Gov'ts to be punished for failing to implement 40-year development plan

The National Development Planning Commission is allaying public skepticism that an unprecedented 40-year development plan being put together will go the way of several others which failed because it had no binding effect on successive governments.

The NDPC Director-General Dr. Nii Moi Thompson says governments which fail to implement the plan will be sanctioned.

The Ghana@100 development plan faces public skepticism because of what many believe will suffer from a lack of implementation that has plagued other plans.

Lawyers Egbert Faibille Jnr and Atta Akyea voiced the skepticism built over the years against well-meaning plans.

“If development plans are not Act of Parliament then let's forget about it” Egbert maintained.

But Dr Nii Moi Thompson in a reaction said a law has been submitted to parliament to ensure that the plan will be legally binding unlike similar plans that perished with non-implementation.

Nii Moi Thompson
Short History of Development plans
Ghana had a 5-year plan (1951-57) with a price tag of £117.6 million. In March 1958, the Second Five-Year Plan (1959-1964) was presented to Parliament. Its total cost was £350 million

In 1961, however, the Second Five-Year Plan was terminated in favour of a Seven-Year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development(1963/64-1969/70) at a cost of £1,016 million. It was the most comprehensive national development plan yet

Following the 1966 coup d’état, the Seven-Year Development Plan was terminated. Since then political instability and deteriorating economic conditions have rubbished all other short-term plans.

Some macroeconomic stability was brought in by an IMF-sponsored Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) under the military regime, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

After an era of political stability, in 1995, President Rawlings presented to Parliament the first long-term national development plan under constitutional rule called, Ghana –Vision 2020 which aimed to transform the country into a middle- income one in 25 years.

The Vision was replaced under President Kufour with the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I; 2002-2005) and later the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II, 2006-2009).

Following the election of a new government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2009, GPRS II was succeeded by the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda: 2010 -2013 (GSGDA I). Ghana is currently working with the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda: 2014-2017.

What next after 2017?
With the GSGDA set to expire in 2017, the NDPC is trying to win public support for a more ambitious 40-year plan.

The NDPC says it has two years to create a development masterpiece which will take effect from 2018.

It has begun collating ideas from a wide spectrum of the Ghanaian society including former presidents, politicians, political parties, clergy, business men, trade unionists. Ordinary Ghanaians are expected to be consulted in a nationwide tour.

Explaining the underpinning principles of the development plan, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson mentioned six pillars including human capital development, addressing land tenure system, energy sufficiency, ICT.

He stressed attitudinal change as another requirement if the plan can achieve its intended objectives.

Nii Moi Thompson appreciates the public skepticism especially after reading Kwame Nkrumah’s seven-year development plan which was abandoned following a coup d’etat in 1966.

“I can’t believe we have lost so much?” he lamented over Ghana’s chronic inability to implement its own plans.

But he is confident that “all is not lost” he showed optimism and indicated that once the plan becomes a law, government’s will have no option than to devise its own strategies to meet the targets set out in the plan.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]