1.0 Faculty                             :           Faculty of Local Government Administration

2.0 Programme Name           :           Master of Arts in Local Governance

and Management

 

3.0 Duration                           :           Two Years

 

4.0       Background

 

Ghana’s decentralization process has seen the creation of District Assemblies as organizations that must be managed in a professional manner.  District Assemblies are concerned with how best to manage their business successfully within the administrative and political system in which they operate. But striving for success through the optimal transformation of input to output in a quality manner requires a healthy structure, process, material and environment conditions. It is important that the necessary human resource is available to deploy the limited resources at the local level to meeting the prioritized development needs of people in the locality.

 

The Master’s programme in Local Government Administration and Organization is a two-year programme tailored to meet capacity gaps and career development goals of local government practitioners and persons interested in pursuing a career in local governance. The programme is designed in response to the challenges and opportunities pertaining to local government with emphasis on the transfer of appropriate skills, knowledge and attitudes for a new working ethos in local administration.

5.0       Justification for the Programme

With the establishment of the local government service the challenges facing administrators in the discharge of their statutory obligations will be enormous and for them to be effective it is important that they are abreast with trends in modern administrative and management practices. They must possess detailed understanding of the local government system and be able to take up leadership role by employing appropriate management tools that will not only mobilise internal resource but provide an interface for community members and interest groups to keep engaging administrators in finding solutions and creating opportunities towards local development. This course will equip students to become effective leaders by exposing them to critical managerial functions that does not only focus on the day-to-day administration in assemblies but to enable them to develop strategic approaches for quality service delivery.

6.0       Aims and Objectives of the Programme

The purpose of the course is to contribute to the development and improvement of local government administration particularly in Ghana by focusing on the local government environment, players, legislation, functions and roles and providing opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information among students. It will enable local government practitioners to appreciate their roles as developmental agents and equip them with tools and techniques to harness various resources at their disposal to bring about meaningful grassroots development. The objectives of the programme are:

• To equip students with advanced academic knowledge and skills for job performance in the local government sector
• To expose students to tools, techniques and trends in modern day local government administration for effective management and leadership in assemblies
• To examine and relate systems, functions and roles of local governments from comparative study of other countries
• To foster independent and critical thought by educating students in advanced concepts and techniques in local government practice
• To develop in students scholarly and professional research skills and to
• Provide a foundation for further study in professional and academic levels.

The graduate of the Master’s programme will:

• Demonstrate mastery of advanced knowledge and skills and perform leadership roles to advance local government administration
• Demonstrate the ability to use evidence based steps to design proposals and address organisational challenges
• Initiate collaborative relationships with other local government practitioners and stakeholders for mutual and professional support
• Formulate and implement plans for individual and overall organisational development

7.0       Admission Requirements and Target Group

 

The module is designed as Master’s programme therefore the minimum entry requirements shall be bachelor’s degree in the social sciences or any other related subject, and a two-year post graduation work experience. The target group includes all persons who are interested in local governance.

8.0       Career Opportunities

 

Although this course is primarily targeted at practitioners in the local government sector it offers varied job opportunities for persons interested in local governance. The course by its design is rigorous and tailored to strengthen the capacity and experience of students and increase their competence level so that they can adequately fit into and manage organizations operating at the local level including public institutions, private sector and non-governmental organizations. Relying on the strength of the quality of its research, the course provides graduates the opportunity to pursue career in research institutions and chart further academic career paths.

 

9.0 Mode of Assessment

 

The teaching methodology shall include lectures; problem-solving exercises, case study analyses, student participation in seminars, discussions as well as independent studies. Case studies culled from current academic and business publications have been carefully selected to stimulate learning. The entire programme and individual courses will also be assessed through a combination of:

1. Graded Examinations
2. Student Project Report and Case Studies
3. Individual Study and Seminars
4. Internships and Practical Attachments
5. Masters Thesis

 

10.0 Graduation Requirements

 

43. Candidates shall pass all courses and obtain minimum total credits of 43.
44. Candidates shall report a minimum of 4 weeks of internship duly assessed.
45. Candidates shall attend and pass an oral examination on their thesis.
46. To pass a course, a student must obtain a minimum of 50% of the marks available and an average of 55% for all courses.

 

11.0     Programme Structure

 

The programme is designed for completion in four semesters, which shall spread over a period of two years. Each session shall last for an average of 3-4 months with a recess of about 2 months. There are a total of 14 courses packaged into 3 core courses and 3 elective courses per semester. Except for the thesis which is the individual research work, each course will consist of on-campus lectures. There will also be study tours and seminars.

