'We are Not the Only Ones to Blame': District Assemblies' Perspectives on the State of Planning in Ghana

Planning has failed to exert effective influence on the growth of human settlements in Ghana. As a result, the growth of cities has been chaotic. The district assemblies, which are the designated planning authorities, are commonly blamed for this failure, yet little attention has been given to district assemblies’ perspectives of what factors lead to failures in planning. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Drawing on fieldwork in Ghana, it argues that, from the perspective of district assemblies, five major challenges inhibit planning, namely: an inflexible land ownership system, an unresponsive legislative framework, undue political interference, an acute human resource shortage, and the lack of a sustainable funding strategy. The paper concludes with proposals for reforming the planning system in Ghana.


Introduction
From a population of 6 million in 1957, the number of people in Ghana increased steadily to 18 million in 1996 (Ghana Statistical Services 2000), and is now about 24 million, the majority of whom reside in cities (UN-Habitat 2009). Globally, this 31 The authors acknowledge the helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper by the anonymous reviewers for CJLG.
conditions and circumstances, their physical surroundings, and existing institutions (Adams and Annum 2005).
According to section 12 (1) of the Local Government Act (Act 462) of Ghana, it is the responsibility of local governments (district assemblies) to plan cities and towns. Other institutions which collaborate with district assemblies in performing this role are the Survey Department and the National Development Planning Commission.
The main planning function that the district assemblies perform is development control 33 the carrying out of building, engineering, mining and other operations on, in, under or over land or the material change in the existing use of land or building and includes subdivisions of land or disposal of waste on land including the discharge of effluent into a body of still or running water and the erection of advertisement or other hoarding (Section 162, Local Government Act). (Flynn-Dapaah, undated). That is, controlling: In principle, district assemblies follow two stages to control development. The first entails the declaration of an area as a 'statutory planning area', the appointment of a planning committee to determine the present and future needs of the area, and the preparation of a base map to be used by the Town and Country Department to prepare a planning scheme. The second step requires the publication of a planning scheme, an invitation to the public concerning permit applications and their subsequent assessment or evaluation. However, across these two stages, it has been established that there are several problems that inhibit effective development control. These challenges are discussed below.

Ineffective planning: The perspective of district assemblies
Most evaluations of planning in Ghana reveal severe deficits. The district assemblies undertake little forward planning and the few plans that are prepared are rarely implemented. For instance, between 1996 and 2000, most district assemblies did not implement any of the medium term development plans which they prepared (Mensah 2005). Therefore, the normative sequence of planning-servicing-building-occupation has now been replaced with occupation-building-servicing (Adarkwa & Akyaw 2001:203). Antwi and Deankin (1996) have noted that urban areas are dominated by problems of unauthorised developments, lack of infrastructure, poor sanitation, health hazards, fire hazard, crime and squatter settlements. Planning in Ghana has been reactive rather than proactive and does not "proceed on sustained planning basis" (Larbi, 1996:212). More recently, Ubink and Quan (2008:202) have described physical development in Ghana as haphazard. Other issues include planners using short-term measures to resolve intractable problems, and urban settlements that lack essential services such as adequate water supply and sanitation facilities. According to Hammond (2001) the institution of planning has done little to improve the design and functioning of the towns and country in Ghana. Several evaluations have also shown the deficit of effective urban management in Ghana (see Konadu-Agyemang 1991;Gough 1999, Gough andYankson 2000;Yeboah 2003;Grant 2009). What they do not show is why this problem persists. Moreover, evaluations of the district assemblies' role as planning institutions have tended to be mainly accusatory. In contrast, this study draws on in-depth field investigation and analysis to 'hear the voice' of those assemblies. The main research question is: What are the challenges district assemblies face in performing their role as planning agents?

