NDUOM’S AGENDA FOR CONSENSUS ON NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A paper delivered by Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom at the JOY FM, Coconut Grove Hotels sponsored search for consensus building on national development agenda. Read on:

“I believe that the best path to achieving consensus on a national development agenda is by ensuring that the principle of participation as a means of ensuring national ownership is fully utilised.  Ghanaians from all walks of life should be consulted.  The people need to participate fully in the different activities organized to obtain input and develop consensus on the way forward for Ghana.  It is the only way.  But it is not enough.  Once prepared, the national development agenda must be used by everyone – politicians, business people, religious organisations, academicians, students when preparing their own plans and future forecasts.

I have had the opportunity to review the country’s national development plans from 1951 to date to ensure that we learn from both our positive and negative experiences.  The analysis of all the past development plans shows clearly that while they varied in focus, they all pointed to one common ideal, the improvement of the worth and welfare of the Ghanaian.  They all had growth aspirations, promised to create jobs, offered to modernise agriculture and usher the country into some form of industrialisation in addition to improving social conditions.

I served as the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission from 2001 to 2003.  The Commission organised focused consultation sessions with many stakeholders including political parties; Government (Ministers, The President and The Vice President); Media; Private Sector; Organized Labour; Students; and Others.  We even held consultations with Ghanaians abroad in Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.  The process made it even clearer that the shared vision of all Ghanaians is to continuously create wealth to improve the worth and welfare of our people and to reduce poverty.

But the political need to colour the national agenda with partisan ideology has made such collective efforts ineffective when it came down to implementation.  Many politicians have been concerned with how the national development plan promotes the implementation of the political ideology of the party and the promises contained in the campaign manifesto. Such concerns have tended to make the focus of government’s investments and development promotion efforts short term thus losing the long term perspective needed to ensure accelerated growth.

Directive Principles of State Policy

One document that has been ignored and in some instances forgotten when we discuss the topic of national development is the 1992 Constitution.  Therefore, we must first educate each other on the need to seek grounding from the Constitution of the Republic.  I am referring to Chapter Six of the Constitution: The Directive Principles of State Policy. The Directive Principles of State Policy together represent our collective broad national agenda for the Constitution says is the “…establishment of a just and free society.”  I am convinced if we were to live by these broad principles and the Constitution’s requirement for monitoring and evaluation, our nation would see significant growth and development.  Article 34 (2) directs that:

“The President shall report to Parliament at least once a year all the steps taken to ensure the realisation of the policy objectives contained in this Chapter; and, in particular, the realisation of basic human rights, a healthy economy, the right to work, the right to good health care and the right to education.”

Furthermore, Article 36 (5) directs that:

“For the purposes of the foregoing clauses of this article, within two years after assuming office, the President shall present to Parliament a co-ordinated programme of economic and social development policies including agricultural and industrial programmes at all levels and in all the regions of Ghana.”

My view is that if all of our Presidents account annually to Parliament and to the nation on how they are implementing the principles and also show how the co-ordinated progamme promotes these principles, there will be less anxiety than exists presently over the need for a national development agenda that transcends political parties.

With no hesitation, I recommend that all Ghanaians read and become very familiar with Chapter Six of our Constitution.  Also, in future, we should require that the manifestoes of all political parties must at least recognise the existence of the Directive Principles of State.  The political parties must show how they are going to implement these principles enshrined in our Constitution.

National Development Agenda

Considering what the 1992 Constitution prescribes, we should talk about preparing a development agenda that provides specifics to the foundation made available in that important document. 

We, together, as one nation with one destiny should seek to build a society of free and disciplined individuals with a passion for excellence. We should have a goal to build a society that is capable of raising the average income of its citizens to middle-income levels within a specific timeframe.  What I have just read to you was written by the National Development Planning Commission in 2002.  But most Ghanaians do not know it.  We must look for more effective ways of living the words that are supposed to guide us to a better Ghana.

This is why my focus on prescribing learning, understanding, teaching and using what our own Constitution asks us to do.  As a people, we have known what is required to create wealth and build individual pocket-level prosperity.

We need toobjective of development policy framework is therefore not limited to generating new thoughts and  build this society by integrating or blending the well-intentioned ideas of the past with new ideas but propelled by leaders who can formulate simple, coherent, and inspiring development messages for the onward march towards realizing the Directive Principles of State Policy that we have had since 1992.

This is also the time for finding an alternative approach to reaching the destination of prosperity.  So we should aim to do what we need to do differently as our methods so far have not worked.  Our success should also be predicated on doing different things than we have done in the past.  For all of us, what is needed is a new disciplined attitude, a new Ghanaian mentality of a proud, hard working people so that we can create the wealth that can be shared.