 

YEAR ONE: SEMESTER ONE- CORE

 

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
LGAO 501	Public Management and Governance	3	0	3
LGAO  503	Performance Management in Local Government Sector	3	0	3
LGAO  505	Research Methods	3	0	3
3 ELECTIVES				6
TOTAL		9	0	15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YEAR ONE: SEMESTER ONE –ELECTIVES

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
LGAO 511	Gender Issues in Local Government	2	0	2
LGAO  513	Local Government Organisational Analysis and Development	2	0	2
LGAO  515	Community Governance and Leadership	2	0	2
LGAO 517	Comparative Local Government Systems	2	0	2

 

 

YEAR ONE: SEMESTER TWO-CORE

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
LGAO 502	Framework for Local Governance in Ghana	3	0	3
LGAO  504	Social and Local Economic Development	3	0	3
LGAO  506	Local Government Management Information System	3	0	3
3 ELECTIVES				6
TOTAL		9	0	15

 

 

YEAR ONE: SEMESTER TWO- ELECTIVES

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
LGAO 512	Public Sector Project Management	2	0	2
LGAO  514	Local Government Procurement and Contracting	2	0	2
LGAO  516	Local Government Financial Management	2	0	2
LGAO 518	Strategic Management in Local Government	2	0	2

 

YEAR TWO: SEMESTER ONE AND TWO

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
LGAO 520	Seminar	0	18	6
LGAO  520	Thesis	0	36	12
TOTAL			54	18

 

 

13.0 Description of Courses

 

Year One Semester One

LGAO 501 Public Management and Governance             (3,0,3)

At the heart of politics, policy implementation, public administration, and public management is how can public sector be organized and managed to achieve public purposes? The issue of public governance has become increasingly important with perceived failings of professional self-regulation, the emergence of multi-level systems of political jurisdictions and the expanded role of the private sector, civil society organizations in delivering public services. An effective public governance system is thus a pre-requisite for a functioning democratic state. It is expected that public management and governance will promote socio-economic development and deepen confidence in government and the public sector. The course will analyze the logic of governance and public management. It will examine methodological issues and the relationships in governance regimes and interactions involving national and sub-national government institutions.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. Identify challenges in public management and propose pragmatic solutions through the application of appropriate management tools
2. Appreciate how public management design and decision impact governance structures particularly in local areas.

 

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Decentralisation: Concepts Principles and Application
• Organisational Analysis and Management Principles
• Local Government Policy Making Process
• Policy formulation, implementation monitoring and evaluation
• Human Resource Management in Local Government
• Leading and Managing Change in Local Government

 

LGAO 503 Performance Management in Local Government Sector     (3,0,3)

 

There is increasing recognition that at all levels of government, effective, performance-oriented program management is needed — management that focuses on program quality and on the results achieved using public resources. The drive for reform in the public sector worldwide has focused attention on the measurement of performance in public sector organizations. Local Government faces major challenges today. These include the management of increasingly scarce resources; the provision of modern services in response to public needs; competition for services from outside local government; increasingly complex issues of political control and direction; and the challenge to local government autonomy by central government.  Local government has traditionally been concerned with placing more emphasis on the delivery of primary objectives without corresponding emphasis on secondary objectives, or the determinants of organizational performance. Current strategic management literature suggests that there should be a strong linkage between strategic plans and performance measures. Against this background this course aims to guide a better management development and training for officers in local authorities. It tackles the broad management issues and strategies which affect all local authorities, and all their departments, and covers all aspects of managing, measuring and monitoring resource utilization.

The course will:

• Expose participants to frameworks for strategic and balanced local government performance measurement
• Equip participants with tools and techniques for setting, measuring, analysis and evaluating public sector performance

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Framework for performance management in public sector
• Performance management tools
• Planning and evaluating public sector outcomes
• Contemporary issues in public performance management

LGAO 505 Research Methods                                 (3,0,3)

The focus of research in public/local government administration cuts across many fields including  organisational analysis and practices, producing and using systematic analysis within the policy process, information and communication technologies, leadership, performance measurement, design of incentives, and public accountability. The course considers the specific skills needed by participants to undertake local government research through the application of qualitative and quantitative tools. This course offers an introduction to research techniques and how they can be used to generate quality information about local governments, performance and its enhancement.  Drawing on state-of-the-art methods for research, the course will equip participants with  the knowledge and tools needed to effectively commission and conduct research in  local government.

