The Head of the Local Government Service, Prof. Lord Mensah, has warned that rising citizen expectations and growing demands for accountability mean that continuous capacity development for governance bodies is no longer optional but a necessity.
The warning came at the opening of a two-day retreat for the Local Government Service Council on June 26, 2026 at the MG Grand Hotel in Accra where Council members met under the theme “Strengthening Leadership, Governance and Institutional Performance in the Local Government Service.”
“Continuous capacity development is therefore not a luxury for governance bodies, but a necessity,” Prof. Lord Mensah said.
He said the governance landscape was shifting rapidly, with digital transformation reshaping public administration, local government finance growing more complex and citizens holding their institutions to higher standards than at any previous point.
The retreat was designed to respond directly to those pressures, bringing together Council members for knowledge sharing, strategic reflection and engagement on ethical issues that were reshaping how local governments operated across the country.
Sessions at the retreat will cover leadership and accountability, the Local Governance Act, digital transformation, local government financing and the Medium-Term National Development Policy, all aimed at deepening the collective capacity of Council members to discharge their governance, oversight and policy responsibilities more effectively.
Prof. Lord Mensah said every discussion at the retreat had to answer one question: i.e. how would it strengthen leadership, improve governance and enhance institutional performance in the Local Government Service?
He told participants that the effectiveness of Ghana’s 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies ultimately rested on the quality of leadership, governance and institutional performance that the Council inspired, and that the theme of the retreat was not accidental but spoke directly to the heart of the Council’s mandate.
He also said, “Leadership must be visionary, governance must be accountable and institutional performance must be exemplary,”.
The Local Government Service Council was established under the Local Government Act 2016, Act 936, with the responsibility of providing strategic policy direction, promoting institutional development and ensuring that the Service remained responsive to the country’s decentralisation agenda.
Prof. Lord Mensah said he expected Council members to leave the retreat with a clearer understanding of their roles, a deeper appreciation of the legal framework guiding them and actionable priorities for strengthening institutional performance across the Service.
He indicated his expectation that the retreat would reinforce collaboration between the Council, Management and key stakeholders, so that decisions taken at the governance level will be translated into better service delivery for citizens at the community level.