Newsletter – n°26 – February 2014

News from partners

The Cape Coast PACA training project was initiated by the German Association of Cities together with their partner in Ghana, the national association of local authorities (NALAG) NALAG.

The primary aim of the PACA (Participatory Appraisal of Competitive Advantages) process is to assist and prepare stakeholders for action-oriented diagnosis of the local economy as a means to launch local economic development interventions in Cape Coast; this includes identification of market failures as well as opportunities to increase interactions and dialogue of different economic stakeholders. During the process, a huge variety of proposals will be made by local actors. From these 5-10 proposals showing the greatest potential for action using local resources and for results in the short term will be selected. Thus, the focus is not on big, large scale interventions that take years to implement and need external consultants but on proposals that can be implemented by local actors.

Within a workshop over three days from 11-13 December 2013 held in the Assembly of Cape Coast, around 20 diverse stakeholders from organisations in government, different business sectors as well as academic institutions participated in a training workshop focused on Local Economic Development and PACA. The main sectors and sub-sectors that were analysed and assessed were Tourism and Fisheries, as well as general diagnosis of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly as a prospective locality for investment, business growth and development.

The next step is the kick off workshop to launch the diagnostic exercise and to mobilize the participation by local stakeholders, which will commence in the week of 17 February 2014. It will be followed by several mini workshops and interviews to analyse economic potential and inform the proposals for intervention to catalyse and launch economic development in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly. 

Photo: www.propellor.be