Program Overview - Democracy & Governance
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Opinion leader contributing during town hall meeting

In an effort to strengthen Ghana's democracy, USAID's Democracy and Governance program supports enhancing civic participation in democratic processes and ensuring that national and local government is responsive to the interests of its citizens. Emphasis is placed on decentralization to improve health care and education services and to increase access to economic growth opportunities.

USAID implements innovative, low cost activities to generate prosperity and security for Ghana and the American people:

Strengthening Local Government and Decentralization

Opinion leader contributing during town hall meeting
USAID is currently strengthening the capacity of local governments in the Western Region to plan long-term development. The objective is to increase the capacity of local government to involve citizens in planning and to increase revenue generation to support local development. Learn more about our USAID/Local Governance Decentralization Program (LOGODEP).

Increasing Government Accountability
USAID has provided $1.8 million to UNICEF to help the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to review, improve and operationalize the monitoring and evaluation system for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program. Learn more about USAID's support for Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP).

Reducing and Mitigating Conflict

Opinion leader contributing during town hall meeting
The recently completed Sustainable Peace Initiative (SPI) contributed to peaceful 2008 elections in constituencies of Northern Ghana. Jointly funded by USAID and the British Department for International Development, SPI delivered training and conflict reconciliation activities to more than 6000 Ghanaians in the northern regions, including 1833 women. SPI helped achieve formal resolution of dozens of historic conflicts and introduced sustainable solutions to mitigate future conflict. Learn about the results achieved in USAID's Sustainable Peace Initiative (SPI).

Future Activities
USAID commissioned an independent assessment of governance and democracy in Ghana. The Ghana Democracy and Governance Assessment, produced by Democracy International, will inform future USAID programming in the areas of decentralization and other administrative reforms, rule of law, civil society and the electoral process.