Complexity in local stakeholder coordination: decentralization and community water management in Northern Ghana
Jackson, E.T.; Gariba, S.
Public Administration and Development 22(2): 135-140
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0271-2075 DOI: 10.1002/pad.215Document Number: 250783
Stakeholder coordination is a prominent theme in current development discourse. Experience with decentralization and community water management in northern Ghana highlights the complexities of coordinating stakeholders at the local level. In this case, roles and responsibilities must be clarified between legislated sub-district structures on the one hand, and civic water groups on the other. This is especially important with regard to resolving which party should collect revenues and manage assets and expenditures in the water sector. The key mechanism for addressing these issues is the District Assembly, which is empowered under the decentralization law to coordinate stakeholders, both 'horizontally', across social actors, and 'vertically', between the national and sub-district levels. While such local-level dynamics are indeed complex and challenging, they are at the same time probably more amenable to at least medium-term resolution than stakeholder competition issues at the national level.
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