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Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Tuesday said decentralization will help improve funding and financial management of Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs). He said the policy will improve local democracy, participation and accountability through citizens� involvement in local governance. He said It will also promote right-based orientation to local development, ensuring equitable access to public resources and inclusiveness in decision-making. Mr Opong-Fosu said this during the Ministry�s turn at the �Meet the Press Series� to outline progress on policy development and implementation in relation to Decentralization and Local Governance, Environment, Health and Sanitation, Urban Development and Rural Development. The Minister said Ghana�s decentralization process seeks to grant political, administrative and financial autonomy from the central government to the MMDAs in line with the Constitution. He said after almost two decades of the implementation of the decentralization policy, a review was undertaken in 2009/2010 through a regional/national stakeholder consultation, resulting in the National Decentralization Policy Framework and National Decentralization Action Plan. Mr Opong-Fosu said the goal of the National Decentralization Policy Framework is to accelerate the decentralization process. He noted that since 2009, significant progress had been achieved in critically important areas like political decentralization and legal reforms, administrative decentralization, fiscal decentralization and institutional arrangements for policy coordination. He announced that preparation for the first draft of Consolidated Local Government Bill has been produced, adding that, the Bill seeks to harmonize conflicting laws and consolidate five major legislations on decentralization into one Act. The legislations are the District Assemblies Common Fund Act, 1993, Act 455, Local Government Service Act, 1993, Act 462, National Development Planning (System) Act, 1994, Act 480, Local Government Service Act, 2003, Act 656, Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003, Act 658 (sections affecting MMDAs). He said consultation is on-going with key stakeholders on the Draft Consolidated Local Government Bill. The Minister observed that a programme for Ministerial realignment, which involves the organizational and functional restructuring of Ministries to reflect the district level decentralization arrangements and related matters had begun. He said Education and Health Sectors institutional framework decentralized functions were agreed broadly with key stakeholders. He said the Statistical Service and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection�s department of women and children are to be decentralized. Mr Opong-Fosu said the Local Economic Development policy was designed to enable MMDAs and other local collaborators to develop a framework for income and employment generation activities for local residents. He said a composite budgeting had been rolled out in all 216 district assemblies, while an intergovernmental Fiscal Framework had been developed, the ultimate aim of which is to transfer funds to district assemblies through equitable, transparent and predictable allocation mechanism. According to him, the Professor Benning Committee had been tasked to work with stakeholders in resolving the issue of boundary disputes, which is a nagging problem in the local government system nationwide. He cited the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly and La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly, Kpone-Katamanso District Assembly and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly all in the Greater Accra Region and the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnerigu Districts Assemblies in the Northern Region. Mr Opong-Fosu said District Assemblies Common Fund had been paid up to the third quarter of 2013, adding that, Cabinet had the Fund Secretariat and relevant ministries to work and clear the backlog of the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. He urged MMDAs to intensify their internally generated fund drive to enable them to wean themselves of central government�s subventions. On Environmental Sanitation, the Minister said a Community Led Total Sanitation had been scaled up to the Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions, bringing the total number of regions covered to seven. He said the Ghana School Feeding Programme has been one of the major social intervention programmes, under which about 1.7 million pupils from 4,209 schools were now benefitting nationwide. The Minister said in spite of challenges, the Ministry will continue to formulate policies and facilitate implementation in relation to decentralized administration and good governance. Mr Mahama Ayariga, Minister of Information and Media Relations, said it is government's policy to ensure that good governance is brought to the door steps of the people.