The course will:

• introduce participants to the concepts and research fundamentals for an effective scoping and planning  of a research
• enable students develop and implement a suitable research design
• Maximize the impact of research findings using appropriate presentational techniques.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• The role of research in the contemporary local government sector
• Classical experimental design as the ‘gold standard’ for research
• Developing a suitable and manageable research design

 

YEAR ONE SEMESTER TWO

LGAO 502 Frameworks for Local Governance in Ghana           (3,0,3)

 

Decentralization has become an increasingly widespread and significant dimension of political and administrative reform in many developing countries since the late 1980s. Decentralization policies aimed at enhancing local government administration in Ghana have been a central part of public policy-making and implementation processes since independence in 1957.  It is assumed that benefits in socio-economic development will accrue through local government being more responsive and more accountable to citizens’ needs and desires. These two benefits are interlinked in that local-level representation and participation is believed to lead to development planning processes and the delivery of public services that are relevant to the local context.

This course examines the concept, evolution and reforms and practice of decentralisation in Ghana. It will draw on and utilize analytical frameworks to determine whether decentralisation reforms deliver the presumed benefits.  It is intended to investigate further the relationship between democratic decentralisation and developmental outcomes.

 

The objectives of the course are to

• Introduce participants to the conceptual framework and theories of decentralization
• Expose students to trends (evolution) in decentralization and local government reforms and processes
• Provide participants with analytical tools for determining the effectiveness of decentralization and local government reforms.

 

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Evolution of Local Governance in Ghana
• Local Government Finance
• Planning and Budgeting in Local Government
• Resource Mobilisation in Local Government

 

LGAO 504 Social and Local Economic Development                               (3,0,3)

 

Good governance concerns the distribution of power in decision-making at all levels -- from national level to community level. In a growing number of countries, financial responsibility and management responsibilities are being transferred to lower levels of government and local communities.  These forms of decentralization are seen as making systems more responsive to local needs and giving the poor a greater voice. However, decentralization can also be a potential driver of inequalities and inefficiencies if not well-conceived and implemented. Given the current global financial situation, it is becoming increasingly clear that the need for better management of available resources was a key element in promoting local development.  But resources for essential programmes throughout governmental administration in many countries are often lacking due to misuse and/or mismanagement.

 

The objectives of the course are to:

• expose students to the need for reform in governance and local administration for the purpose of improving efficiency and effectiveness of programmes and policies towards rapid socio-economic development at the local level
• enable participants develop tools to identify and assess impact of good governance, socio-economic developments within the context of general  local level administration
• improve participation, transparency and accountability in order to combat corruption and maladministration and improve management at sub-national levels.  

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Principles of good governance, local economic and social development
• Participation, Accountability and Transparency in local administration
• Ethics in Local Government
• Tools and strategies for local socio-economic development
• Poverty reduction strategies and interventions
• Impact assessment of governance and socio-economic programmes and projects

 

 

LGAO 506 Local Government Management Information System          (3,0,3)

 

All over the world the public sector is undergoing reforms in order to accelerate the pace of government business. In Ghana the introduction of expedited automation in Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) is aimed at improving the quality and responsiveness of service delivery. There is increasing use of ICT in the education, health, security judicial, etc sectors. This requires workers to obtain and improve upon their computer literacy skills.

The objectives of the course are to:

• introduce students to the importance and relevance of IT use in local government sector
• provide students with IT and computer literacy skills in order to enhance their job performance

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Digital Literacy

• Access : databases
• Excel : spreadsheets
• Outlook : email
• PowerPoint : presentations
• Publisher : desktop publications
• Word : word processing

• Management Information Systems

ELECTIVES – FIRST SEMESTER

LGAO 511 Gender Issues in Local Government                           (2,0,2)

Reducing poverty requires considerable efforts to improve the participation of women and the poor in local governance and resource mobilization and to increase the effectiveness of public service delivery to them. But women’s participation in the operations and decision making of local bodies remains insignificant. Even where involvement exists most women representatives are poor themselves and many lack the social and educational resources to adequately do their jobs. This situation has been attributed to factors that negate equal participation in economic processes and decision making, inequitable distribution of development resources particularly to less productive sectors, declining land sizes and soil fertility, the scourge of HIV/AIDS, among others.