A consensus goal of becoming a middle income country is widely shared by Ghanaians.  To do it within ten years means accelerating growth that is sustainable.  It means increasing the economic growth rate from its 2009 level of around 5% to 7-10% and beyond in the medium to long term.  We cannot do this with hoe and cutlass agriculture, an import and sell mentality or by being a raw material exporter.  We need an alternative to all of this that will spell doing different things than we have done in the past.

Ghana needs accelerated growth. However, the country cannot pursue accelerated growth without a strong and unshakable socio-economic foundation. The foundation should include infrastructure development, rural development, modernised agriculture, social services spread equitably, good governance and private sector development.  On top of this foundation is rapid industrialization through agro-based industrial development, petrochemical industry and ICT.

Two major points have been made over the years that suggest strong consensus in development planning in Ghana since 1951.  The first has to do with modernisation of agriculture.  “…the wealthier countries all have a much smaller proportion of their working people engaged in agriculture than the poorer countries”  (Seven Year Development Plan). Productivity in agriculture also depends on the application of mechanization and specialization.

Therefore, we must build consensus on the shifting of employment from agriculture.  This requires targeting the modernization of agriculture as a pre-requisite.  It means making this an objective every political administration must firmly incorporate in its detailed plans and annual budgets.

The second has to do with industrialization.  Successive political administrations since 1951 have talked about changing the “colonial” structure of Ghana’s international trade:  from exporting primary products – minerals, cocoa and timber – to progressively processing them in Ghana before export.  Now we need to add the need to process oil and gas to this list.  I want to stress the point that we have a choice to make.  Either we become an exporter of crude oil and gas, or we take urgent steps to use this new asset to push our industrialization agenda.  My hope is that all stakeholders will choose the path of value addition, maximizing local content, indigenous ownership and developing a petrochemicals industry in Ghana even if it would mean sacrificing immediate benefits for long term gain.

The modernisation of agriculture and industrialisation come with certain prerequisites we must deal with if the benefits are to accrue to all regions of the country.  We must reach consensus on opening up the country and creating an enabling environment for the private sector. This means building same standard inter-regional highways to link all the ten geographic regions and link them up with the rest of the West Africa sub region.  Major roads to productive areas in every region that link the rural areas to the urban areas should be developed to open up the rural areas for investment, productivity expansion and job creation. This includes modernizing and extending the railway network to major poles of development in the country.  It also includes accelerating access to telephones, internet, and broader information and communications technology (ICT) throughout the country.  Infrastructure development includes specific actions needed to increase the availability of energy to boost industrial growth and production.

In addition to infrastructure, one fundamental matter that needs to be settled and placed firmly on the national development agenda by consensus is education.  The objective is to enhance the delivery of services to ensure quality, regional equity and relevance to industry.  This in my view must be done through actions including reforming the educational system to ensure that there is uninterrupted quality education for all Ghanaians from pre-school to age 17 to reduce poverty and create the opportunity for human development.   It includes the development of model senior secondary schools in every district in the country.  It includes ensuring the application of science and technology.  It includes making it possible for research and development results in universities and scientific institutions to find expression in the day-to-day operations of farmers, artisans, government and industrialists.

Finally, a national development agenda must free the minds of the people in their own communities to be responsible for their own development and not continue to look for handouts from the center in Accra.  For this to happen, the people must be given the right to elect their own local government from law makers (Assembly Members) to Chief Executives.  Development can be accelerated when the people work in freedom.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 1992 Constitution has already prescribed the Directive Principles of State policy which should be implemented firmly to provide a common guide for all political administrations in the country.  This if done, will provide a common foundation for the preparation of a shared national development agenda.  The same Directive Principles also require our Presidents to show how they are implementing the principles at least once a year.  We must ensure that this important requirement is adhered to.

We must find something different, alternatives from the way we have gone about the important task of development so that we can achieve better, sustainable results.  In 2002, the NDPC identified ineffective leadership, political instability and economic immaturity as the main reasons for not achieving our development goals.

The one factor identified then which I want to leave you with is “our national attitude”.

The attitudinal problem was defined to include poor work ethic; over-reliance on foreign goods; indiscipline in all aspects of national life excessive dependency on others instead of depending on our own enterprise and efforts; and lack of a positive national identity and way of life.  I did not talk about the crucial topic of financing our development agenda.  Others are better positioned to discuss that topic.  I believe that if we work on the problem called “our national attitude”, we may find that the value we create will be more than gold, diamond, timber and oil.

Thank you for your kind attention.