The day’s programme among others sought to enhance the knowledge and practice of local governance actors especially Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), civil society organisations and individuals by providing general information on the new Act and its distinct features.

"For national policy purposes, the programme will lead to the identification of implementation challenges that the Act is likely to face," Mrs Sethina Annang Danquah, the Assistant Registrar of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) and the Co-ordinator of the programme said.

She said ILGS in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee (IMCC) was organising a series of stakeholder awareness engagement in raising programmes on Local Governance Act, Act 936 of 2016.

Mrs Annang Danquah noted that the nationwide programme would help sensitise local government practitioners to perform within their jurisdiction effectively and efficiently.

Mr Salifu Mahama, the Executive Secretary of IMCC, addressing participants said: "As local government practitioners, the passage of the Local Governance Act 936 2016, was yet another landmark in the decentralisation process."

He said it was the critical part of the many change management strategies put in place to carry actors in the sector.Mr Mahama observed that having passed the law, it had become necessary to sensitise actors, and bring to bear critical areas and provisions of the law, to practitioners.

"There are some novelties in the Act which I believe will transform the working dynamics of MMDAs, as it forms the basis of our decentralisation process," he said.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Mr Ishmael Ashitey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, urged participants to take advantage of the sensitisation programme to identify and implement the challenges the Act was likely to face.

He assured the participants that " The Regional Co-ordinating Council will lend them the maximum support to enable them achieve the target they have set for themselves," he said.The five section interactive programme, led by Mr David Osei-Wusu, the Registrar of ILGS, saw participants discussing, sharing and exchanging ideas on the overview of the Act, Local Government System(Part 1), the Local Governance  Institute(Parts 2, 8 and 9), Bye- laws (Part 7) and Miscellaneous Matters.

Other topics were the Core functions of the District Assemblies (Part 3 and 4) and Financial matters of District Assemblies.Among the 100 participants were Chief Executives, Assembly members, Unit Committee members, Area councils and other functionaries, Heads of Decentralised department, traditional rulers, persons with disabilities, youth and women groups as well as vulnerable and marginalised groups.