Civil Service and Private Sector must deepen collaboration to drive Ghana’s development — Head of Civil Service

The Head of the Civil Service, Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, has called for stronger collaboration between the Civil Service, private sector, academia and other stakeholders to accelerate Ghana’s socio-economic development.

He said stronger partnerships would enable stakeholders to better understand their respective roles and responsibilities and work together more effectively to address national development challenges.

Dr Aggrey-Darkoh made the call at a Policy Dialogue in Accra as part of the 2026 Civil Service Week and 2025 Awards Ceremony.

Speaking on the theme, “Resetting the Agenda for Sustainable Development in Ghana: The Civil Service’s Responsibility,” he said the Civil Service must continuously adapt to changing times to remain relevant and responsive to the needs of society.

Dr Aggrey-Darkoh called on Civil Service Staff to embrace innovation, strengthen institutional coordination and remove bottlenecks in public service delivery to accelerate Ghana’s sustainable development.

He said the Civil Service had established mechanisms to connect Ministries, Departments and Agencies with the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat to enhance coordination and support the implementation of national priorities.

The Director of Innovative Finance, Partnerships and Markets at the 24-Hour Economy Secretariat, Dr Ishmael Nii Amanor Dodoo, urged the Civil Service to move beyond rigid office-hour approaches to service delivery and increasingly focus on the availability of services based on the needs of citizens and the economy.

He said digital technologies provided opportunities for public services to remain accessible beyond conventional working hours, particularly as the country pursued the 24-hour economy agenda.

He further advocated stronger strategic partnerships between the Civil Service and the private sector, saying a better understanding of how public institutions operated would enable businesses and other stakeholders to engage more effectively with government.

The Director of the Research, Training and Development Directorate (RTDD) at the Office of the Head of the Civil Service (OHCS), Dr Elizabeth Obeng-Yeboah, announced that the Office had initiated measures to align the institutional plans of Ministries and Departments with national priorities.

She said the initiative was aimed at strengthening policy implementation and improving public sector performance.

Dr Obeng-Yeboah explained that effective planning was vital to ensuring that government priorities were translated into measurable activities and outcomes.

She said the realignment of institutional plans was also linked to the Civil Service’s performance management system, which she described as a robust mechanism for promoting accountability across the public service.

Director of PPBMED at the Ministry of Education, Inusah Shirazu, stressed the importance of evidence-based policymaking, saying research and reliable data were critical to effective public service delivery.

He therefore called for stronger data systems to enable policymakers to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting education and other public services.