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Yesterday, the country’s National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) launched a long-term national development framework, Vision 2057, whose collective objective is to elevate the country to upper middle-income status by 2057.
The contents are generally lofty, and what we can describe as its features and objectives are superb.
For instance, it has been crafted to guide the creation of medium-term development plans every four years, ensuring continuity and alignment with long-term aspirations.
It is explained that the sub-plans would inform annual action plans and the national budget, reflecting the needs of all Ghanaians.
Even advanced countries need national development plans to better the lives of their people, and for a developing country like Ghana, this is very critical.
Therefore, Vision 2057 should be seen as a redeemer if it is implemented in a sustainable and consistent manner because it has taken sustainable development to bring Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, for instance, to the heights they have attained.
This is not the first time the country has adopted a national development plan.
We remember, for instance, short- to medium-term development plans such as the 7-Year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development (1963–1969), the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2001–2003), and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2004–2007).
All these and other previous plans were not sustainably and consistently implemented, and so their objectives were not achieved.
Also, we can make reference to the recent Long-term Development Plan of Ghana (2018–2027), which was a 40-year plan for the country.
What are the reasons for changing or dropping development plans for others?
The first, arguably, relates to different ideals of successive political leadership; otherwise, why the need to replace the 40-year plan whose end date is the same as Vision 2057?
Probably, the various successful political administrations would plead that the national development plans did not align with their manifestoes, hence the urge to abandon them so they could follow their campaign promises.
This situation has not helped the country’s forward march.
No wonder the country is still grappling with problems relating to industrialization, spatial planning, population growth management, infrastructural expansion, and environmental degradation in all its forms and shapes.
When we said early on in this piece that Vision 2057 should be a redeemer, all we had in mind was that it should be a turning point in the development journey of the country.
In that regard, we share the view of the NDPC that continuity should be the buzzword and that future governments should align their projects with Vision 2057 goals, and there should be collaboration among all Ghanaians by contributing ideas and talents to shape the nation’s future.
However, the question of Vision 2057 also failing cannot be ruled out unless all the hindrances to the success of development plans are identified and vehemently fought.
For instance, since it will take every Ghanaian for the plan to succeed, the culture of impunity in every area of the country must be checked.
Is it not sad that impunity, among other things, has undermined the spatial planning of the country and, as well, made environmental degradation unbearable?
National development planning must no longer be a partisan matter but an issue that should meet the needs of the present generation and be the springboard for future generations to carve their own progress.
