Accra, Ghana//-Kumasi Metropolitan Area has beaten Accra and Tamale metropolitan areas to the top spot in the latest Ghana Cities Monitor (GCM) ranking.
While Accra Metropolitan and Tamale Metropolitan areas ranked second and third, the report which was recently released in Accra, said.
According to the GCM report, in the overall scores, Kumasi Metropolitan Area scored 41.0, followed by Accra Metropolitan and Tamale Metropolitan areas with 39.3, and 34.2 respectively.
The GCM which was launched in partnership with the CDD-Ghana is aimed at strengthening evidence-informed decision-making in urban planning and encouraging accountability in the governance of Ghana’s major cities – Accra, Kumasi, and Tamale.
Major components
The GCM report which measures service delivery in 23 cities in Ghana’s three largest metropolises-Accra, Kumasi, and Tamale- and 20 municipalities and their neighbouring municipalities in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Northern regions, under six major components.
The components are Environmental Services, Economic Services, Social Services, Economic Infrastructure and Safety, Security and Disaster Management.
In a presentation which focused on the report, Research Analyst, Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Gildfred Boateng Asiamah explained that social services component measures accessibility to, affordability and quality of services in education and health as well as social protection issues such as holding insurance policies, access to social support schemes and investment dividends or earnings.
The environmental services component, according to him, assesses the availability and quality management of sanitation, waste services and pollution/climate change experiences at the household and local government area levels.
The economic infrastructure component gauges the accessibility to, affordability, convenience, efficiency, and effectiveness of key services such as transportation, housing, water, electricity, and communications that are crucial to building a competitive and resilient urban economy.
The economic services component evaluates: availability of physical market facilities (i.e. the presence of sheds, loading/offloading spaces, sanitary conditions, and local government efforts in ensuring good sanitary conditions); access/use of digital markets (i.e. the frequency of use of digital marketing platforms for transaction; the convenience, trust, availability, quality and affordability issues involved); and employment status/type of economic activity, and the availability of economic assistance (i.e. skills training/transfer programmes).
The local governance and social inclusion component takes into account the extent to which local government bodies promote participation, transparency and accountability in local governance, and the level of interpersonal trust and social tolerance, Mr Asiamah added.
The safety, security and disaster management component measures people’s sense of safety and interaction with security agencies or personnel; and the prevalence and handling of disasters by city authorities.
General observations from the GCM Data
“The scores indicate a disproportionate performance between the cities in the south (Greater Accra region) and those in the north (Northern region). We also see a similar situation when we compare the cities in the middle belt (Ashanti region) and those in the north (Northern region)”.
He noted that the environmental services, economic infrastructure; safety, security and disaster management perform well across all cities featured in the GCM report.
Contrary to this, social services, local governance and social protection and economic services performed poorly across all cities, Mr Asiamah added.
Additionally, social service delivery is a critical challenge in the three metropolitan areas, and more predominant in Kumasi and Accra.
Data collection tool
The CDD-Ghana with funding support from the Hewlett Foundation embarked on the GCM project to track experiences of citizens residing in some cities in Ghana regarding the ease of living.
It designed an 18-page survey questionnaire with 106 block-questions consisting of 336 question items (including demographics) for the collection of experiential data from citizens living in the survey areas.
A large part of the block-question and question-items (that is 89 block-questions made up of 314 question-items) were used in computing the GCM.
Generally, the questions were closed-ended with ordinal response scales having two or more levels, arranged by their order of strength or intensity (a high value implies a high score).
All the questions’ response options had a minimum score of 0 but varying maximum scores depending on the level of intensity of response options.
The GCM survey took place in 150 urban enumeration areas (EAs) located in selected metropolitan areas in Accra (three sub-metros), Kumasi (five sub-metros) and Tamale (two sub-metros) as well as 20 selected municipalities.
While 100 out of the 150 urban EAs were shared across the 10 selected sub-metros within the 3 metropolitan areas according to their proportions in the cumulative population for the 10 submetros.
Similarly, the remaining 50 EAs were distributed across the 20 selected municipal areas in accordance with their proportions in the cumulative population for the 20 municipal areas.
Data collection procedures
Specific urban EAs within each of the metropolitan or municipal areas selected were randomly selected from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) 2021 population and housing census frame.
In each EA, 16 face-to-face interviews with randomly selected adult citizens (that is 18 year and above) were conducted by trained field enumerators and supervisors using the English language or any of the local language translations (Twi or Ga).
Data collection for the GCM report took place from November 10 to 27, 2022 with 2,400 respondents (that is 150 x 16). This sample size yields a margin or error of ±2.0% at the 95% confidence level.
Objectives of the GCM
The objectives of the GCM report according to the researchers are to stimulate more significant public engagements on urban governance and quality of life in the cities; provide timely citizens feedback on the delivery of public goods and services in the cities; encourage responsiveness and accountability of city authorities in the delivery of public goods and services; and empower citizens to hold their city authorities accountable.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic in the urban centres exposed: the weak capacities of urban authorities, inadequate access to social services, poor infrastructure, and the stark inequalities among the urban population relative to access to basic services and sustainable livelihoods.
Ghana is one of the rapidly urbanising countries in the world. Global urban populations are projected to increase from 4.4 billion in 2022 to 6.5 billion in the next three decades. Africa has an average annual urban growth rate of 7% and a few cities exceeding 10%.
