“Give NDPC more constitutional powers to lead long-term national development planning” – GIP

A position paper about the 2024 presidential election has been given to political party leaders by the Ghana Institute of Planning (GIP).

The document offers political parties a framework for formulating their manifestos and setting priorities for their policies in order to tackle the nation’s most important development and urban planning concerns and build a strong, resilient nation.

Human Settlement, Environment, and Infrastructure Development; Social Development; and Economic Development are the three primary areas covered in the position paper.

The lack of a long-term strategy for national development has left the nation with a number of development obstacles.

The Institute strongly believes that constitutional reform is necessary in order to give the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) more authority to oversee long-term national development planning in Ghana. This reform will help political parties prioritize plan elements and use those priorities as the foundation for their manifestos ahead of the national elections.

“Transforming Ghana from a lower middle-income country to a high-income one by 2057, with correspondingly high levels of social development and strong and responsive institutions” GIP stated in their statement to the political parties.

The Institute has stressed the need for political party manifestos to reflect intentional intents and strategies in order to address economic issues, improve social development, adopt sustainable human settlement and environmental practices, and ensure the continuation of infrastructure projects beyond political manifestos.

Ghana’s development has encountered several obstacles due to years of little agreement on the adoption of a long-term national development plan as the foundation for creating and carrying out national policies.
In Ghana, most policies have a short to medium duration, and their execution expires with the end of the president’s tenure.

“Parties must put forward concrete strategies in their manifestos to tackle challenges holding the country back.”

GIP also urged the political parties to provide concrete guidance on addressing challenges, promoting sustainable job creation and supporting small business.

Read the full statement below:

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com