Methodology
The field research was carried out between November 2009 and March 2010. Four district assemblies were chosen to reflect the urban and rural continuum in Ghana, and to take into account the different socio-economic, tenurial, and cultural characteristics of northern and southern Ghana (see Aryeetey-Attoh and Chatterjee 1988; Konadu-Agyemang 2004; Grant and Nijman 2004). The case study areas were the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (an urban area in the south), Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Assembly (a peri-urban area in the south), the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (an urban area in the north), and Savelugu-Nanton District Assembly (a rural area in the north). This paper, therefore, discusses the problem of planning based on evidence from two urban areas, one peri-urban area, and one rural area.
Within the case study areas, 200 structured questionnaires were administered to private property developers randomly selected from a list of applicants for planning permits.
Other respondents were selected through a 'strategic informant sampling technique'. A focus group discussion was held with the traditional authorities in Ejisu to understand the planning problems entailed in land management. In addition, two key players in customary land ownership and management were interviewed in each of the other three study areas in order to establish the planning and land management challenges from their perspective. Likewise, two core members of staff of the planning department were interviewed in each of the four case study areas. At the regional level, two respondents each were drawn from the Lands Commission, 34 the Land Administration Project, the Regional Coordinating Council, and the Town and Country Planning Department, which are the allied bodies involved in land management and spatial planning. At the national level, a total of 11 key stakeholders were interviewed. They were selected from the Lands Commission, the Land Administration Project, the Town and Country Planning Department, and the National Development Planning Commission. All the data collated from the different interviews was first transcribed into Microsoft Word and coded for examination and interpretation using content analysis.

Findings
Responses from the field survey revealed that there are several challenges which inhibit planning efficiency. Five of these are particularly pervasive, namely: inflexible land tenure systems; a weak legislative framework; undue political interference in the planning process; weak human resource capacity; and inadequate funding. These issues are inextricably linked and are mutually reinforcing. Furthermore, they are national in character, although Van Leeuwen and Van Steekelenburg (1995), Adarkwa and Post (2001), and Heuber and Veer (2001) have noted that the problems are more pronounced in urban areas owing to population pressures. The rest of the paper discusses each of these problems in turn, highlighting how they inhibit effective planning.

The land factor
Planning is predominantly a spatial activity. As such, the management of land (mode of land alienation and the existing systems of tenure) has far-reaching implications for effective planning. It may even be asserted that whoever controls landholdings controls the land market and determines the nature of urban planning (Gareth 1991;Olima 1993;Kivell 1993 Effectively, the implementation of the plan is left to the customary land holders. It is their land and the final authority in terms of how they want their area to look rests with them. To them, an approved plan is only a proposal by the district and not definitive. You cannot force them to release their land to implement the plan and there is no guarantee that an area zoned for a particular use will indeed be used for the particular purpose.
to ensure effective land management, there is a recurrent problem of ineffective coordination and harmonisation between customary land holders and planning institutions in Ghana. Some customary landholders sell land for purposes which are different from the uses for which planners zone them. There is, therefore, no guarantee that the content of the plan can be realised in practice unless the landholders consent to the plans. This problem was revealed by one of the directors of planning, who noted that: In effect, the district assemblies and the other planning institutions are at the mercy of landholders in their attempt to implement development plans (see Larbi 1995;1996;Kasanga et al. 1996;Ubink and Quan 2008).
Even though in theory a permit is needed from the district assemblies before one can acquire land for a particular development, in practice the allocation of most land is done without sufficient reference to planning requirements. This was noted by all the planning officers interviewed. In the Savelugu-Nanton district, for example, the planning officer conceded that: The case was no different in Tamale, where one officer noted that: The fact that we continue to write stop work and produce permit on ongoing developments may be the clearest indication that people do not acquire any authorisation from us before they build. The situation can only change if we are actively involved in the land transfer processes.
In Kumasi, similar observations were made by the metropolitan director, who said: Furthermore, most traditional authorities and some individuals engage in the multiple sale of the same land to different people, a situation that has led to several land-related cases in the law courts. As of 2003, it was estimated that there were about 60,000 land cases in Ghana (Kasanga 2003).

