Accra-Ghana, Jan. 31, GNA – The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has organised the maiden coordination meeting with Policy, Planning, Budgets, Monitoring, and Evaluation Directorates (PPBMEDs) of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
The day’s meeting, which took place in Accra, was organised by the Commission with the funding support of GIZ.
The programme, which was attended by over 100 participants sought to improve planning, implementation and reporting of programmes, projects, and activities at the sector level, develop reliable coordination mechanisms for development planning and management and encourage the pooling of resources and joint implementation of development programmes to achieve common goals.
Professor George Gyan-Baffour, NDPC Chairman, reiterated that coordination was a function of management, which ensured that different departments and groups worked in synchrony to bring about unity of action.
He said it also brought harmony in carrying out the different programmes, projects and activities of government to achieve the national objectives and goals efficiently.
He noted that ensuring whole-of-government coordination required the identification and mitigation of divergences between sectoral priorities and policies and promote mutually supporting actions across sectors and departments.
“Development coordination must therefore be central to the implementation of our national development agenda to minimise wastage in time and in resources allocation and usage,” he said.
“Our decentralised planning system with MDAs at the Sector level, Regional Coordination Councils (RCCs) at the Regional level and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) at the district level are, therefore, expected to work in a synergistic manner, establishing vertical and horizontal linkages, with the aim of realising the long-term development aspirations of the country.”
He said the process should guide the implementation of national strategy: The Agenda for Jobs: Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for All (2022-2025).
Prof Gyan-Baffour said although some progress had been made in the past in the coordination process seeking to integrate activities, minimise duplication and enhance greater efficiency a lot more needs to be done.
“The current economic and fiscal challenges we face, including exchange rate depreciation, inflationary pressures, fiscal and monetary constraints require that we intensify our efforts in coordinating the activities of Government to minimize overlaps, reduce redundancy, improve efficiency in resource allocation and usage across all sectors of our society to build back our economy better and sustainably.”
Dr Kodjo E. Mensah-Abrampa, the Director-General, NDPC, said the issue of coordination among MDAs was very pertinent and central to the national development process.
He said many a time the annual reports of the various MDAs attributed their inability to execute a particular programme or project to the lack of coordination from other ministries, agencies or departments.
He noted that coordination had manifested in the works of the various MDAs; stating that there was a lot of waste in the output of many MDAs because of the lack of coordination.
He said each time that MDAs planned for resources they still had a lot of waste coming out in the outputs.
He said without complimenting each other, MDAs register a lot competition among themselves; such as competing for resources, competing for time, competing for space, which often leaves gaps in project execution.
He said due to the lack of coordination among MDAs, there were uncompleted projects that were still hanging around in many areas of the country, that could not be counted as assets.
Mr Jens Hamlischer, GIZ Governance for Inclusive Development Programme (GOVID) Component Manager, underscored the GIZ’s commitment to work with the NDPC in strengthening Ghana’s socioeconomic development.
