Administrative Structure

The Municipal Assembly has representations of 10 decentralised departments though some of the departments do not have the full complement of the units required for the department.  The statuses of the departments are as follows: 

1. Central Administration
2. Department of Food and Agriculture
3. Education and Sports-GES
4. Finance
5. Health
6. Works Department
7. Department of Social Welfare and Community Development
8. Trade and Industry -Department of Cooperative 
9. Disaster Prevention and Management-NADMO
10. Physical planning-Town and country Planning

Other organisations are

• NCCE
• CHRAJ
• NFED
• National Service
• Centre for National Culture
• Electoral Commission,
• Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS)
• Police Service
• A functioning Magistrate Court

Some functions of these organisations include

1. Carrying out educational campaigns on government policies and programmes. 
2. Mobilising people for community participation.
3. Arbitrations functions
4. Security and
5. Education
6. Other structures that assist in governance and planning are 
7. The Traditional Authorities,
8. Youth Associations
9. Town Development Committees
10. Religious bodies 

These other structures exercise much influence on the community and very helpful in governance such as mobilisation of persons for implementation of programmes and projects.

General Assembly

 Administratively, the Municipality has six substructures (6 Zonal Councils) namely: 1. Savelugu Zonal Council 2. Nanton Zonal Council 3. Pong Tamale Zonal Council 4. Tampion Zonal Council 5. Diare Zonal Council 6. Moglaa Zonal Council

And thirty five (35) electoral areas. Politically the municipal has one constituency namely savelugu Constituency.

• The Municipal Assembly is made of 65 Assembly persons. The composition of the Assembly is as follows
• 45 Elected persons ( 1 Females)
• 20 Appointed persons (2 Females)
• 2 Members of Parliament ( A male and a female)
• The Municipal Chief Executive
• A presiding member.
  
  

There is the need to sensitize women to involve in leadership positions and decision making. The Assembly performs its functions through the Executive Committee and a network of subcommittees. The executive functions are performed by the Executive Committee which is presided over by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and consists of not more than one-third of the total number of members of the Assembly, excluding the Presiding Member. It exercises its executive and co-coordinating functions of the Assembly through the five sub-committees that collate and deliberate on issues relevant to their functional areas. The sub-committees are as follow:

• Development Planning sub-committee
• Social Services sub-committee
• Works sub-committee
• Finance and Administration sub-committee
• Justice and Security sub-committee
  
  

To ensure effective administration of the Assembly, the MCE is supported by a secretariat or central administration which is headed by the Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD) who reports to the MCE and is in-charge of the day to day administration of the Assembly.

Development Partners

The Assembly recognizes the enormous contribution of its development partners which includes the private sector, Donors and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Some of the Development partners and their areas of operation are listed as follows:

UNICEF - Sanitation & Hygiene

PRING - Agriculture, Nutrition, Sanitation & Hygiene

Global Communities - Water

GDCA - Local Governance

NORSAC - Local Governance

RING - Local governance/sanitation/nutrition, Agric

Telecommunication

There are telecommunication services in the Municipality. Almost the entire Municipality is covered by cellular phone services by MTN, Vodafone, Aitel/Tigo and Glo services. Ghana telecom line phone services are however not in the Municipality.

The absence of fixed line services has made it extremely difficult to access other ICT services such as the broad band internet services in the Municipality.

 
Key Development Problems

1. Non functioning substructures
2. Politicisation of issues
3. Chieftaincy divide
4. Inadequate staff
5. Inadequate logistical support for decentralised department
6. Inadequate accommodation for staff

Common Fund

Districts Assemblies' Common Fund

The District Assemblies’ Common Fund receipts for the 1st and 2nd quarters for 2006 summed up to One billion, six hundred and fifty million, five hundred and thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty-four (01,650,539,984.00). This amount is being basically used to service outstanding debts in respect of projects awarded in 2005. Indeed some of the outstanding bills may have to be carried over to 2007. The list of these projects was captured in the DCE’s 3rd Sessional Address.

Hon. Presiding Member, Ladies and Gentlemen, other funds received during the period under review include the following: Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). An amount of three hundred and sixty million cedis (£360,000,000.00) was received. This amount has been used to undertake the construction of the following projects: 1No. 6-RoomTeachers' Quarters at Kpong at a total cost of #250 million cedis. The project is at roofing level. 2 No. 3-Classroom Blocks at Nanton and Tampion at a total cost of #350 million cedis each. 

Whilst the Nanton project is completed and put to use, the one at Tampion is still at sub-structure level. Unfortunately, funds for the HIPC projects have ceased to flow, a situation which has brought two of the projects to a stand still. The Assembly is making every effort to impress upon the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment to release funds for the completion of the projects.

Ghana AIDS Commission/M-SHAP

The sum of One hundred and ninety-eight million, five hundred thousand cedis (198,500,000.00) has been received under the M-SHAP for 2No. Non Governmental Organizations, 3No. Community Based Organizations and INo. Faith Based Organization to carry out activities on the Prevention and Behavioural Change Communication on HIV/AIDS; as well as Research, Surveillance and Monitoring and Evaluation.

District Directorate of Health

As you are no doubt aware the Assembly constructed a 24-Bed Ward for the Savelugu Hospital. Works on the project was completed in July 2006 and was consequently taken over by the Assembly. I am happy to inform you that the facility is in use.

