Effective collaboration key to devt — Dan Botwe

The Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, has stressed the need for effective collaboration between policymakers and academia to enhance the development of the country.

Mr Botwe said this when he called on the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, at her office as part of his three-day official working visit to the Ashanti Region to promote effective coordination between the Ministry, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and the Assemblies.

The call on the VC was to have a discussion with the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD), the Department of Planners and the College of Agriculture at the KNUST to consider and examine the effective implementation of the Rural Development Policy.

He suggested that good project research work by students should be considered for effective planning and called for deliberate efforts to be made for academia and policymakers to pursue policies and programmes that impact all Ghanaians.

Vice Chancellor

Welcoming the minister and his delegation, Prof. Dickson said that impactful research was not in publication alone but such research must be made available to people who could best utilise them.

She emphasised that academia had the expertise to review the 2019-2023 Rural Development Policy together with the Ministry to find solutions to rural development challenges.

She said her institution had signed Memoranda of Understanding with some deprived districts such as Sekyere Afram Plains and Sene West to provide them with technical assistance for the country’s benefit.

  Dan Botwe (3rd from left), Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, with Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson (4th from right), Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and other officials of the ministry after the meeting

Tour

Mr Botwe also visited the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, the Oforikrom and Ejisu Municipal assemblies as well as the Rural Development College at Kwaso, all in the Ashanti Region.

Addressing senior management staff of the metro and the two municipal assemblies, Mr Botwe stated that the ministry by the 1992 Constitution was to pursue policies and programmes that would bring development to the people at the local level.

He, therefore, urged the staff to pursue policies, programmes, and interventions that would bring development to their people.

At the Rural Development College (RDC), Mr Botwe assured the staff and students of the college that the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) was working closely with the ministry, and very soon students after completion, could pursue a degree at the institute.

Entourage

The Head of the Office of the Local Government Service, Dr Nana Ato Arthur, who was part of the minister’s entourage, advised the Assembly staff not to refuse postings where their expertise was needed.

The minister was accompanied by his two Deputies, Osei Bonsu Amoah and Augustine Collins Ntim; the Chief Director of the MLGDRD, Marian Kpakpah.
ARCC, Mrs Emelia Brobbey, Heads of Department under the ministry, and directors.