Sustainable long-term National Development Plan; Let’s get the basics right
It has always been proper for every nation to have a long-term plan from which its short and medium-term plans emanate. Even as individuals, we can only live purposeful lives when we plan, have visions and even dreams for defined periods. It is, therefore, heartwarming to think of a 40-year development plan.
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To me, the time span is not much of an issue, as the success of a long-term plan for Ghana will depend on whether we have the basics right for the implementation of such a plan – 10, 15, 20, 25 or even a 100 years plan.
Taking out past plans which were interrupted by changing governments through coup d’états, recent experiences in programmes such as Programme of Actions to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD), Vision 2020, Vision 2015, Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategies I and II, Ghana Shared Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy etc., which were pursued in relatively stable political environments indicate that basic challenges in implementing such plans, if not addressed, can haunt the achievability and sustainability of any long-term plan.
The limitation of this short write-up is that it cannot belabour and attempt to digest all the multi-faceted causes of failures and successes of plans and all their antidotes. However, some consciousness needs to be raised for attention.
Spatial planning
A wide spectrum of issues bordering on land ownership and allocations, physical development planning and management, funding and other economic-socio-political matters vis-à-vis decentralisation has become handy basics in considering long-term planning in Ghana.
A long-term development plan considers many factors and their ramifications in development but such a plan should be anchored on spatial planning. Activities envisaged in the plan and indeed in all successful development plans will hinge on proper spatial planning.
Unfortunately, not much attention has been given to spatial planning over the years.
The main statutory agency, Town and Country Planning Department, which is to lead in spatial planning and which is currently subsumed in the District Assembly at the district level, due to the decentralisation concept, is only moribund and operates less than 20 per cent capacity, in terms of not only human and material resources, but presently with an unclear mandate and an outmoded law.
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We mainly occasionally hear the name of that agency when there is a disaster and some people accuse it of what it is not mandated or does not have the capacity to do.
Fortunately, the agency has led in coming out with the National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) which is a framework or plan for zoning for the entire country.
The NSDF blueprint is yet to see the light of day in terms of being fully operational. However, without being very skeptical, speculative acquisition of large tracts of land will be a challenge in the implementation of the plan proposals.
Signs are clear that before the NSDF and a new planning bill mature, speculators would have torpedoed some of the proposals enshrined in these documents.
Land matters
There does not seem to be practical restrictions to landowners, including the government and its officials, on allocation of large tracts of land. This is becoming a delicate issue within both human settlements and in the countryside.
The whole country is a statutory planning area but in practice, there are no strict zoning regulations to guide development, especially as development outstrips planning in foreseeable project areas.
A few years ago when it became rife that there would be an inland port at Boankra in the Ashanti Region, speculators went in for land in the area without resort to any land use planning scheme; the oil find in the Western Region, proposed new airports and university campuses are only a few examples.
One can imagine the situation for proposed new national and regional capitals. With such acquisitions and developments, it cannot be imagined the number of compensations and the legal rigmaroles with possible judgment debts and delays in the implementation of plan proposals.
Haphazard developments
Coupled with this is the haphazard developments in human settlements which some district assemblies, as planning authorities, seem to have thrown in the towel in dealing with.
Our settlements continue to be in a mess and unattractive to improve human life. Sometimes too, the socio-political ripples in assemblies dealing with the issue of unauthorised development discourage them although adequate regulations support them to deal with the unauthorised developers and their allies.
Then the issue of funding comes to the fore. As a nation, we cannot continue to rely on external funding or donor support for an achievable and sustainable long-term development plan.
Most district assemblies also have very little internally generated funds for development.
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They, therefore, rely on central government funds or handouts from donors as funds for implementing district development plans. As the years go by, decentralisation is supposed to grow and if assemblies cannot stand on their feet then development cannot appreciably trickle to the urban and rural poor.
Indiscipline in plan implementation, even in the short-term, can stall the realisation of long-term plans. There is also no gainsaying that some aspects of plans are implemented, which surprisingly and in reality do not fall within prioritised areas due to socio-political reasons.
We, therefore, have to get the basics right and ensure to improve on our performance. In conclusion, for long-term national development plan:
• Inter-sectoral development proposals for rural and urban agriculture, industry (manufacturing), tourism, population, human settlements, mining, housing, energy, education, health, etc. will be realised through spatial planning. Land market, management, planning and development need to be looked into as sine qua non for long-term planning. Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago are immediate examples.
• Human settlements should function well to promote business, social life, total safety and convenience for development as required from district assemblies. This time political will is not enough, but political courage and resources to prepare and implement spatial planning are not only necessary but essential.
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• There should be sustainable funding with locally generated funds both at the national and local levels so that decentralisation can be accelerated for the assemblies, which are the basic agents, to translate plans to reduce poverty. The assemblies, therefore, have to position themselves to be on course and deliver to achieve the tenets of the plan.
The writer is a member of the Ghana Institute of Planners. He is the Regional Director, Town and Country Planning Department, Eastern Region .
Writer’s E-mail: ampabenkyereme@yahoo.com