Planning for a nation’s economic and social development

A writer, a philosopher, a scientist, a politician, a patriot, an inventor, publisher, and a founding father of the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin, once observed that “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

Indeed, this is consistent with our own long-held view and popular adage which says “how well one lays his bed determine to a large extent how much he/she will enjoy the sleep”.

It is in the light of these truisms that effective planning has been considered as an essential pre-requisite for achieving success in any national development efforts.

A carefully crafted national development policy framework, with the appropriate choice of policies, programme, and projects, well-sequenced and implemented will lead to desire social and economic development outcomes.

A poorly crafted policy framework, on the other hand, leads to difficulties in implementation, wastage of resources, both human and financial, and ultimately poor development outcomes.

The country’s economy is usually made up of a number of sectors, which compete for national resource allocation, both private and public, and in turn generate returns on investment made in terms of wealth and social well-being.

The appropriate choices of policies, programmes and strategies to be implemented in each sector, how each sector strategically support each other, and the effective application of the available resources, will bring about the optimal use of the nation’s resources and yield the maximum outcomes.

A well prepared national development plan serves as the sign-post of where the country intends to go, and form a rallying point for coordinating the national efforts as well as mobilizing the efforts of citizens.

National development planning has been with us since our Gold Coast days.

Our history is awash with a number of development plans prepared by the various governments in place, with various degrees of implementation and success.

These include the first seven-year development plan by Governor Gordon Guggisberg  (1920-30) in 1919, followed by Second Ten-Year Plan (1930-40), Third Ten-Year Plan (1946-56), Fourth Ten-Year Plan (1951-61), Five-Year Plan (1951-56), Consolidation Plan (1958-59), Second Five-Year Plan (1959-64), Seven-Year Plan (“Work And Happiness”) (1963/64-1969/70), Two-Year Development Plan “The Stabilization Plan” (1967/68-1968/69), “Rural Development Plan” (1971-72), Third Five-Year Plan (1975/76-1979/80), and Fourth Five-Year Plan (1981-86).

Our forth republican democratic experiment has shown various governments preparing national development agenda including Ghana’s Vision 2020 (1996-2020), Ghana Vision 2020: The First Step (1996-2000), the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I) (2003 – 2005), the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) (2006 – 2009), and currently the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) (2010 – 2013).

The GSGDA which is the current Government’s blueprint for national development in the medium term is at its terminal year of implementation and is expected to be replaced by a successor medium term national development policy framework by 2014.

Out of all these plans the most popular ones among Ghanaians have been the Guggisberg Plan (1919-27) and the Nkrumah 7-year Development Plan (1963/64-1969/70).

The Guggisberg Plan had as its goal to build a model economy and “translate a scheme of vision directly essential to the progress of the people”.

The vision required the significant expansion of the mono-crop economy to benefit a larger number of local indigenes.

This plan considered large investments in infrastructure, agricultural diversification through training, health, education, among others.

The plan was also tailored at achieving the basic objective of laying a foundation for Ghana’s future development by expanding the economy as a result of new capital investments.

The Nkrumah’s 7-Year Plan popularly referred to as Work and Happiness, on the other hand, had the vision to ensure African unity, transform and diversify the economy; and raise and equalize economic opportunities and benefits through socialism.

Critics of this plan argued that its scope was too broad and lacked specific and detailed objectives.

Today as Ghana transition to a middle income status, it continue to explore ways of achieving the long-held goal of the founding fathers of the country, which is a free, just and prosperous society where all citizens enjoy a decent way of living, through the implementation of various strategies and policy interventions.

To consolidate the gains made so far in our development efforts and address the weakness identified in our development process the current national development policy framework, the Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda (GSGDA) was focused on achieving a sustained macroeconomic stability, while placing the economy on a path of higher growth in order to attain an appreciable per capita income by 2020 and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Consequently the priority areas for policy interventions included (i) ensuring and sustaining macroeconomic stability; (ii) enhanced competitiveness of Ghana’s private sector; (iii) accelerated agricultural modernization and natural resource management; (iv) Oil and Gas development; (v) infrastructure, energy and human settlements development; (vi) human development, employment and productivity; and (vii) transparent and accountable governance.

