The Government of Ghana (GoG), with support from the World Bank (WB) has implemented the Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP). The LGCSP project was designed and implemented as part of the overall efforts to strengthen the capacity of 46 Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) 46 MMAs) that existed at the time of project design and other institutions with particular focus in the area of Fiscal Decentralization and Public Financial Management Reforms. The LGCSP became effective November 15, 2011 and has been running. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) contracted Plan Consult to carry out a Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the LGCSP. The overall purpose of the mid-term review was to provide the Government of Ghana, the World Bank and interested Stakeholders with an independent assessment of the performance and outputs towards achieving the Project Development objectives. As per the Terms of Reference Plan Consult:
- Reviewed and validated whether the underlying assumptions and project development objectives are still relevant and achievable
- Reviewed and determined the extent of compliance with project covenants (fiduciary, safeguards, etc.)
- Reviewed and determined the extent to which the stated objectives of each of the components are progressively being achieved
- Reviewed and determined the extent to which implementation is contributing to the overall achievement of project development objectives
- Reviewed the FOAT Assessments Indicators and determine whether based on the revision and the current scores of MMAs, the assessment tool should be revised and/or upgraded
- Identified and documented lessons learnt during project implementation
- Made recommendations based on the overall review findings to improve the overall performance, achievements, of the project development objectives and sustainability of the project
- In light of the LGCSP implementation experiences and the two diagnostic studies (Urban Hierarchy study and the Urbanization Review) put forward some key issues to provide basis for stakeholders’ discussions on the future actions to consolidate and further deepen Decentralization and Urbanization agenda in Ghana.