Of late many governments have expressed commitment to gender equality objectives, gender mainstreaming, and greater transparency and accountability

The course will:

• enhance awareness of the importance of integrating gender in local development plans ,budgets and other initiatives

equip participants with skills and techniques of gender related activities including budgeting so that they can oversee the integration of gender concerns during the formulation and implementation  of national and district gender sensitive interventions.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Gender and Development
• Introduction to Gender Policies
• Gender, Governance and Political Participation
• Gender, Labour and Employment
• Gender Budgeting
• Gender Analysis for Monitoring and Evaluation
• Gender Mainstreaming in Local Governance

LGAO 513 Local Government Organizational Analysis and Development       (2,0,2)

Organizational development (OD) focuses on making sure an organization has the right ‘fit for the future’ in order  to achieve its strategic ambitions. It includes:

• changing behavioural norms and cultural attitudes
• building workforce support for the new structures
• creating new ways of working to achieve the organization’s objectives

Local governments encourage local economic and social development. To steer and stimulate development interventions effectively local governments need to focus on developing their policies, organizational and institutional set-up and necessary managerial skills. This course focuses on the understanding and strengthening of the institutional environment of local governments (structure, processes, resources and resource deployment, external environment factors, etc) in order to coordinate the proposed change in order to impact the required development.

The objectives of the course are to:

• improve on knowledge and skills of students to analyse the institutional environment in terms of structure, processes, policies, legislation, and actors, etc
• provide students with insights into roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders that play a part at the local level.
• provide a range of instruments that can be used to assess the performance of the organisation and the institutional context of operation.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Theoretical foundations and organisational development frameworks
• Processes of organization diagnosis, intervention and review
• Tools for change in local governance
• Managing change in local governance

LGAO 515 Community Governance and Leadership                  (2,0,2)

Governance structures and processes and the officer machinery of local government are designed to support the management and delivery of services.

Community planning and partnership processes and innovative ways of involving citizens and communities will be needed as local authorities become more open and outward-looking. These changes will make new demands on local authorities. Consequently different relationships, more emphasis on networking and new skills and competencies will all be required. The objectives of the course are to:

• Introduce students to the concept, principles and theories of community governance
• Identify and analyse relevant national policies and administrative guidelines for community leadership and governance policies
• identify and understand factors that are shaping community development and implications for the way they work
• enhance skills for strategic community leadership

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Theories and practices of governance
• Democratic principles and practices in local governance
• Community leadership
• Community-citizens engagement
• Changing roles of local authorities

LGAO 517 Comparative Local Government Systems                  (2,0,2)

Many countries have gone through transition periods with characteristics such as the emergence of multiparty systems, regular elections on both national and local levels, attempts to recreate central and local governmental machinery and developments toward further democratization and market economy. The public sector, being both the object and subject of reform, is under tremendous pressure to adapt to the changing environment. As a generalized process at the international level, progress towards decentralization of state management has

many implications in terms of democratization, participation, efficiency and, not least, reinventing the role of local governments. District assemblies are local self-government units. They differ from country to country by name (for example, in Netherlands local self-governments in cities are called municipalities) and by recognition ( in Ghana, there are three types of assemblies – metropolitan, municipal and district).  The comparative study is descriptive on one hand—illustrating structures, approaches and practices from country to country—and analytical on the other—identifying key concepts and the underlying logic and dynamic of local government across the countries.

The objectives of the course are to provide:

• an overview of the local government systems of selected countries
• comparative studies of the basic components of local government in the countries under review
• the international context of citizens’ participation and in local government local public service delivery
• a comparative analysis of the problems, impact and issues including on-going reforms in local government.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Concept and principles of local governance
• Local government in an international context
• Initiatives in local government reforms
• Good practices in local governance

 

ELECTIVES – SECOND SEMESTER

LGAO 512 Public Sector Project Management                             (2,0,2)

Projects are fundamentally about change, and change is inherently difficult to get right. The course describes the basic processes, structures, tasks and controls for use throughout a project lifecycle.  The course provides a strategic and systematic approach to implementing change that  supports corporate governance requirements for project management, with standards that can be set and applied efficiently and effectively across local government and   enables a consistent application of good practice across all parts of the organization in the delivery of excellence in products and services.

