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7.
Key Lessons Learned
Lessons
learned from Ghana’s experience with strategies for sustainable national
development:
1. The
pace of Ghana’s development has not matched the depth of its experience
with development programming due to several reasons:
(a)
the concept of implementing development programmes within the framework
of a long-term vision is relatively new as the previous development planing
efforts were basically medium term planning,
(b)
very few of the previous development plans were fully implemented over
their planned timeframes,
(c)
there was relatively little commitment by most previous governments to
the development plans they themselves formulated;
(d)
stakeholder participation in the design of the development plans was either
non-existent or very low and ineffective.
2. There
is the need to state up-front the expected output in the design of a national
strategy. The developers of Ghana-Vision 2020 set out to prepare a medium-term
plan but realized they needed a long-term framework, hence they prepared
the NDPF. They did not set out to produce a long-term vision.
3. For
a nation to develop an effective and sustainable strategy for development,
it needs to apply the appropriate methodology for it’s visioning process.
For example, the use of GOPP methodology does not directly address the
issue of scenarios (forecasting) of the future.
4. A
NSSD needs to contain fall-backs as part of the strategy content to address
vulnerabilities to assure resilient and sustainable national livelihood.
It is not enough to provide for reviews or implementation steps, as in
the Ghana-Vision 2020, as the major corrective or re-aligning feature.
The Ghana-Vision 2020 does not provide alternatives or fall-backs based
on scenario analysis.
5. To
achieve effective participation and quality of work, terms such as ‘strategy’
need to clearly defined.
6. For
enhanced shared vision, the ownership factor has to be raised through
appropriate participatory processes. Regarding the nation at large, it
appears that the majority of the citizenry were aware that there was something
called Vision 2020 that provided a long-term goal of achieving a middle-income
status by the year 2020. However, they did not know the contents of the
Vision nor what it took to achieve it. Furthermore, since the NDPF was
not very much in the public domain, most people referred to the First
Step as Vision 2020.
7. A
key finding was that the process of participation in the design of strategy
work has been dominated by the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
In the main, these institutions decided on the need to undertake the strategy
formulation exercises, proposed the development objectives to be achieved,
decided on which stakeholders to invite, and selected the methodology
and processes to be used. However, since national development objectives
should be determined through a political process of consulting as many
stakeholders as possible, more direct participation by other stakeholders
would have enhanced the ownership and commitment to the Vision.
8. For
effective commitment and participation, stakeholders need time to prepare
for their participation in forums and workshops held to elicit their support.
9. For
participation to be effective, outcomes need to be actualized to enhance
commitment. For example, the private sector feels that results from consultative
sessions on the economy have not been completely or effectively implemented
resulting in a less-than optimal environment for private sector development.
10.
The use of ‘brainstorming’ as the key approach to participation has limitations
in ensuring total participation. The nominal group technique is more effective
in eliciting response from all participants in a group session.
11.
Full participation by all social or pressure groups is enhanced by advance
information, education and communication campaigns on the process, objectives,
methodology and expected outcomes to all potential participants. In the
absence of this, ministries and departments and those they select to attend,
dominate participation in stakeholder functions related to strategy work.
This is an issue of equitable and timely access to advance information
by all potential participants.
12.
Although political parties were not in existence in Ghana at the time
the NDPF was being formulated, efforts should have been made at the earliest
opportunity to seek their views on the methodology, processes and participation
of stakeholders involved to facilitate broad-based political commitment
to the Vision.
13.
In terms of donor versus government-led processes, donor-led processes
are not necessarily less participatory than home-grown processes. In addition,
there is variation in the participatory nature of different donor-led
processes. For example, the Sustainable Natural Resource Management Strategy
(supported by DFID) was more participatory than the Comprehensive Development
Framework (World Bank promoted) whose participation was limited only to
ministries and departments.
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