The National Development Planning
Commission under the leadership of Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, its Director-General
has proposed to undertake the process of drawing up a long-term development
plan for Ghana. Since the announcement of this major project, many Ghanaians
have raised one issue or the other. Notwithstanding, there has been wide spread
acceptance of the need for a long-term plan to guide our development
trajectory. As is widely known, long-term development planning is not new to
this country. The first republic under Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah implemented 2
five-year development plans and launched an ambitious 7-year development plan
which was to transform Ghana into a modernized industrial nation upon
completion. Before then, the colonial administration had implemented (7 years
through) a 10-year development plan under the governorship of Sir Gordon
Guggisberg. More recently, we have witnessed the drawing up of several
medium-term plans including the vision 2020, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy,
Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda etc. Upon all these plans, Ghana is
still where it is with more than 8 million people living in extreme poverty, a
lot of wandering unemployed youth and a miserable corruption profile.
Against this background, although
the drawing up of a development plan is welcomed, there are certain critical
issues that must occupy the attention of the NDPC and all stakeholders
involved. These include but are not limited to implementation,
background/foundation of the plan, synchronization of all the sectoral plans
and policies already in place (ICT policy etc), experiences from other
countries (Germany, South Korea, China, Singapore etc) and socio-political as
well as cultural threats.
Implementation
The first issue that the NDPC
must concern itself with is how to see to the implementation of the plan.
Whereas planning is good, it is the implementation of the plan that brings
results. The issue of implementation is critical because the NDPC which is in
charge of drawing up the plan does not have the mandate to implement it; the
mandate rests with the political leaders. In Ghana’s political system as in
those of other countries across the globe, political parties are elected into
office based on manifestos presented to the electorate in four year turns.
These manifestos serve as the underlying development intentions of the parties.
Therefore there will be a parallel arrangement of a national plan on the one
hand and the parties’ plans on the other hand. The synthesis between these two
is critical to the implementation of our national plan. To this end, the NDPC
has started engaging the political parties and will have them represented in
the process. However, this does not presuppose the willingness of the political
parties to make their manifestos subservient to the national development plan. So
we could have the same practice where parties come to power and abandon the
development projects initiated by the previous government. To remedy this, as
many have said, the plan should be legally binding such that each party’s
manifesto will only outline measures to achieve the overall objectives and each
government will be obliged to implement, without fail, the details of the plan.
Nonetheless, flexibility should be allowed for the plan to be modified by acts
of parliament as and when necessary to suit changing times and circumstances.
Foundation of the Plan
The other critical issue has to
do with the foundation of the plan. Every plan must be seen within a certain
context. Although plans are by their nature futuristic, they take into
consideration the past and the present to inform the future. In this vein, the
40-year development plan should assess the nation in its current form. That is
to say there should be a baseline upon which future projections will be made
and actionable measures put in place to achieve the set objectives. Each
institution of the state and every productive sector must be thoroughly
surveyed to understand the current state of the structure of our society. The
results of such surveys must be aggregated to produce a state of the country
(not state of the economy) which will then form the basis upon which future
plans will be formulated. Anything other than such thorough scientific process
will amount to hearsay and any plan that will be formulated on that basis will
have a weak foundation.
Synchronization of Existing Frameworks and Policies
Ghana is very consistent in
drawing up plans but is lackadaisical in their implementation. Many Ghanaians
will be shocked to know the number of policies we have resting in big offices
begging for implementation. This is because they do not know that such policies
exist. We have a national youth policy, an ICT policy, agricultural modernization
policy etc. These policies are scattered across various institutions and
ministries, most probably gathering dust on the shelves. It is important to
take stock of all such policies already in existence and fashion out the best
way to incorporate them into a comprehensive long-term development plan.
Experiences from other countries
Quite obviously, a project of
this magnitude is prone to many mistakes. Luckily, there is a history of
development plans in Ghana that the NDPC can learn from. But they must go
beyond that and also learn from the experiences of other countries. This way,
not only local perspectives will be taken on board, relevant lessons can be
learnt from the successes and failures of other jurisdictions.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that long-term
development planning is good and the phenomenon is not new to Ghana. However there
are several issues that must be considered in order to make sure that the
experiences under previous plans do not repeat themselves.
Hardi Yakubu
Hardi Yakubu
