The National Economic Dialogue (NED): RESETTING GHANA AND BUILDING THE ECONOMY WE WANT TOGETHER

Thrust of Contributions: Resetting Ghana COULD begin with prevailing GOVERNANCE POWER RELATIONS. In other words, power to govern could be shared between leaders selected based on external democratic principles, (multi-party politics, elections etc), and leaders chosen based on African norms and conventions.

Key Reasons for Recommendation: Commonsensical, Historical, and Global

Commonsensical: The strength of any building is determined by its foundation. The foundation of Ghana is the Institution of Chieftaincy which provides grassroots leadership at the community levels. Currently, the status of this grassroots leadership foundation in governance is marginalization and a backseat role in allocation of resources for transformation development.

Historical: Since independence, the practice of organizing society for orderly access to resources of the nation has been imitation or assimilation of arrangements bequeathed to the nation by the colonial masters which have affected greatly the representation and participation of communities in politics and renders mechanisms for ensuring transparency and accountability for policy outcomes very weak, absent unrealistic, and far removed from the grassroots.

Global: There is an urgent need to curb resource accumulation practices for capital generation within the global political economic system. In Ghana, a classical example is the phenomenon of ‘galansay’ which damages water bodies, forest, and pollutes the entire environment upon which local livelihood and community existence depends.

Constitutional Implications: These will include: (a) Formation and Composition of National Government and Administrative Structures; (b) Decentralization and Local Government; (c) Composition of Local and National Assemblies; (d) Offices of the lower-level Presiding Heads and Members of Assemblies and (e) the Institution of Chieftaincy,

Possible Thematic Triggers: Selected arears include: (a) Fiscal Decentralization with enabling grassroots community transparency monitoring and accountability for stewardship measures would restore efficient financial management systems and prudent public expenditures leading to macroeconomic stability and growth – an excellent pathway to jobs creation; (b) Seed-to-Plate Agriculture and Agribusiness; (c) Beyond Certifications Education Programs (BCEP); (d) Translating Youth Bulge Phenom (YBP) to Opportune Moment for Creativity Programs (MCP); (e) Progressive Labor Mobility Initiatives (not clinging to dogmatic ways of doing things); Technology-aided Communication, Construction, and Conservation interventions; and Health-driven Housing and household equipment Improvement Programs.

Conclusion: Building the Ghana We Want will require power relations of governance where majority of Ghanaians are better represented by their own chosen leaders based on familiar understandable norms and conventions in local governing arrangements. Participation in politics at the local grassroots level will be communal, and at the national level, it will be based on multiparty operations.

About the Author: Dr. Kofi Anani is the Manager of the Blended Knowledge Solutions Network dedicated to utilizing blended knowledge for transformative development in Africa. (www.anani-afelenetwork.org). He has spent more than two decades working in International Development. He has served for five years as the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Refugees Board (2015-2020). Prior to this, he worked in Development Finance at the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. Dr. Anani is the author of the recent publication, Leadership in Independent Africa, Six Decades On: The Blended Representation Principle as a Cause for Afro Optimism, (London: Zed, 2024). Details of the views expressed here are contained in this publication.

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