The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has met with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Poverty Reduction to deliberate the President’s ‘Transformation Agenda’, known officially as the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies, 2014-2020.
The meeting, which took place on Friday, January 16, 2015, at the premises of the Commission in Accra, also discussed the second Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda (GSGDA II), which covers the period 2014 to 2017 and is based on the Transformation Agenda.
The two documents were submitted by President John Dramani Mahama to Parliament in December 2014 and will be debated by the full House when members return from recess at the end of January.
The Committee which was led by its chairman, Hon. George Arthur represented one of the few occasions when Parliament, with the permission of the Speaker, holds hearings outside of Parliament.
The Director-General of NDPC, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, explained that the 1992 Constitution requires every president to, within two years of assuming office, present a Coordinated Programme to Parliament as a guide to the country’s social and economic development. He said President Mahama decided to devote his Coordinated Programme to “transformation” as a complement to his government’s efforts at macroeconomic stabilisation.
The Director-General indicated that the successful implementation of the interventions outlined in the document, which reflect as much as possible the development aspirations of all Ghanaians, would move Ghana closer to its long-term vision of building a just, free and prosperous society.
The features of such a society, he said, will include the following: increased access to quality education and health services at all levels; a strong role for science and technology in education and national development; increased application of technology in agriculture and manufacturing; as well as the formalisation of the informal sector for increased decent work, among others.
On his part the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Poverty Reduction George Arthur expressed gratitude to NDPC for the presentation and for spearheading the process of transformation. He pledged the support of the Committee to the Commission’s ongoing efforts to build its capacity for national development planning.
George Arthur said after bringing the Coordinated Programme and the GSGDA II to the full House, his Committee would review the 2012 Annual Progress Report under the GSGDA I and later the progress report for 2013, also under GSGDA I. Both reports are produced by NDPC and submitted to Parliament as part of their mandate. Various MDAs are then invited to Parliament to answer questions on their performance during the implementation of the GSGDA.
Earlier, in opening remarks, the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, expressed the need to attach a great deal of seriousness to the implementation of the President’s Coordinated Programme once it has been adopted by Parliament.
He noted that there was much to be learned from past development programmes and that every effort must be made to draw from the lessons of those programmes in the implementation of future ones.
Source: Joy Online
