The National Development Summit, convened by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), opened in Accra on Wednesday as a part of broader engagements towards developing clear development framework to guide long-term planning.

The two-day summit is expected to produce the Long-Term National Development Perspective Framework, which would also be known as the “The Ghana Vision 2057.”

The document will articulate the vision of Ghana from the perspective of the people by 2057 and set goals, objectives, the strategic direction to pursue, and targets to be realised.

Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Chairman, NDPC, said the country’s inability to effectively develop and implement a long-term development framework was because of lack of an interaction between the governance system, the technological environment, and some technical considerations.

“It is a governance problem because some of the previous long-term development perspective documents provide specific actions, programmes, and projects required to achieve the long-term targets.

“…governments formed by political parties that come in with their own manifestoes prepared based on their own ideological persuasion upon which they were elected,” he said.

Prof. Gyan-Baffour said the framework would serve as reference point to the drafting of manifestoes and provide governments with a clear framework that would specify what the country intended to achieve in the long-term.

“The framework will tell us what we want to do by 2057 and the government will decide how we want to get there,” he said.

Nana Susubribi Krobea Boaten Asante, the Paramount Chief of Asante Asokore, said the country must collectively define its development on non-partisan basis and fashion out a plan to achieve those targets.

He said development required holistic and inclusive approach, adding that “a partisan myopic approach governed by short-term interests is patently untenable.”

“The numerical implications of effective long-term planning are not congruent with the dictates and exigencies of partisan politics,” Nana Asante said.
Professor Ernest Aryeetey, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said development plans must be underpinned by innovation, adding that the country must be consistent with its development plans.

“Unemployment is the biggest problem facing young people today. Such problems require long-term intentional approaches,” he said.

In 2018, Ghana, adopted a 40-year development plan (2018-2057), with the vision of achieving “a just, free and prosperous society” by 2057.

The plan provides a framework for national development in line with the NDPC’s mandate enshrined in articles 85, 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution.

Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, Director-General, NDPC, said the constraint to the country’s development were structural and required a set of determined goals and targets to change the situation in the long-term.

“We need a vision, how to measure the vision, set clear goals and hold governments accountable,” he said.