As the implementation of the GSGDA draws to a close by the end of 2013, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the institution charged by the 1992 Republic of Ghana Constitute to coordinate the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national development plans, has initiated a process to provide a successor medium term national development agenda to guide the development of the country over the next four years.

The processes entails reviewing the extent of implementation of the GSGDA; analyzing the current development challenges; determining policies, programmes and strategies to be rolled over to the new policy framework that is capable of responding to the current national development challenges; and determine new policy initiatives and programmes required to respond to the current development challenges.

Yet another critical component of the process is the national consultations on the identified priority policy interventions with key stakeholders including Parliament, Office of the President, representatives of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA), traditional authorities, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), private sector, think thanks, Development Partners, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other stakeholders.

This is to help build consensus and national ownership of the development agenda.

So far NDPC has concluded work on reviewing the extent of implementation of the GSGDA, identified policies expected to be rolled over into the successor medium term national development policy framework, and has undertaken validation meeting with the representatives of MDAs and other key stakeholders including representatives of political parties, CSOs, think thanks, private sector, etc on the draft policy proposals.

The outstanding activities to be undertaken to finalize the policy proposals and strategies in the development agenda include (i) the consultation with the leadership of Parliament and the Office of the President; and (ii) nationwide public consultations to receive input into the draft development agenda.

Among the groups being targeted in the public consultation process are Regional Ministers, Regional Coordinating Directors,  Professional Bodies, Student Unions, Women leaders/Coalition of Women’s Groups and Women’s organizations, District Chief Executives, NGOs in Service Delivery and Religious Bodies, National Association of Local Authorities, Members of District Assemblies, Ghana Employers Association, Traditional Authorities, The Trades Union Congress, Community Based Organizations, Research Institutions and Policy Think Tanks,  The Media,   Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Community Groups, Development Partners, and Political Parties.

Upon completion of the public consultations, the policy framework would be revised with the comments and feedback of stakeholders and the final policy framework forwarded to Parliament for adoption before the close of the year.

The successor medium term policy framework is expected to inform the successive annual national budget from 2014 – 2017, and form the basis for coordinating Development Partners support.

The major challenge that has historically faced the development of this country is not the inability to formulate good and credible policies and strategies but rather the weak capacity to implement these policies and strategies effectively and sustainably.

It is important to emphasize the fact that the implementation of almost all plans was truncated mid-way through the plan period.

This was often due to the paucity of resources after initial investments and changes in government.

During the national stakeholder’s conference on the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), Ghanaians unanimously indicated the urgent need to mobilize and rally the nation behind a nationally owned and shared vision of national development by creating the opportunity for the broad spectrum of Ghanaians to articulate, define and support a long term national development agenda.

Also during the course of discussion on the draft policy matrix on the successor medium term national development agenda with the stakeholders at NDPC, concerns were raised whether a succession of medium term development frameworks and interventions are enough to put the nation on a sustainable basis of improved livelihoods over the long term.

These suggestions have repeatedly been echoed by a cross-section of Ghanaians (including civil society organizations, the private sector, traditional authorities, research institutions, professional associations etc), and even during the regular radio discussions and in the street.

In response to this, NDPC has initiated a process to undertake national stakeholder consultations to agree on a national vision for a long term national development plan, which will form the basis for policies of future governments as well as successive medium term national development plans.

This is to ensure policy stability and protect successive plans from changes in government, as well as ensuring the effective implementation of policies on a long term basis.

The process is expected within of one year and also to influence future medium term national development policy framework.

Indeed if there is any period when such a strategic framework for national development planning is priceless, it is now when Ghana has become an oil-exporting state with an experience of a strong growth warranting the need for a fair and objective approach towards harnessing these potentials.

For development planning to become purposeful, national visions other than political manifestoes must become prime components in development planning.

Political parties from generation to generations would do the nation a great service if they ensure that they relate their manifestoes to such a strategic framework which carry the development vision of the entire nation.

By David Owusu-Amoah

The writer works at the National Development Planning Commission