Review cultural policy to achieve development objectives-Abdallah

Accra, March 10, GNA - Dr. Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Chief Executive Officer of MA'AT Productions Incorporated, has called for the review of Ghana's National Cultural Policy to reflect the dynamism of culture to achieve national development objectives. He said the implementation of the current National Cultural Policy has been handicapped by various inconsistencies and the apparent lack of commitment, saying if not reviewed, the attainment of Ghana's national development objectives in all facets of the people's lives would continue to be elusive.

Dr. Abdallah, who was welcoming participants to the opening of a workshop on the challenges in the implementation of the Cultural Policy of Ghana on Wednesday, said the Policy adopted in 2004 was founded on the clear perception that meaningful development must be based on a strong cultural foundation.

He however raised several questions such as "Who is a Ghanaian...Who are we, what is the state of our being, our National Integration? Is the Ghanaian indeed a reality in the face of ethnicity and Where are we on the journey to nationhood and "Africanness?"

He noted that though Ghana has been politically independent for more than half a decade, it took about forty years of the entire period to articulate a coherent and comprehensive National Cultural Policy whose implementation had faced several challenges. He said the purpose of the workshop organized by MA'AT Productions in collaboration with the National Commission on Culture (NCC), was therefore to create a forum for dialogue among stakeholders and experts. Representatives from the Heritage Development, Association of Music, Drama and Film, the Actors Guild, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Chieftaincy Institutions and cultural educators from various educational institutions in the country are attending.

They are expected to explore and discover ways in which the institutions of Culture would be turned into an instrument for the mobilization and propagation of national cultural values on the one hand and a potent catalyst to positive change and development on the other hand. Dr. Abdallah said this would help release the creative energy of Ghanaians, while removing from the national psyche that apparent fear of success that makes "us sabotage our own efforts." He stressed that "change must begin first and foremost with looking at the cultural underpinnings of our attitudes towards issues of national development. It is only when strategies are developed that we take into account the cultural attitudes of the people that the people will begin to claim ownership of our development goals and objectives and commit themselves to dynamic and sustained action towards national development." Mr. Alexander Asum-Ahensah, Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, in a speech read for him by his Chief Director, Mrs. Rebecca Amooh Aboagye, asked for copies of the outcome of the workshop to be forwarded to the Ministry for study and onward incorporation into its draft Five-Year Strategic Plan. He said the Ministry operated an open door policy for which reason suggestions and contributions to ensure the growth and development of the nation's culture were welcomed and called for closer collaboration of all stakeholders to support the cultural sector as the foundation upon which to build the government's "Better Ghana" agenda and give the country's development a unique identity.

Mr. Kwesi Gyan-Apenteng, Programme Coordinator, Cultural Initiative Support Programme (CISP), sponsors of the workshop, called on government to put more money into Ghana's cultural sector development and also ensure that donor support only goes to complement existing developments in the sector. He said as funding for the CISP which became a beneficiary of a two million euro grant by the European Union (EU) ends in December 2010, it was required that government took over programmes and projects such as the development of knowledge, information and analysis capacities, reinforcement of competences and skills as well as the improvement of dialogue initiated under this support, to ensure continuity and sustenance.