Information and Policy Decision Making in District Assemblies of Ghana

Under Ghanäs local government system,Assemblies are local councils and assembly members are representatives of their respective assemblies. The system places assembly members at central policy decision making in the governance process. This makes the assembly members as a group take significant and strategic decisions that impact immensely on performance of the assembly. They attend assembly meetings where plans, policies, bye-laws and budgets are agreed upon. They also serve on committees and are consulted on issues affecting their constituencies. But ability to examine public policy, investigate and debate issues, and measure the performance of the executive is dependent on availability of relevant information. Most often they do not have access to relevant information to prepare for committee debates, assembly meetings, policy analysis and programme implementation. This book, therefore, addresses the information needs of assembly members and provides strategies to enhance information provision to them.It will be of interest to policy makers,assembly members, information providers, technocrats and administrators who support the decision making processes within the assemblies.