The Relevance Ofthe District Assemblies’ Common Fund To Human Resource Development: The Case Of Wenchi District Assembly

ABSTRACT

In Ghana, the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) is established to make Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) financially sound to implement their development programmes. Human resource development is among the areas that benefit from the DACF. The objective of the study was to examine how the DACF was used to develop human resources of the Wenchi District Assembly WDA).

Descriptive research approach was employed to achieve the objective of the study and thirty respondents were sampled for that purpose. Data used in this study were gathered through personal interviews with selected local government practitioners. The data was processed and analysed with the use of Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) version 11.0 to generate certain conclusions.

The study revealed that, first; the WDA did recognise HRD and allocates part of DACF for that purpose but placed much emphasis on other programmes over HRD. Second, WDA financed its HRD programmes from multiple sources. Third, orientation and refresher courses were the most common HRD programmes undertaken by WDA. The study recommends, among others, that the Assembly should allocate a specific percentage of DACF to HRD programmes, strictly enforce DACF utilisation guidelines, and to further explore other sources of funding to support its HRD programmes. Furthermore, HRD planning should be done in a co-ordinated manner to cover all categories of people within the Assembly.