IncluCity: Improving Governance and Services forGhana’s Urban Poor

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CHF International aims to build the capacities of the Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assemblies. Over the next four years (2011-2015), IncluCity expectsto raise municipal revenue and provide equitable social and economic services to all sectors of the metropolises, especially the poor through:

• Increased constructive participation of slumresidents in governance, inclusive planning and budgeting processes in the two MetropolitanAssemblies;
• Increased capacity of the two Metropolitan Assemblies to generate municipal revenue.

IncluCity, under guidance of its Advisory Committee and Metro Taskforces, will expand and extend capacity building activities to a larger number of communities and actors. Simultaneously, it will develop capacity among local government staff to better communicate with residents, improve accountability systems, and formalize sustainable participatory mechanisms.

These interventions will be combined with focused technical assistance to city managers to increasemunicipal revenue generation as a means to provide better services to the urban poor. The project will assist both municipalities in developing and implementing Revenue Improvement Action Plans (RIAPs), exploring revenue generation options, including waste-to-resources, recycling, private sector investment and improved rate-setting and tax collection systems.

IncluCity will engage additional cities in Ghana and in the sub-region to learn from and emulate the approaches being developed and showcased in Accra andSekondi-Takoradi through networking, exchanges and the Ghana Urban Forum. With IncluCity, CHF will continue to develop thecapacity of local partners to sustain key programelements after funding has ended. More than200,000 people in the Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Areas are expected to benefit directly from the program.