The legislative framework for land use planning
A sound legal basis is important for effective planning because it provides the supportive regulatory powers to the planning authorities to facilitate the achievement of planning objectives and goals. However, in Ghana, the planning laws have established a framework which is not very responsive to the socio-cultural and economic context. One regional planning officer asked rhetorically: As a country, we need to rethink our planning. How can we still be using [town and country planning] laws and ordinances which were enacted in 1945? These laws are practically very limited in terms of their usefulness to our modern life.
The laws governing the requirements for obtaining a planning permit are a case in point.
To obtain a building permit, a prospective developer in Ghana is required by Section 5 (3) of the National Building Regulations to provide the following: 2009). Generally, it is estimated that less than 50 per cent of the urban population can satisfy the planning requirements in Ghana (Dowall 1992:23). In turn, there is significant incentive for breaching those requirements (De Soto 1989;2000). As one planning officer said, the requirements for permit applications can be 'scary and intimidating'.
Another officer noted: In light of the above, why these long lists of requirements continue to exist is puzzling.
What is clear is that the legal framework is a major contributory factor to the poor state of planning in Ghana.

Human resources
Planners need a blend of academic training and practical experience to appreciate and respond to the growing spatial challenges. To be effective, they require the ability both to analyze societal needs and to formulate policies and strategies to address them. A planner should, therefore, have a good understanding of socio-economic, political, cultural, and demographic issues and be competent in their analysis. Professionals with these essential planning skills are lacking in Ghana. A regional planning officer's rendition of this problem is revealing: We are four planners and two sub-professionals who are responsible for the whole of the [Northern] region. We are responsible for 20 local planning authorities, about 2.5 million people and a land size of about 70,000km 2, which is One official interviewed for this study noted that: [Ghana's] population is fast growing but the number of planners keeps shrinking. Those who are retiring, dying, and resigning are not [being] replaced. The result is there for us all to see. If nothing is done urgently, Ghana will be left with no planners in the next few years.
It is a problem that is likely to worsen as about 23 per cent of the existing professional planners are due to retire in the next five years (TCPD 2009:4).

Political influence
Planning is a tripartite activity, involving a professional bureaucracy, interest groups, and politicians (Kivell 2003:8). Thus the process is necessarily political. The Statutory Planning Committee (SPC) of each district is the technical body responsible for assessing applications, and enforcing development plans. The SPC is inter-departmental, made up of officials from the Town and Country Planning Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Survey Department, the Fire Service, and utility companies. It meets periodically to assess applications for planning permits. The composition of the SPC is cross sectional in order to ensure an integrated approach. The chairman is the chief executive of the local government authority, who is appointed by the central government (Gyampo 2008).
As the representative of the central government, the chief executive officer is the single most powerful political person in the district, and the most influential in the SPC. So, although the chief executive may not be a professional planner, his views on planning issues can override professional planning decisions, echoing Flyvberg's (1998:323) assertion that in open confrontation between technical rationality and power, rationality yields to power. One planner recounted that: The politician is only motivated by the desire to win or retain power which is a matter of vote. A nicely planned neighbourhood does not vote but people who live in unapproved developments do. There is no chance for any [planning] proposal succeeding if our political leaders think it has the potential to affect their electoral fortunes.
This view resonated with an earlier opinion by another official that: The politician who should back you to enforce our plans is interested in his own political cost and benefit analysis. If to him [or her], strictly implementing and enforcing the plan can be costly [politically], then that is the end of it. After all what do they lose when plans are not implemented? As long as politicians will continue to have a big say in the implementation and enforcement of plans, then succeeding as planners will be difficult.  Table 1 shows the results from the last two presidential elections. The table suggests that there is some truth about the political affiliation of residents in Sukura and Sodom and Gomorrah. As part of an urban renewal programme, the AMA earmarked the slum settlements in both Sukura and Sodom and Gomorrah for demolition.
When work commenced at Sodom and Gomorrah, the residents threatened to defect en bloc to the opposition NPP, and asked whether the government did not know that the place was a slum when they campaigned in the area for their votes (Daily Graphic 2009).
This threat drew a quick intervention from the president, who instructed the AMA to discontinue the eviction. According to the president, the chief executive officer had to "suspend the decongestion exercise [because ]… when we are working to improve the economy, it is not proper for us to treat our people in this manner" (

Options for Improving the State of Planning
The combined effect of the problems discussed above is a situation where rapidly For example to address the land problem, the policy recommends that: Land development planning for the purposes of human settlement will have to make adequate provision for the population density, growth and distribution pattern; physical growth, including direction of such growth (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development 2010:46).
With regards to laws related to land use planning, the policy suggests that: [Efforts] must be directed at searching for and adopting new and innovative means of promoting development control and enforcement of regulations in our towns and cities (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development 2010:47).
Again, the policy recommends that: Laws regarding access and rights to land must be reviewed to avoid discrimination on basis of gender and social status (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development 2010:47) These aspirations are welcome. The challenge, however, is to think through possible ways of achieving them, and thereby overcome some of the problems this study has outlined. The following are some specific suggestions for the improvement of the planning situation in Ghana.

