availability of financial resources and their spending needs. The local assemblies are mostly blessed with an abundance of natural resources of various kinds, from which adequate revenue can be generated to support local economic growth and development. The management and control of natural resources, however, seemed centralised, posing challenges to efficient management and utilisation of accrued revenues to the benefit of the people. Decentralising the management and control of natural resources could be more beneficial since it will enable the widening of the fiscal space of local assemblies. This research therefore explored how Decentralising the control and management of natural resources can enhance service delivery and local economic development. The research deployed the qualitative research method and used the case study research design by relying on selected local assemblies endowed with mineral natural resources in Ghana. Data was collected from key stakeholders including both the central, and local government officials and traditional leaders through interviews. The participants were selected through on purpose using the purposive and snowball sampling methods. The thematic method was used to carry out an analysis of the study. The study revealed that fiscal decentralisation of natural resource control is not extensively practised in Ghana. The local assemblies are less included in the management and control of the resources and thus have no direct benefit from the revenues generated from the exploitation of the resources. It is deduced further that there are legal frameworks that guide the control and management of natural resources in Ghana, however, these frameworks are not comprehensive enough. The country partly relies on some of its laws spelt out in the constitution in the control and management of natural resource exploitation, which includes fewer local assemblies. The central government is unwilling to include local assemblies to participate actively in the management and control of natural resources. In conclusion, local assemblies derive no direct benefit from the resources mostly found at their doorstep. This affects their fiscal space, leading to inadequate finances towards local economic growth and development. The assemblies have the required capacity and only need the support of the central government to manage, control and generate revenue from their natural resources. To help local assemblies less endowed with the resources to benefit as well, co-management of the natural resources could be a good strategy.

Challenges associated with the natural resource management and control framework by Local Authorities (LA) in Ghana

1.2 Problem Statement In Ghana, natural resources are seen commonly as belonging exclusively to the state (Hinneh, 2017). People destroy natural resources through various activities such as land degradation, deforestation, and illegal mining in forest reserves, among others, without any thought of the survival of the environment. A belief that “it belongs to the government" produces a disturbing pattern that puts the environment in a horrible condition. For example, data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows that deforestation has been described as a critical environmental problem and since the early 1990s, Ghana has lost over 33.7 per cent of its forests, which is equal to 2,500,000 hectares. The main drivers in Ghana are activities like small-scale farming, timber harvesting, land conversion and mining. The CREMA concept focuses more on the preservation of natural resources and less on how revenue from the management of these resources can be leveraged for local-level development. Another limitation of CREMAs lies more with having the appropriate legal framework to back CREMAs. Right now, all the CREMAs in Ghana are surviving based on the fact that there is policy documentation. Indirectly, there is some legal strength and legal support for CREMAs-which says that local government authority reserves the right to enact byelaws to support processes they think will be useful to them. Further, the CREMA and its practice do not provide any fiscal benefit to the local authorities as the revenue derived from natural resources mostly accrues to the central government.

CAPACITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN MANAGING NATURAL RESOURCES FOR LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (LED) IN GHANA

This record relates to the presentation slide deck based on the thesis of the same title, which summarises key points from the research. The presentation explores how decentralising natural resource management in Ghana could increase local government revenue and improve service delivery. It draws on interviews with key stakeholders and recommends a co-management model to give local assemblies more control and benefits.