Donations

Through the initiative of a son of this land, a Saudi philanthropist donated a sum of Fifty-three million cedis (053,000,000.00) to the Savelugu Hospital. This amount has been used to provide basic equipment for the ward.

National Youth Employment Programme

The National Youth Employment Programme took off in the District in June 2006. Three hundred (300) people carefully selected district wide are benefiting from the Agric-Business module of the programme. A total of 600 acres of maize have been ploughed with each beneficiary taking (2) acres.
The distribution of the beneficiary farmers per each of the zones in the district is as follows: -

1. Savelugu    105
2. Diare    50
3. Nanton    120
4. Pong-Tamale    25

      Total    300

Cost of ploughing the 600 acres was borne by the Assembly from its Poverty Alleviation Fund. So far only 750 bags of compound fertilizer have been received from the Ministry of Manpower and Employment as against One thousand, two hundred bags (1,200) expected.

A three member Task Force Monitoring Team which comprise the following have been formed:

• The District Youth Coordinator
• District MoFA Director
• Sex
• The NADMO Co-ordinator

Their basic function will be paying regular monitoring visits to the farmers and providing them with professional advice and support where necessary. The underlisted packages are also in progress under the programme: 60 Youth have been registered for pupil teaching 55 Youth being registered for employment as Auxiliary 
 
Health Staff

1. 60   Youth   registered   for   employment   as   Community   Policing/Protection Volunteers
2. 40   Youth   Are   being   registered   to   benefit   from   an   (ICT)   Information Communication Technology training.
3. 60 persons will be considered under Waste and Sanitation Management

Hon. Presiding Member, Assemblypersons, it is now crystal clear to every Tom, Dick and Harry that the NPPs campaign message of turning the fortunes of the nation around through the creation of jobs and moving the country to a middle income status by the year 2015 as enshrined in GPRS II is not a rhetoric. I wish to urge all good meaning citizens irrespective of their political affiliations to lend their support behind the government to improve upon the living standards of the people.

Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)

Ladies and gentlemen, I am also pleased to inform you that Savelugu Municipal is one of the 25 lucky districts nationwide selected to benefit from the Millennium Challenge Account. MOU for the commencement of implementation had been signed, and very soon we shall start seeing the fruits of the multi-billion cedi grant in the District. In this respect, the Assembly is making feverish preparations to take advantage of the various packages under the programme.

Ghana School Feeding Programme

The NEPAD School Feeding Programme now called Ghana School Feeding Programme commenced implementation shortly before schools closed last term at the Kpalan R/C Primary School. Impact of the programme has been tremendous in terms of increase enrolment. Again, May I reiterate my call on parents not to refuse to send their children to school on account of poverty since the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme have come to solve this problem.

The other schools selected to benefit from the programme in order of priority are as follows:

 Name of School:
1.    Nyolugu Primary School
2.    Dohi Primary School
3.    Sahani Primary School
4.    Zoonaayili Primary School

Experience gathered from the Kpalan implementation has been that the communities are apathetic towards the programme. This is because the construction of the kitchen which was a pre-requisite for the selection is yet to be done. I wish to appeal to the Kpalan and Kodugzegu communities through their Assemblyman to be more patriotic and rise up to the challenge. Similar appeal is being made to the Assemblypersons of the other selected communities, that they should start constructing their kitchens more especially the people of Nyolugu since they will be enjoying the facility come the beginning of next term.

ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND GREEN ECONOMY

The people of the Municipality are faced with common disasters which predispose them to vulnerability. These disasters include: floods, droughts, wind/rain storm, fire outbreak and pockets of conflicts.

Floods in the Municipality are often caused by spillage of the Bagri dam, occasional excessive rainfall, farming along river banks resulting in siltation and building on water ways. The effects of which are destruction of crops and houses, loss of livestock, emergence of water borne diseases and abundance of fishes.

Droughts in the municipality are caused by erratic rainfall, deforestation and bush fires and the effects of these are: food insecurity, malnutrition, and water shortage.

In the Municipality, storms are often caused by deforestation and its effects are destruction of buildings and crops, loss of lives and property

Bush fires are caused by activities of hunters, charcoal processing, smoking, honey tapping and bad farming practices and the effects are: Loss of lives and property, Food insecurity, Loss of crops and soil degradation.

The pockets of conflicts in the Municipality are often caused by chieftaincy and land disputes and the effects are loss of lives and property, famine.

The Municipality has therefore prepared a disaster preparedness plan which they are implementing to reduce the shocks.

All the communities in Savelugu Municipal Assembly deliberated on their needs and aspirations based on guidelines provided by the Assembly and prioritized them at the Community level. The Municipal Capacity Building Teams (MCBTs) established by the Assembly then facilitated community representatives at their various zonal councils and compiled their needs and aspirations.

The community needs and aspirations were harmonized with development issues identified from the review of 2014 – 2017 performance and profile.

Human Security Human Security (HS) is driven by values relating to security, stability and sustainability of development gains. HS underscores the universality of a set of rights and freedoms that are fundamental to human life.

Savelugu municipal envisage HS as the protection of the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment”

• Protecting fundamental freedoms
• Protecting people from severe and pervasive widespread threats and situations
• Processes that build on peoples strengths and aspirations
• Creating systems that enhance survival, livelihood and dignity

The municipal since its establishment has not recorded any form of violence or conflict the MISSEC in collaboration with opinion leaders and other key stakeholders over the years have worked so hard to ensure that peace prevails all the time.