The course will enable students to:

• Gain an understanding of key principles and the project cycle, including objectives, feasibility studies, planning, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation
• plan a project using appropriate tools and techniques
• deploy a range of techniques and tools for effective project planning & management
• Learn how to carry out effective risk assessment and management

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Overview of project management
• Project Cycle
• Project Costing
• Project Risk Analysis
• Project Communication
• Project Monitoring and Evaluation

LGAO 514 Local Government Procurement and Contracting                (2,0,2)

Spending on public procurement constitutes between 50 and 70 per cent of Ghana's gross domestic product. The strengthening of capacity of the various procurement entities in the public sector especially to procure necessary goods, works and services with greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness is critical. Among others personnel must understand and 'buy into' the established laws, guidelines and procedures for enhanced job performance. The objectives of the course are to:

• Expose students to the fundamentals of public procurement and contract statutes, best practices, regulations, processes and the politics behind local government procurement reforms and processes.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Introduction to procurement and contracting
• Legal framework for public procurement in Ghana
• Planning cycle in procurement and contracting
• Management of procurement and contractual relations

LGAO 516 Local Government Financial Management                (2,0,2)

Financial management and financial reporting are an essential part of good corporate governance. They form part of the assembly's firm foundations and are management disciplines that all public officers particularly chief executives, coordinating directors, budget officers and finance officers must apply and take responsibility for. Prudent financial management underpins service quality and improvement; it reinforces accountability to local and national stakeholders for effective local governance and use of resources.

Top district assembly officers need to be financially literate and able to understand fully the fiscal environment in which their assembly operates.

The objectives of the course are to:

• provide participants with the analytical framework for understanding intergovernmental fiscal relations;
• enable participants understand both the local and wider financial framework of local government
• enhance participants’ capacities for successful disbursement and utilization of public resources including transfers and own sources of revenues
• make decisions using appropriate financial information as a key input and
• manage financial resources ethically and honestly.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Fiscal Decentralisation
• Municipal Finance
• Investment
• Financial Reporting
• Public-Private-Community Partnership
• Legal Framework for Financial Management
• Local Government Financial Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation

 

LGAO 518 Strategic Management in Local Government                        (2, 0, 2)

Strategic Management has become the cornerstone for many effective municipalities. Over the last two decades, there have been a wide variety of new management techniques, ranging from cost-benefit analysis, management by objectives, Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Strategic planning, however, has grown in popularity and use as an effective management tool, especially with municipalities. Strategic Planning can deal with a changing environment. The world is changing and no locality is exempt from change, due to internal and external factors. Increasingly, each municipality is faced with resource limitations which require careful choices and new directions to deal with these new realities.

The objectives of the course are:

• To expose participants to the theory, principles underlying strategic planning
• To equip participants with skills to develop realistic strategic plans
• To identify the barriers to the realization of the plans
• To provide opportunity for participants to compare and discuss strategic plans of various local government entities.

The programme is designed with the following content:

• Concepts and principles of strategic management
• Tools for strategic management
• Strategic management and local government

 

LGAO 520 Research Work (Thesis) and Seminars                       (0, 54, 18)

 

The Research Work requires that a student, in collaboration with a suitable faculty examiner, completes a research in a topical area and prepares an abstract that is suitable for incorporation into a peer-reviewed publication. The student is required to play a significant role in the research project and will typically be listed as first author on an abstract and listed as a co-author on a peer-reviewed manuscript resulting from the research. The Head for Research and Academic Affairs will monitor the programme and bring candidates for consideration to The Research Committee which will review all research activities and make recommendations for graduation.

 

The research work under Local Government Administration and Organization requires that students strive to become familiar with literature in their field, capable of identifying new problems and new directions of endeavour in their field and competent with the methods of data collection and analysis essential to their research. Students will fulfill these objectives through several forums: conducting a supervised research program, coursework, teaching, participation in seminar programs, and defending their dissertation. Specifically, the research work attempts to provide the means through which students will:

1. learn skills of scientific research pertaining to the general and specific areas of local governance study;
2. assemble a basic working knowledge of the field of their research,
3. develop skills enabling them to stay abreast of the current literature in the field,
4. and develop the skills enabling them to:

• use the published literature and other resources to learn about unfamiliar fields,
• present their thesis research to the local government community by the medium of publications in journals and talks and at conferences and meetings,
• present current research to an audience of their peers.

 

14.0     List of lecturers

The areas of specialization of the proposed resource persons include participatory adult learning methodologies process and learning facilitations, decentralization and local governance, development administration and management, fiscal management, organization development and communication strategy. All the proposed resource persons are lecturers and senior members of the Faculty of Local Government Studies, as well as experienced practicing professionals in research, consultancies and capacity building at the national and local levels of governance.