Our nation deserves workable long-term devt plan

Ghana is one of many African countries without a workable long-term national development plan to guide policy formulation and implementation for a minimum of 40 years. 

Successive administrations have resorted to piecemeal policies, mostly captured in their party manifestos, to govern the country.

This has given rise to policy inconsistencies, haphazard and abandoned programmes and projects, and the lack of a national vision to guide investors and development agents in decision-making.

As they entrench and exploit the void, our political leaders over the years have tended to pursue and implement what can win elections, not what will develop the country sustainably.

A Professor of Finance and Afreximbank Research Fellow, Joshua Yindenaba Abor, said that needed to stop, given the negative effects on national development and cohesion.

The former Dean of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) said the nation needed a long-term development plan to serve as a blueprint for successive governments to draw their plans from.

Delivering a lecture in Accra on the changing roles of national development banks in Africa, the financial economist said the long-term national development plan must be forward-looking by a minimum of 40 years and respected and utilised by all future governments within that time frame.

The Daily Graphic agrees with Prof. Abor and believes that now is the time to start a national conversation on how to develop an all-inclusive national development plan.

We are confounded by the absence of a workable long-term national development plan in spite of the existence of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), a constitutionally created agency that is funded by the taxpayer to “advise the President on development planning policy and strategy” and “make proposals on multi-year rolling plans.”

Since its establishment, the NDPC has prepared three long-term development plans – Ghana Vision 2020 (1996-2020), the Seven-Year Development Plan (2009-2015), and the 40-Year Development Plan (2018-2057) that have largely been underutilised.

Just like the rest, the most recent one, the 40-Year Development Plan, with a vision of achieving “a just, free and prosperous society”, has been shelved while manifestos have become the source of policies and programmes.

This harms the economy and the citizens in many ways.

As the International Monetary Fund stated in its policy paper, ‘Navigating Fiscal Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa : Resilient Strategies and Credible Anchors in Turbulent Waters’, fiscal policy in most sub-Saharan African countries focuses excessively on short-term goals and is not guided by a clear medium-term strategy.

“This lack of anchoring has resulted in frequent breaches of fiscal rules and ever-increasing public debt levels,” the paper published last September said.

These fiscal breaches, which are rampant in Ghana, result from each administration coming with its own programmes, which it moves heaven and earth to implement in order to win votes.

This leads to wastage, fuels lack of accountability and corruption, and polarises the nation further.

Beyond their economic benefits, long-term development plans promote social cohesion and accountable governance.

They serve as a national vision that the citizens unite around to accomplish.

They also make it easier for the populace to track progress and make informed decisions.

With the country battling to overcome one of its worst economic crises in a generation, the Daily Graphic believes now is the time to resurrect a national conversation on an inclusive long-term development plan.

Indeed, as the 2024 election campaigns begin, it will be a good starting point for either of the two leading political parties to agree to support the winner to develop and implement a long-term national development plan that will be respected by all governments.

The paper is aware of the 40-Year Development Plan (2018-2057) developed by the National Democratic Congress and the Ghana@100 Plan developed by the governing New Patriotic Party and believes that those documents could be fused to produce a single plan to serve as the Ghana Vision over the next 40 years or more.

With our nation highly polarised on party and other lines amid an economic recovery, the time is now to harness our collective potential.

A workable national development plan is the best starting point, and now is the time.