1.1 Introduction
The New Juaben North Municipal Assembly was carved out of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly in 2017 by Legislative Instrument (LI) 2302 of 2017 and the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) with the Municipal Capital at Effiduase. The Municipality has a population of 93,201 with males being 46,402 and females 46,799 and land size of about 110 square kilometers with five (5) Zonal Councils.
The vision of the Assembly is to be ‘a leading Local Government Institution facilitating excellent local economic development’. To help achieve the above, the New Juaben North Municipal Assembly has implemented programmes and projects earmarked in the Second quarter of the 2024 Annual Action Plan.
To track and measure progress made on the 2024 Annual Action Plan implementation, several processes were adopted by the Municipal Assembly to monitor and evaluate programmes and projects implementation. The process included stakeholder engagements, technical committee meetings as well as project sites visits.
This report indicates programmes and projects implemented for the Second Quarter of 2024. The report outlines the levels of implementation of projects and programmes in the 2024 Annual Action Plan and also the total funding or revenue received during the Quarter from the Government of Ghana (GoG) an internally generated funds. The report further indicates the Monitoring and Evaluation conducted, and an update on critical development and poverty issues.
1.2 Purpose of Monitoring and Evaluation for Second Quarter 2024
The Municipal Department of Agriculture and the National Disaster Management Organisation conducted Monitoring and Evaluation of post – planting activities of farmers and activities to enhance the resilience of the Municipality with regard to flooding disasters in the raining season. the purpose of these monitoring and evaluation was;
- To assess the level of implementation of various post-planting techniques farm, such as pest management, and fertilizer application during the monitoring period.
- To check the level of adherence to best agricultural practices to make timely adjustments and corrective actions to improve the yield.
- Identify any challenges or issues faced during the post-planting phase to make timely adjustments and corrective actions to improve the yield.
- To monitor the management of fore army worms’ inversion.
- To determine the extent to which the removal of debris and obstructions from drains reduced flooding.
- To determine the extent to which removal of debris and obstructions from drains is contributing to resilience of communities to potential disasters.
- To enable Management to make timely adjustments and corrective actions to improve the programme or project design, work plan and implementation strategies.
1.3 Summary of Achievements with the Implementation of the 2022 – 2025 DMTDP
Projects and programmes being implemented have been categorized into the following development dimensions: Economic Development, Social Development, Environment, Infrastructure & Human Settlement and Governance, Corruption & Accountability.
In the 2024 Annual Action Plan, 109 Programmes and Projects were earmarked for implementation for the Second Quarter. At the end of the Second Quarter, 65 programmes and projects were implemented with 61 completed, 4 on-going and 44 yet to start. On the whole, the Assembly has been able to implement 43.6% of activities for the Second quarter in the 2024 Action Plan as shown in Table 1 and 2 below:
Table 1: Proportion of Planned Activities Implemented
| Items | Target | Quarterly Performance | |
| 2024 | 1st Quarter | 2nd Quarter | |
| 1. Proportion of the 2024 Annual Action Plan Implemented | 100% | 43.6 | 38 % |
|
100% | 35.7% | 36% |
|
0% | 3.2 | 2.3% |
|
0% | 0 | 0 |
| d. Percentage of interventions yet to start | 0% | 36.5 | 26% |
| 2. Proportion of the overall Medium-Term Development Plan implemented | 25 % | 19.7 | 9.4 |
Source: MPCU, June 2024
Table 2: Detailed Information on Planned and Executed Activities
| S/N | Development Dimension | First Quarter | Second Quarter | ||
| Planned | Planned | Planned | Executed | ||
| 1 | Economic Development | 29 | 12 | 23 | 10 |
| 2 | Social Development | 44 | 25 | 37 | 28 |
| 3 | Environment, Infrastructure and Human Settlement | 30 | 14 | 25 | 12 |
| 4 | Governance, Corruption and Public Accountability | 23 | 4 | 24 | 15 |
| Total | 126 | 55 | 109 | 65 | |
Source: MPCU, June 2024
1.4 Challenges and Difficulties Encountered in the Implementation of the 2022-2025 DMTDP
The Assembly faced many challenges during the implementation of the 2024 Annual Action Plan in the Second quarter. This included the following:
- Inadequate and untimely release of budgetary allocations for programmes and projects implementation.
- Drastic reduction in the Internally Generated Funds.
- Inadequate logistical support especially for field work (vehicle, office equipment etc.)
- Loss of farm lands to real estate and other developmental projects.
- Rising issue of destructions of farmland by Fulani herdsmen
1.5 Processes Involved
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) was conducted during the Second Quarter. This was done in compliance with the Monitoring and Evaluation Guidelines from the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
The Department of Agriculture and the National Disaster Management Organisation conducted Monitoring and Evaluation based on indicators, baseline data and realistic targets. Participatory and consultative approach was adopted in conducting monitoring and evaluation. Processes involved included:
- Project Inspection and Field Trip: Collection and analysis of primary data, which included minutes of site meetings. Officers conducted regular monitoring visits to project sites to interact with stakeholders and track progress of work.
- Development of baselines and targets for each indicator.
- Development of other monitoring instruments, such as questionnaires.
- Desk study, records and documents reviews: Available secondary information and documents that were reviewed included project documents, progress reports and correspondence among related stakeholders.
- Departmental Reports: Reports from the Departments provided secondary data for collation and analysis. These were gathered from their quarterly reports.
- Focus Group Discussions: Beneficiaries of some programmes were interviewed.
This enabled the team to measure progress and performance against planned targets and bench marks. It helped to assess impact of some programmes.