DRAFT DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION POLICY

The Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs (MIPA) in collaboration with the World Bank has held a three-day retreat at Akosombo to formulate a draft Ghana Development Communication Policy.

The draft policy is the outcome of a series of meetings held between the World Bank and the Ministry to discuss how best to effectively and efficiently communicate government’s development agenda for the benefit of the people of Ghana.

The policy is geared towards the development and implementation of a strong communication programme based on participation and consultation between government and the people across all state institutions to produce an informed society which is understanding and supportive of government policies, programmes and activities towards attaining prosperity and equity. The goal is to empower the people for ownership of the programmes, policies and activities necessary for social and economic transformation.

The objectives of the policy are to empower citizens and promote national identity and cohesion through a two-way information flow between government and its various publics, to facilitate access to public sector information, to strengthen district-level involvement in the decision-making process and to mainstream development communication process in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), among others.

Some of the strategies that were identified as necessary to drive the development communication policy were the re-engineering and re-tooling of MIPA and Information Services Department (ISD), decentralising information through ICT, archiving, storage and preservation of Ghana’s heritage etc.

In an address to close the retreat, the Hon. Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, J. O. Obetsebi-Lamptey, observed that the world is moving so fast in technology that developing countries like Ghana have to transform its communications strategies in order to bridge the digital divide. This calls for change in attitude in the way we do things. He said there was the need to promote a strong national image to enable Ghana take a competitive centre stage in the global economy.

Hon. Obetsebi-Lamptey said the final policy document would democratise information gathering, processing and dissemination and make the people owners of policies and programmes for wealth-creation and equity.

The Chairman of the function, Mr. Kofi Sekyiamah, Chief Director of the Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs said the people would only defend democracy when they see themselves as active participants in policy formulation and ultimate owners of that policy.

Policy inputs discussed by participants included the Definition, Scope, Vision, Mission Objectives of Policy, Human Resource Development, e-governance, preservation of our films and photos as national heritage, message development in mass communication, branding Ghana to attract the right kind of investment, and the implementation monitoring and evaluation of public policy.

The retreat was attended by 25 participants drawn from MIPA, ISD, Media Consultants and experts from academic institutions, the public and private sector and the World Bank.