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The President of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, Mr Bjorn Lomborg (left), interacting with the Director-General of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa
The President of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, Mr Bjorn Lomborg (left), interacting with the Director-General of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa

Ghana Priority Project, stakeholders begin roundtable discussinos

A roundtable discussion to solicit data and development materials from the various government ministries, departments and agencies as part of the Ghana Priority Project (GPP), a policy intervention research initiative, has begun.

The GPP is targeted at providing the government and the international donor community with a systematic process to help prioritise the most effective policy solutions in health care, education, industrialisation, agriculture and trade, among other things.

The project also seeks to help Ghana accelerate the achievement of the Ghana Development Agenda (GDA) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through academic research, stakeholder engagement and a targeted outreach strategy to determine the best investments.

A global think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus Centre (CCC), is spearheading the project in partnership with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

Discussion

Briefing the Daily Graphic after the first round of discussions with representatives from the health sector, the President of CCC, Mr Bjorn Lomborg, said the whole idea was to solicit the best and workable policies that would enhance Ghana’s development goals and at the same time cut down cost.

He said each of the agencies and departments would be making presentations after which data would be collected to help come out with the best policy solutions.

Mr Lomborg mentioned that experts from health, gender equality, poverty, education, industrialisation, sanitation and hygiene, energy, urbanisation and sustainable growth, institutions and governance would make their presentations during the roundtable discussion, which would end today.

Touching on what has been done so far regarding the GPP, he said the CCC was working with many economic experts in Ghana to identify the best opportunities that will best suit Ghana.

Initially, he said, the experts, who were selected from various organisations, came out with about 400 ideas but after thorough reviews, 80 of the best ideas were selected for Ghana.

NDPC determined

The Director General of the NDPC, Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa, said after the entire GPP, the implementing institutions would come out with policies that Ghana must prioritise.

He explained that the country had many policies and development needs that could not be implemented as a result of limited resources.

The GPP, he said, was conceived when it was realised that Ghana needed to choose the best policies.

“So what we are doing now is to provide real technical information, data evidence and also assess each of the policies against cost and benefit and bring it to the table of decision makers,” Dr Mensah-Abrampa said.

He said there would be a national discussion on the GPP in January next year, adding that by then the implementing institutions would have provided enough information for the government to assess it and add its inputs.

“We will then finalise everything and then it will become a document for the government to use to improve its policy choices,” he added.

Engagement

The Coordinator of the GPP, Dr Ralph E. Nordjo, explained that the essence of the project was to offer a data-driven approach to the prioritisation of policy interventions.

He said the project sought to bring together the best local, regional and international academic research, employing cost-benefit analysis, together with sector expert input, broad stakeholder engagement and extensive policy outreach to evaluate and prioritise those top solutions.

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