The land factor
The land challenge for planning results from the fact that land is mainly held privately while planning remains a public function. Under this arrangement, the district assemblies are mandated to control the growth of human settlement through the granting of development rights by issuing planning permits. Assemblies are limited to approving, modifying, or refusing applications for development rights. This approach has, however, schools, and hospitals, and the remaining land would be 'readjusted' into suitable parcels for development. Also, services such as improved water supply, roads, water, and electricity would be provided.
Assembling peri-urban lands for the purpose of planning and servicing ahead of urbanisation in this way has two main benefits. First, land pooling acts as an urban containment strategy. Secondly, it ensures that planning influences the future growth of settlements. Earlier analyses by Acharya (1988) and Archer (1988) have provided a review of the strengths of land pooling and adjustment. More recent studies by Gurumukhi (2003), Karki (2004), Home (2007), and Ballaney (2008)  Valley experiences respectively). Land pooling, therefore, promotes coordination between planning authorities and landowners, an outcome which has remained elusive under the current land management policy.

Funding
The provision of adequate and sustainable funding for the core operations of the local planning authorities is central to the success of any planning reform. The authorities currently raise funds through various application fees, fines, and search for zoning status fees. Only a few town and country planning departments generate sufficient funds to meet their operational expenditure. For example, in the fast urbanising Accra metropolitan area, the planning authority generated more than 10 per cent of its expected annual expenditure in 2009. In the peri-urban area of Suhum, the activities of the planning authorities generated four times their annual budgeted expenditure between 2006 and 2009. In Ejura, Kintampo, and Kumasi, the operations of the planning authorities generated an estimated 50-75 per cent of their annual expenditure. However, as noted earlier, these revenues are for the use of the local government as a whole. So, the planning department still depends on annual budgetary allocations that may be inadequate.
One way to resolve this problem could be to introduce ring fencing of revenues for the planning department. Although there are no studies in Ghana to determine the effectiveness of this mode of funding, evidence of the benefits of ring fencing in countries such as Denmark, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, the United States of America and Hungary highlights its merits (Jokay et al. 2004;Lacsmandi et al. 2004;Falk 2004).

Human resources
To overcome the crisis in human resources, a twin strategy could be considered. First, the state could train more professional planning personnel who have the requisite knowledge for managing human settlements. Out of the 30 accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana, only one trains planners. Since the 1980s, the planning profession has failed to attract students mainly because it is considered to be uncompetitive in terms of remuneration.
Thus a second strategy to improve the human resource needs for planning is to improve wages and other working conditions for planners, especially at the local level. Currently Thus in the short term, the human resource challenge can be tackled to some extent by attracting the 169 planners currently employed in other organisations by offering competitive salaries and benefits. In the long term, there needs to be a radical realignment of planning education in all tiers of the Ghanaian education system. The introduction of accredited planning programs in tertiary educational institutions across the country will be vital to addressing the human resource shortage.

Concluding remarks
Planning has the fundamental goal of creating places that are economically vibrant, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. However, these expected outcomes of planning have only been achieved in Ghana to a marginal extent. There is a proliferation of uncontrolled informal structures in almost every available open space in the built-up areas. Cities are rapidly sprawling and gradually losing their basic infrastructure and services. Planning in Ghana has failed to become effectively futureoriented and has instead remained reactionary.
Most writing and analysis has tended to blame 'planners' or the 'planning institutions' for these deficiencies. However, this paper has shown that the planners and the planning institutions themselves work within severe constraints, ranging from issues in land ownership and supply, through poor funding and inadequate human resources, to a weak legislative framework. They are correct in saying that: 'We are not the only ones to blame'. This perspective shows that nothing short of a comprehensive strategy that addresses both the failings and justifiable concerns of district assemblies can improve the effectiveness of planning in Ghana.