Community needs and aspirations identified were harmonizsed by relating them to the key gaps/problems identified under the review of the current situational analysis. Listed below are the prioritised needs of the Mfantseman Municipality:  

• Provision of adequate potable water
• Construction of educational infrastructure
• Provision of office complex for the Municipal Assembly
• Extension of Electricity
• Improvement of Roads
• Construction of Teachers Quarters
• Construction of Markets
• Construction of Clinics/CHPS Compounds
• Provision of Toilets
• Construction of Bridges
• Provide adequate funding for HIV/AIDS activities
• Improve the capacity to provide for emergency
• Provide adequate resources for effective dissemination of information
• Reduce the discrimination against people with disabilities
• Development, preservation and promotion of tourist sites
• Ensure the enforcement of MA byelaws
• Provide adequate office and staff accommodation
• Provide adequate logistical support
• Improve the   level of community Participation in decision making
• Improve Doctor / Paramedical staff –patience ratio
• Reduce the prevalence of communicable diseases like:

       
       -River blindness 
       -Cholera, 
       -Malaria, 
       -Diarrhea. 
       -HIV/AID

• Construction of  drainage
• Reduce the rate of erosion in communities
• Construction of recreational facilities (community centers and children’s parks)
• Construction and rehabilitation road linkages/networks
• Extension  electricity supply
• Provision office accommodation
• Improvement in the  land tenure system
• Construction of complex market and other smaller community market facilities
• Improve  agricultural productivity
• Provision of adequate extension services to farmers and fishermen
• Improving of technical support for Agricultural Development:
• Improving  of technical support for small-scale industrialization
• Reduction in  primitive production technologies
• Improving of  environmental sanitation
• Reduce the pollution of surface and underground water
• Provision of adequate toilet facilities (Institutional and public)
• Improve the  locations of refuse sites
• Provision of adequate refuse containers
• Reduction in  population growth
• Reduce the  incidence of rural- urban migration
• Reduce population density in urban centres
• Improve income levels
• Improve the  nutritional levels (especially in pregnant women and children)
• Improve motivation for Assembly staff
• Improve  revenue mobilization by Municipality
• Make  non-functional sub-Municipal structures functional

Vulnerable

Mfantseman Municipal as viewed under the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy: Poverty is the state of experience of individuals or groups whose basic needs for sustainable livelihood such as water, food, housing, income, and clothing are woefully insufficient and therefore they cannot contribute their maximum quota to national development.

The poor in Mfantseman  are:

• Subsistence farmers and Fishermen about 55% of whom are aged.
• Child Labourers : who are always spotted in the central business district of Saltpond, and other bigger communities. However, there are no official statistics on the situation.
• The unemployed and the under- employed: A large chunk of the able-bodied persons are not in any gainful employment. The unemployed are mainly artisans and those in trades such as dressmaking, hairdressing whose businesses are seasonal and are found doing practically nothing during the lean season.
• The vulnerable: women, children, the aged etc. who are vulnerable to risk and other social upheavals like chieftaincy conflicts and domestic violence.
• The majority of the poor can be found in the deprived communities in the district where basic socio-economic amenities of life needed for human development are absent. The poor can also be found among migrant and unskilled youth (especially women and children) who due to high unemployment rates make provision of basic needs of life a mirage.

The causes of poverty in Mfantseman Municipal:

• High rate of unemployment
• Inaccessible credit facilities
  
  

The people do not have access to available credit because of (i) inadequate information on such credits (ii) high lending rates of between 30% and 40% being charged by the lending institutions. Other factors include non-existence of well-established associations, cooperatives or groups to serve as sources of loans and credit.

Problems of accessibility to the hinterland

Most of the countryside is not opened up enough to the relatively bigger communities. As a result, foodstuffs get locked up and rot at the production points. Information on opportunities does not reach the hinterland on time.

Mismanagement of the available resources

There are instances of physical environmental degradation in the form of deforestation through poor farming practices, bushfires, sand winning and use of prohibited fishing gear.

Lack of Storage and Marketing Facilities

Post-harvest losses are great in the district, compelling farmers (and to some extent fishermen) to offer their produce at relatively low prices.

Ignorance and strong adherence to negative traditional and religious beliefs and practices

These include widowhood rites in the Municipality that keep women out of productive activities for a period of six weeks. Low level of family planning and reproductive health practices

High illiteracy levels

Though, there is no accurate statistics to measure the poverty trend of the district, it is known that Mfantseman has a comparatively high poverty trend due partially to the depleted fish stock, erratic rainfall, low soil fertility, high incidence of disease, high unemployment etc. It is estimated that at least 60% of the total population of the district can be termed as poor and therefore cannot afford certain basic necessities like food, water, shelter, education, health care services, etc. (Source: Standard of living for communities in Central Region 1999). The coping strategies used by the poor include: Remittance from relatives living outside the municipality.

Child Labour

Desperate means of living, e.g. crime and other immoral practices, Unapproved means of exploitation of natural resources e.g. use of prohibited fishing gear, poisoning of game and wildlife, farming on marginal lands because of unavailability of fertile lands etc.

Some poverty reduction initiatives introduced  are:

• Introduction of Productivity Improvement and Income Generating Fund popularly known as Poverty Alleviation Fund
• Rural housing scheme (yet to be implemented). This is meant to build affordable houses for the poor
• Introduction of education fund to help brilliant but needy students
• Food and material, donation to needy communities
• Introduction of Emergency Social Relief Programme) ESRP)
• Introduction of self-help supports
• Introduction of Social Investment Fund (SIF)
• ADRA/World Vision/Hunger project and other NGO interventions aimed at improving rural income.
  
  

Village Infrastructure Project (VIP)

The Assembly has conceived medium to long-term strategies for reducing poverty among which are:

• Improvement of infrastructure in needy communities
• Creating marketing avenues for farm/fish products
• Issuing credit facilities to micro and medium scale enterprises skilled training for unemployed youth

Development Partners and Non governmental Organizations in their efforts to implement their mandates have initiated the following programmes towards poverty reduction in Mfantseman:

• Organization of skills development training workshops on mushroom, bee keeping, snail farming, book keeping etc
• Complimenting  Assembly’s support in provision of schools, furniture, feeder roads rehabilitation, building of KVIP and provision of Potable water etc
• Supporting community/ group farmers and fishermen with credit facilities to improve production and income levels
• Linking products of farmers/fishermen to marketing centres outside the Municipality. Providing modern conservation technological advise to farmers/fishermen.