Community needs and aspirations linked to gaps from review of performance. A summary of prioritized community needs and aspirations shows that the District Assembly, in collaboration with other development partners needs to do more in terms of infrastructure development to open up the District and increase access to basic infrastructure to improve upon the living standards of the people. The prioritized community needs includes the lack of access to educational infrastructure, health infrastructure, electricity, potable water supply, inaccessible roads and poor road network, poor drainage and in-sanitary conditions, lack of market infrastructure, lack of micro credit facilities and lack of employment opportunities.

Details of these summarized community needs and aspirations are discussed in the programme of action and annual plans. In relation to gaps identified from the review of the implementation of 2002-2004 Medium Term Development Plan, about 55% of the projects/ programmes has been implemented. The performance review however indicated that some of the physical infrastructure and programmes to build the capacity of the people could not be done due to inadequate funding and would have to be rolled on to the 2006-2009 Medium Term Plan.

Summary of key development problems, issues and gaps identified from the situation analysis
The key development problems and the gaps identified from the situation analysis are classified under the GPRS II themes and indicated as follows.

• Inadequate skilled labour
• Apathy of community members towards development
• High level of unemployment
• High dependency ratio
• High emigration of the economically active population
• High illiteracy rate especially among women
• Inadequate funding for entrepreneurial programmes
• Inadequate health delivery system
• High incidence of malaria    v
• Inadequate infrastructure / Irregular flow of potable water
• Inadequate logistics for refuse management
• Unplanned human settlements and weak development control
• Lack of maintenance of buildings resulting in dilapidated structures
• Inadequate skilled personnel to attend to the vulnerable and excluded
• Lack of facilities and training equipment for the physically challenged
• Lack of special programmes for the elderly
• Ignorance on the part of parents to send their children to school
• Inadequate pre-school facilities
• Discrimination and Stigmatization    against People Living With    HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
• Inadequate funding for HIV/ AIDS activities
• Refusal of PL WHAs to disclose their status

1. Good Governance and Civic Responsibility
2. Inadequate personnel (number and quality) to support the decentralization process
3. Inadequate co-ordination and information flow between government departments, agencies, NGOs, CBOs and the private sector
4. Inadequate internal revenue mobilisation to support development activities in the communities
5. Inadequate logistics at the area council level
6. Lack of communal spirit in the communities
7.  High number of chieftaincy disputes
8. Frequent adjournment of court cases
9. Inadequate courts/ absence of alternative dispute resolution mechanism
10. High charges of child maintenance cases in courts
11. Indiscriminate land use without recourse to development schemes
12. Limited budget for programmes to support the vulnerable and the excluded

The key development problems, issues and gaps identified from the situation analysis propelled the District to arrive at the key development priorities which is discussed in Chapter two.