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Dr Ralph Nordjo (inset), Coordinator, Ghana Priorities of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre
Dr Ralph Nordjo (inset), Coordinator, Ghana Priorities of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre

Policy directors validate Ghana Priority Project

Policy directors drawn from selected ministries, departments and agencies yesterday attended a validation workshop on the Ghana Priority Project (GPP), a policy intervention research initiative.

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 the areas of health care, education, industrialisation, agriculture, trade, among others.

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

The project document has identified 12 sectors in line with the SDGs and the country’s development agenda and has suggested a total of 60 research interventions for the various sectors.

The sectors include health, gender equality, poverty, education, industrialisation, sanitation and hygiene, energy, urbanisation and sustainable growth, institutions and governance, and economic growth.

Under health for instance, the project suggests, among other things, the implementation of incentives and schemes to encourage more health services in poor and hard-to-reach areas.

To make public institutions accountable, the project document suggests the digitisation of the activities of key State institutions and agencies and their respective parent ministries and key entities that provide guidance and services to them.

Participants

The participants who attended the workshop included representatives from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Sanitation and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Protection.

Others were drawn from the Ministry of Regional Reorganisation and Integration, Ministry of Special Development Initiatives, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Roads and Highways, Attorney General's Department and Send Ghana, a non-governmental organisation.

Organisers

Under the auspices of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ghana Statistical Service and the Copenhagen Consensus Centre (CCC), the 30 participants considered a number of smart policies for the country to aid its accelerated development.

The seminar also afforded participants the opportunity to make additional inputs to some suggested priority intervention areas captured in the GPP.

Data driven

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

He stated that the engagement with the directors of the various ministries formed part of efforts to engage policy makers, civil society organisation, academia and the media to identify the most urgent issues and establish the most promising solutions across many different policy areas.

“The project seeks 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 these top solutions,” he stated.

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