As Ghana’s longest-serving Minister of Local Government (1988-2000) and the Minister in whose time the architecture of Ghana’s Decentralization Programme was constructed and implemented, I am proud to be among the most enthusiastic supporters of The Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management (AISWAM) and should be one of the first to welcome the Institute on to the decentralized local government scene. An Institute such as AISWAM is long overdue, as a logical consequence of the decision to decentralize critical service provision functions to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within the framework of the principle of subsidiary.
We have decentralized the sanitation and waste management function to the MMDAs, but we have not developed the capacity of the MMDAs to manage the waste; and neither have we developed the awareness of the localities, communities and the general public to the dangers of indiscriminate waste disposal and of their real costs. This is what AISWAM has set out to do. Capacity-building is a sine qua non to effective decentralization.
Unfortunately, capacity-building has often been seen as necessary for political, administrative, planning and fiscal decentralization only. Yet what makes decentralization an attractive governance option for residents of localities and communities is its ability to deliver services efficiently, cheaply and timorously. Sanitation and waste management are two of those “cradle to grave” services which human beings ignore at their peril, yet seldom do we hear of initiatives or institutions specifically set up to manage waste effectively, efficiently and scientifically. AISWAM has therefore come at a most opportune time to fill a vacuous gap that has been crying to be filled. The Institute’s vision of making Ghana and West Africa a cleaner, greener and healthier environment is in accord with the original vision of using Ghana’s decentralization programme to deliver on district-level development and effective service delivery.
AISWAM must however not see itself as an exclusively academic enclave, insisting on qualifications and specialized admission requirements for all its programmes. The real movers and shakers of sanitation and waste management in Ghana are the uneducated and not-so-educated sanitation and waste management staff and employees of the MMDAs. The Institute must specifically target them and formulate custom-made capacity-building programmes for them so that their knowledge can be improved, and their capacities built to enable Ghanaians have real practical benefit from the Institute’s existence. I welcome AISWAM on board Ghana’s decentralization train.
I hope that it will stay true to its vision so that Ghana’s attainment of middle-income status will be manifested not only in wealth generation and wealth distribution but also in a salubrious environment where best practices in sanitation and waste management will become a matter of routine and not a matter of exhortation. I wish AISWAM all the best.
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi
GIMPA
GIMPA