Vulnerability
Disability and Social Life in the District

Exclusion and the negative perception about people living with disabilities have greatly affected the psycho-social make-up of the disabled in the District. Disabled people interviewed have psycho-social problems due to exclusion, financial difficulties, poor access to proper medical care and other basic social services.  A sizeable percentage of PWDs in the District do not participate in family activities whiles others are either consciously or unconsciously excluded from all kinds of community activities. 

Women Empowerment

Participation of women in the political life of the District is not encouraging.  Currently, there are only three Assemblywomen who are government appointees to the assembly. Considering the role women play in both the local and national economy, the low participation of women in the decision making process of the District means that their views would not be fully reflected in development activities, and this has serious implication for the overall development of the District. Currently, the Assembly has no concrete plans to promote women’s activities in the District.

National Disaster Management Organization

National Disaster Management Organization became fully operational in the District in September, 2009. The organization has eleven operational zones in the District with eleven zonal staff. The organization so far distributed a number of relief items to victims of disaster throughout the zones. The table below shows the service level of the organization.

No report of disaster was recorded since the first quarter of 2010. The secretariat has no office accommodation left alone office equipment, such as table, chairs, computers and accessories. There are no personnel also in the secretariat. The secretariat currently has only one staff-District Co-ordinatorPotential,

Opportunities, Constraints and Challenges (POCC) Analysis

A very important criticism about Development Planning issues in recent times has centered on the poor or total inability to implement the beautiful plans that are put up by development planners.

Local development planning aims at the mobilization of resources for the achievement of local development goals. For that reason, it is essential for planning to acquire sufficient knowledge about the scope, volume, quality and specific locational aspects of resource availability, and to realistically assess its prospects for future utilization.

Since the effective use of resources for development purposes is intricately linked to the formulation of development policies which state the direction of the local development process, resources inventoried have to be assessed according to their effective contribution to the accomplishment of such goals. Likewise, there are factors that hinder successful implementation of projects/programmes. To this end, there is the need to undertake resource inventory.

The POCC analysis is a tool used to streamline the prioritized development issues and interventions before they are programmed for implementation. This analysis is important in helping to fine-tune development goals, objectives, policies and strategies. About Nineteen development issues of the Ketu North District have been subjected to this analysis, as indicated in Table 2.6.

In this report, Potential, Opportunities, Constraints and Challenges have been defined as follows:

Potentials

Potentials are latent strengths or untapped resources in the District, which are capable of being tapped for the District’s development. e.g. Availability of bye laws on internal revenue generation.  

Opportunities

They are positive and development enhancing factors that are external to the District, and on which the District does not have direct control. For example, availability of the DACF and LGSDP Funds.

Constraints

Constraints are internal factors (within the District) that inhibit or restrict the District’s efforts to unearth and fully utilize its potentials. e.g , bad terrain, low communal spirit etc.

Challenges

They are negative external factors that inhibit the pursuit of development interventions in the District.