<<Print>>

The Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP) has decried the lack of consistency and proper coordination in the nation�s development agenda, a situation that had, over the years, stifled effective and sustainable growth. This, it said, was borne out of the absence of a comprehensive national development blue-print to guide and direct successive governments on how they ought to approach development issues to alleviate the plight of the people. Dr. Stephen Saforo Yirenkyi, President of the Institute, said �we have a situation where successive governments embark on programmes and projects without recourse to any laid-down national development policy, giving room to ad-hoc policies which do not stand the test of time.� Addressing a meeting of the Institute in Kumasi, he bemoaned instances where successive governments fail to continue with programmes initiated by their predecessors, even though they may be of national interest, as there was no blue-print to commit them to continue with such programmes for progress. �In our view, the coming into force of a national development policy was long overdue and it is our expectation that stakeholders will work around the clock to realize this objective to engender sanity and discipline in our development agenda�, he noted. The meeting, targeting members of the GIP in the northern sector of the country, was to afford the planners the opportunity to deliberate on some challenges impeding the advancement of their profession. It was jointly organised by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology Planning Department and the Institute under the theme �Effects of the Absence of a Comprehensive Law Regulating Planning Practice in Ghana�. The meeting discussed problems with existing legislative framework for decentralized planning, role of the GIP in the nation�s development process and the advocacy role being played by the Institute to bring sanity to planning practice. Dr. Yirenkyi expressed concern about the fact there was no effective framework to govern planning practice in the country and also regulate activities of the planning profession. This, he said, had given room for �all manner of personalities to parade themselves as planning practitioners and officers to the detriment of the nation�s socio-economic development�. He said for instance that, for now, about 55 per cent of planning practitioners were non-members of the GIP and that this made it difficult to regulate their activities. In addition, most Town and Country Planning Departments (TCPDs) across the nation were understaffed and also lacked the basic resources to enhance their work. �Many of our officers are compelled to oversee more than one district with some staff at the Departments lacking the expertise and qualification to carry out their duties as expected of professional practitioners�, he lamented. Dr. Yirenkyi also expressed concern about the interference in the work of the TCPDs, particularly by District Chief Executives (DCEs), which affected negatively the smooth development of their areas.