Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the government’s strategic plan to build a self-sufficient country will fail without the active involvement of development partners.
According to him, Ghana’s development partners had the technical expertise and resources to support the country’s development efforts.
He said the “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda, which spells out government’s plan for sustainable long-term development, had partnership and coordination with development partners as one of the driving pillars.
The Vice President was speaking in Accra yesterday during the inaugural Northern Development Authority (NDA) multi-stakeholder consultation with development partners.
The forum forms part of the NDA’s drive to rebuild relationship with the donor community and also to mobilise support, especially for private sector towards the execution of the Authority’s mandate and the implementation of key outcomes and recommendations from last year’s Northern Ghana Development Summit.
Dr Bawumia explained that, for Ghana to reach the level of self-sufficiency, it would require support in implementing plans and programmes, hence the need for partnership and coordination with development partners.
“We talk about Ghana Beyond Aid for a good reason. Building a self-sufficient country but we will need the involvement of donors in attaining the goal.
It does not mean we sever relationship with donors but rather we work toward aligning development with the country’s strategic goals,” he stated.
Such coordination and partnership, he explained, would enable the country and partners to identify priorities to be tackled, to meet the needs of Ghanaians and uplift the people out of poverty.
“The relationship must help in prioritising investments that helps in achieving the desired goals for our people,” Dr Bawumia added.
To secure the northern zones against security challenges, he said the government had equipped the police and army to deal with threats of terrorism.
Currently, he indicated that the government was building 15 security bases at all the country’s northern borders.
Additionally, he said the government had increased investments in social amenities and allocations to security to make northern Ghana prime for donor investments.
Dr Bawumia asked development partners to engage other development authorities which are concerned with addressing development needs across the country to maximise the impact of their interventions.
Dr Sulemana Abdulai, Board Chair of the NDA, noted that the forum was to highlight the level of government’s investments in priority projects and programmes in the northern zone, and explore the views of development partners on the roadmap of the development of strategy for the zone.
He indicated that the forum would also help to identify synergies and possible collaboration between development partners, and the authority towards the accelerated transformation of northern Ghana.
He said such consultations were geared towards laying the foundation for joint efforts and partnerships around strategies for addressing development priorities.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS