UCC gets economic policy modeling unit

Cape Coast, June 26, GNA- The Government Statistician, Dr. Grace Bediako on Monday said the use of policy modeling techniques was indispensable for effective policy design and implementation in the country.

She said computable general equilibrium models have become especially important in monitoring and evaluating the impact of policy design and implementation.

Dr. Bediako said this at the launch of an 'Economic Policy Modeling Unit" (EPMU) by the Department of Economics of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The Unit is geared towards the establishment and development of "an internationally respected economic policy modeling centre to focus on teaching, training and research in areas of advanced modeling and econometric techniques with particular reference to poverty reduction, debt reduction and sustainable development".

The unit, which has been set up with collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy of the University of Hull, in the United Kingdom, will also undertake research work, hold seminars and in-service training to support the building of an economic model and a revised social activity matrix and an undated input-output table for Ghana.

Dr. Bediako commended the UCC for establishing the unit, stressing that at the moment, the expertise needed to develop and manipulate these models, is either acquired through in-service training by consultants or through training abroad and are both extremely costly. She pointed out that, multi-sectoral numerical models are designed for quantitative analysis in resource allocation problems and related policy issues in sectoral, national, multi-national or global economy, adding that, "the existence of such a unit-in-house, means that we can expect a sustained supply of modeling expertise in the near future".

According to her, the lack of expertise on a wider scale beyond those in the "think- tank" such as the Institute of Economic Affairs has constrained the development of basic tools, such as the social accounting matrix in the country that was constructed in 1993 and is yet to be updated.

Dr Bediako pointed out that systematic training and building up of such expertise means that different policy models can be upgraded, expanded and generally modified to uniquely solve Ghanaian micro and macro economic problems.

Nana Ato Arthur, Central Regional Minister also commended the UCC for establishing the unit, and said it has demonstrated its willingness and capabilities in diverse areas such as the formulation of district socio-economic plans, testing water quality in some district, conducting HIV/AIDS surveillance and other action- oriented research.

He noted that the idea to build district level account to capture all inflows and outflows and in an input-output matrix, will provide the policy implementers the tool to track all economic interrelated activities at the district, household and occupational levels. Nana Arthur said he was glad that, some districts would be adopted as 'living laboratories' where practical tracking of economic activities will be pursued and gave the assurance that his administration will provide the requisite support.

He however, challenged the staff of the unit to provide objective critique alongside the alternative for approaching developmental pursuits and was hopeful, that gains by this intervention would be emulated by other regions.

Professor Haruna Yakubu, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UCC said the policy intervention strategies seek to promote economic growth and development and that since the 1970s, Ghana has witnessed several attempts at restructuring her economy to achieve sustainable growth and development and increase the welfare of the people.

He said the establishment of the Unit is against the backdrop that highly trained local human capacity is a crucial resource in providing relevant policy alternatives because of better appreciation of the local context.

He said it is envisaged that the Unit will draw on the expertise of staff in the department of economics, the relevant ministries and industries and the centre for economic policy at the University of Hull, and would with assistance from the World Bank, DANIDA, the European Union and UNDP build the capacity for economic modeling. Professor Kofi Nketsia Afful, Head of the Department, said the unit would be developed into a centre, and would in the 2008-2009 academic year, offer a Masters programme in policy modeling "which would encompass a wide range of modeling applications and tools".