Afadzato South District

Vision Statement: To become the epitome of Sustainable Development and a first class District Assembly in Ghana.

Mission Statement: The Afadzato South District Assembly exists to improve both the social and economic conditions of its population through efficient and effective resource mobilization, maintaining a strong agriculture base for further industrial development, being a leading tourist Centre in Ghana and preserving cultural heritage of the people of the district and Volta region as whole. 

In order to fulfill its mission statement, the Afadzato South District Assembly has set for itself the following objectives. 

• To facilitate effective functioning of Local Government structures in the District.

• To ensure efficiency and effectiveness in mobilization and use of resources of the Assembly and the Decentralized departments in the District.

• To coordinate and harmonize plans, activities and programmes of the Decentralized Departments for the smooth and even development of the District.

• To facilitate the provision of basic and economic infrastructure and service delivery in the District.

• To facilitate community-based and sectoral development in the District. 

Core Values: 

• Integrity: Steadfast, adherence to strict moral and ethical standards in the discharge of functions and core mandate.

• Respect: An attitude of high regard for our clients or service seekers.

• Professionalism: The status, methods, character or standards expected of a professional such as reliability, discretion, even-headedness and fair play in our dealings.

• Client Focus: The act meeting the needs and expectations of the client through effective service delivery.

• Accountability: The state of being liable to be called on to render an account on activities undertaken i.e. being responsible for actions and inactions and answerable to the people.

• Transparency: The act of running an open administration.

• Equity: Ensuring justice, impartiality fairness to ensure even distribution of programs, services and projects

• Honesty: To act with honour, propriety, decency and truth.

• Participation: To a large extent engage and involve all stakeholders in processes and decision making

• Trust: To strive to achieve quality reliance, trustworthiness and public confidence in our processes and service delivery. 

Local governments are essential to promote, fulfill and respect human rights because as an administrative arm, it is closer to the people in the communities. Local governments do understand best the socio-economic conditions of the people and relate better to their culture, way of life, and have a better appreciation of their emotional, psychological and social needs. Local governments do supervise the allocation of resources to the communities directly because they act as intermediaries between the central government and the locals. 

Human rights are meaningful values for local actions in the sense that Administrators would ensure human centered policies, actions, interventions and initiatives. This would enable local governments to operate within legal frameworks upholding rule of laws on migration, peace and security, access to potable water and food, democratic participation of citizens, combat against violence against women, fight against all forms of inequality e.t.c. Human rights values also ensure that local governments operate within universally accepted norms and frameworks. It informs local government administrators to initiate sustainable programs that would insure to the benefit of the masses while advocating for equal rights and justice for all. 

The Afadzato South District Assembly values human rights and is committed to improve the livelihood and socio-economic lives of the people. This is evident in the District Assembly's Medium Term Development Plan (MDTP 2022-2025) and its Annual Action Plan (AAP 2021 & 2022). The Assembly has been able to make far reaching gains that promote inclusion and solidarity, fight against all forms of inequality, discrimination, combat against violence against women, hate speech, provide access to water, food, health, housing, a sustainable environment and participation of the citizens. 

Access to water & food

The Assembly is committed to ensuring that access to potable water remains a topmost priority. The drilling and mechanization of about fifteen (15) boreholes to improve accessibility of potable water and considering the construction and mechanization of an additional Forty Five (45) with the needed support and partnership. The District participated in the Greening Ghana Day with the planting of about Ten Thousand (10,000) Tree seedlings. Traditional governments, Youth groups, School children and other stakeholders were all engaged and encouraged to plant trees. The Assembly through the Department of Agriculture have encouraged and sensitized Female farmers to come together to form Farmer based organizations. This will enable them expand their farms, have access to soft loans and employ the best agricultural practices for sustainability. Improved seedlings, fertilizers and pesticides have also been supplied and increased efforts of the agricultural Extension Officers have yielded results. 

Women Empowerment & the Vulnerable

Women Empowerment has been championed by the Assembly because of its recognition that women are the keepers of the home and their usefulness cannot be over looked. The Assembly has facilitated the access to soft loans by women to expand their farms and engage in small businesses to support the home. The Assembly has also benefited from the Ghana Productive safety Net Project which engages women in oil palm and coconut plantations and being paid daily wages. During harvest season, the proceeds would also be divided such that the women would have a percentage while the Assembly also receives a percentage in addition to the community. The Assembly plans to establish an oil palm processing factory and a rice mill with packaging facilities to support women in agriculture. The Assembly distributed various items such as cassava crushers, fufu pounding machines, spices grinders, sewing machines, welding tools and machines, carpentry tools, laptops and printers and set up kiosks and containers to Persons Living with Disability(PWDs) in the district. Additionally, the Assembly supports the vulnerable and the marginalized with educational support, medical support and agricultural input support. 

Education

Quality Education for all the people is also high on the agenda. The Assembly in its quest to improve education has planned to construct Twenty (20) more Classroom blocks to add to the already existing infrastructure. Construction of ICT Centres for some selected schools in the district to also boast their knowledge with the needed support. The Assembly has so far distributed Two Thousand Five Hundred (2500) dual desks to selected schools in the district. It is an initiative to provide all schools in the district with dual and mono desks to eradicate the problem of school going children carrying desks to school. Moreover, it intends to provide more desks with support of donor partners and NGOS. The Assembly sponsored about Forty (40) female students to the annual Science, Technology, Education, Mathematics, Innovation & Entrepreneurship (STEMIE) camp to enable them to have hands-on knowledge in technology while exposing them to the various tenets of career guidance, leadership and grooming. The Assembly through the Education Directorate and other donor partners supports female students with sanitary pads to ensure that the female pupils are always in school. 

Health

Effective collaboration with the District Health Directorate has been able to make health care accessible to even the hard to reach areas of the District. The Assembly has also been able to lobby and negotiate for the construction of a District Hospital to serve the health needs of the people. Through partnership, KOFIH, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare has supported the District Health Directorate in so many ways. They recently constructed and commissioned two (2) Community-Based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compounds with residential facilities for nurses.

Tourism

In Tourism, the Assembly through collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority and investors have planned to develop some of the Tourist attraction sites into world standard tourism hub to create sustainable jobs for the Youth, improve upon the socio- economic lives of the people, preserve and maintain the cultural practices while protecting and preserving the integrity of the environment. Furthermore, an MOU signed with the various Tourist Centre Management Boards reserves some employment opportunities such as ticketing for Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) with the communities. 

Governance & Participation

The Assembly holds two (2) town Hall meetings with various stakeholders within the district to inform and also take inputs, suggestions and deliberate on plans of the Assembly. These Town Hall meetings are well attended and participation of the people cannot be over emphasized. Additionally, The District Chief Executive also embarks on community engagement within the Ninety Five (95) Communities in the District to listen to their complaints, take inputs, and explain government's interventions and pro-poor policies initiated and how best they can take advantage of the policies. This initiative takes governance and the administration of the Assembly to the doorsteps of the people to enable them ask pertinent questions and get response directly from officialdom.