[{"bbox": [97, 152, 1134, 205], "category": "Text", "text": "outlook on growth in services and agriculture and rising prices which are outpacing the income growth of those at the bottom of the distribution."}, {"bbox": [97, 218, 1134, 458], "category": "Text", "text": "**Ghana's economic and human development is also vulnerable to climate change.** The number of recorded incidences of disasters across the country saw an increase of 25.9% in only one year, passing from 1 926 cases in 2021 to 2 426 in 2022. On average, flooding use to affect around 45 000 Ghanaians every year. In 2023, due to heavy rainfalls, 40 000 people living downstream of the 3 major dams had to be displaced and tens of thousand of resident living in some neighborhoods in major urban areas like Accra, Sekondi Takoradi, Tamale suffered from floodings. Without prompt actions, higher temperatures and heat stress will further affect crops and labor productivity, and more erratic rainfall patterns will damage buildings and infrastructure. Land degradation, water insecurity and local air pollution will also hamper human capital and productivity and the impact will be more severe on persons living in poverty or otherwise margianlised."}, {"bbox": [97, 483, 1134, 697], "category": "Text", "text": "The country has pursued **decentralisation** reforms over several decades as part of wider efforts to enhance good governance. The system follows a four-tier structure, covering i) 16 regions; ii) 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs); iii) sub-metropolitan district, urban, and town councils; and iv) unit committees. Having gone through a phase of extensive decentralization and continuous creation of local governments (MMDAs), there has been a recent trend towards centralization of service delivery based on a deconcentrated rather than devolved model due to regular inefficiency in the implementation of the decentralization. MMDAs remain at the heart of local development but they have to compose when implementing their strategy with agencies, ministries and the private sector."}, {"bbox": [97, 707, 1134, 842], "category": "Text", "text": "At the same time, Ghana has been undergoing **rapid urbanization**, increasing from 50.9% in 2010 to 56.7% of its population living in urban areas in 2021¹⁶. This steady increase has been driven by a combination of factors including rural-urban migration due to rural poverty, natural population increase and administrative re-classification with a substantial proportion of the urban population residing in intermediate cities and smaller towns, which are likely to account for the majority of urban growth over the next two decades."}, {"bbox": [97, 853, 1134, 1037], "category": "Text", "text": "The country is now about halfway through urbanisation. While the first period of urbanisation has generated dividends in job creation and opportunities, improved living conditions and reduced poverty for many Ghanaians, the country now faces the challenges of economic efficiency, urban under-employment and social inclusion within its urban areas, where globally basic services are still lacking or are not accessible. According to the World Bank (2022), the percentage of unemployed youth within urban communities stands at 13.6 %, which is higher than in the rural communities in Ghana at 10.4 %. Also, in Ghana, youth accounts for 36 % of the population, whereas 56 % live in urban areas¹⁷."}, {"bbox": [97, 1050, 1134, 1182], "category": "Text", "text": "Projections from World Bank Data (2021)¹⁸ suggest that urbanization levels will increase to 63% and 73% of the population 2030 and 2050, with 6 million additional urban population over the period 2021-2030 and 19.9 million over the period 2021-2050. Unlike other sub-Saharan African countries, where analysis of recent census suggest a slowing down of the growth of the urban population or counter-urbanization¹⁹ the Ghanaian case reveals an urban future."}, {"bbox": [86, 1198, 340, 1229], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [97, 1258, 316, 1285], "category": "Text", "text": "Short problem analysis:"}, {"bbox": [97, 1296, 1134, 1377], "category": "Text", "text": "Challenges in urban development in Ghana are not new. The 2012 National Urban Policy, the recent National Decentralization Policy and Strategy (2020-24) and the brand new Urban Policy mention that poor service delivery can be attributed to multiple policy and institutional challenges including:"}, {"bbox": [135, 1391, 937, 1418], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Lack of clear functional assignments and overlapping roles and responsibilities;"}, {"bbox": [135, 1431, 1134, 1484], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Continuous fragmentation of local government and a corresponding proliferation of new MMDAs (most of MMDAs are currently too small to be viable);"}, {"bbox": [86, 1520, 448, 1546], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁶ UN Habitat Country Brief, Ghana (2023)"}, {"bbox": [86, 1545, 1130, 1597], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/658821597419558922/pdf/Youth-Employment-Programs-in-Ghana-Options-for-Effective-Policy-Making-and-Implementation.pdf"}, {"bbox": [86, 1597, 595, 1622], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ World Bank's Climate Risk Country Profile, Ghana (2021)"}, {"bbox": [86, 1622, 507, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ Potts, 2009, 2012; Catteneo and Robinson, 2020"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 30"}]