Governance at your door (Graphic Business)

Lucy Adoma Yeboah sums up the five-day First National Policy Fair held at the Accra International Conference.

One of the main aim of the government is to bring government to the door steps of the electorate. In this direction the Ministry of Information under one canopy brought the various ministries, agencis and departments together for the public to have insight into their operations.
The fair was designed to provide a platform for Ghanaians to get involved in governance and to enable them know the operations of government.
The five-day event, on the theme, “Engaging the Citizenry for A Better Ghana”, which was opened by the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama was to allow the citizenry engage with the leadership of the various institutions to appreciate their policies, programmes and activities.
Consequently, stands were provided at the fair for ministries, some government departments and agencies where individuals could make inquiries about issues involving those institutions and also make suggestions. The fair, which will be an annual affair will be replicated in all the regions
A total of 110 exhibitors made of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) took part in the fair and gave the public the opportunity to interact with their representatives at the stands.
As part of the event, experts were engaged to share their thoughts and insights on topics such as ‘Bridging the gap between the public and the private sectors in the policy formulation and implementation circle: A critical appraisal of the Ghanaian situation’; ‘The importance of a policy fair and how it can expedite development’, ‘The incursion into what kind of policies Ghana needs at this stage of her development’.
Opening the fair, Mr Mahama stressed that the initiative was underscored by the conviction that the enterprise of nation-building involved the collective effort of its entire population.
“To this end, the government expects to use this Policy Fair to further open up governance and get the ordinary Ghanaian to be part of the development process of this country,” he noted.
He said the opening of MDAs to the public would help demystify the art of governance by narrowing the interface between public sector institutions, the private sector and civil society organisations with the ordinary citizenry, thereby making government more interactive and relevant to every Ghanaian.
He said at every material time, the national interest should be paramount. “Public interest will, therefore, continue to be the driving principle behind any policy we initiate for implementation,” he stated.
For his part, the Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologo, said it was the hope of the ministry that the fair would help it collate information on government policies, projects and programmes, as well as deepen public consultation.
“In this way, the appropriate feedback from the public to the government will be achieved to afford the government the opportunity to formulate an acceptable development agenda for the nation,” he stated.
The Chairman for the occasion, Mr Paul Victor Obeng, said the fair had the objective of encouraging the people to participate in the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda being implemented by the Mills administration.
Speaking on the topic “ From Conception to Policy to Implementation: a critical appraisal of the Ghanaian Situation” Dr Tony Aidoo Chairman of the Policy Evaluation and Oversight Unit at the Presidency, called for a system that would encourage sustainability of policies, programmes and projects even after a change of government. The Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey another contributor on the topic though commended the organisers of the Fair, said it would have been better if the various political parties had been involved to enable them to share ideas.
The two presenters decried the situation where a change of government always went with a change of ideas because each political party wanted to identify itself with a particular policy.
Setting the tone for an interesting public discussion, Dr Aidoo pointed out that policies, programmes and projects did not mean the same, and explained that "a policy is simply what we should do, programmes are plans of action and steps, and projects are activities under execution".
Touching on the topic, the former Deputy Minister of Defence came out with a number of factors, which he said frustrated long-term policy formulation and implementation in developing countries.
Those factors, he noted, included weak political will, partisan party politics and its concomitant intransigent positions, as well as weak institutional capacity in the areas of personnel, finance and technology.
Dr Akwetey suggested to the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to tap all important issues raised in the manifestos of all the political parties for the benefit of the people.
He said the NDPC could serve a very useful purpose, since it was not a political party and therefore, could use those ideas embedded in the manifestos without being accused of 'stealing ideas' from a particular political party.
He stated that the nation was always the loser if politicians decided to keep ideas to themselves till their party came to power, adding that such an attitude did not enhance the development of the country.
At the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) Day which fell on April 30, the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr Kwesi Ahwoi stated that unless Ghanaians consume what was produced locally, no amount of restrictions on imported goods can solve the problem of local producers.
He said although 20 per cent tariffs on imported food items had been put in place, the volume of imported foods to the country was still on the higher side.
Mr Ahwoi said the government had put in place a number of interventions to ensure maximum food production, adding that it was left with the people to encourage the local producers to produce more to feed the nation at all times, but not to depend on other countries which might have their own interests.
Earlier, the immediate past Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association, Mr Ken Quartey, had indicated that numerous promises by both past and present governments to promote the agricultural industry had not made any significant impact.
Providing figures to support his claim, he said $30 million worth of poultry products was imported into the country in 2002, $160 million in 2008 and an estimated $250 million was imported in 2009.
Mr Quartey, who maintained that he had been in the poultry industry for the past 27 years, said until pragmatic efforts were made to boost the agricultural industry, no investor would invest in that sector and called for the establishment of a proposed Poultry Development Board to see to the development of poultry.
On the issue of oil and gas, the Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Commission, Dr Ofosu Ahenkorah, stated that Ghana's oil policy, as it stood currently, had in place measures to ensure full exploitation of resources, as well as judicious use of revenue.
On challenges, he mentioned how to achieve significant local content, prudent management of revenue, security issues, sustained interest in more oil exploitation and also to ensure that the environment was protected.
Mr Kwame Pianim, a renowned economist and a captain of industry, Nana Owusu Afari, identified lack of public participation as part of the reason for the poor monitoring and assessment of public sector policies.
Both argued that in cases where success indicators were defined, those indicators were not properly communicated to the beneficiaries to enable them to judge whether the objectives had been achieved or not.
Presenting papers at the fair on the topic, “Bridging the Gap Between the Public and the Private Sectors in Policy Implementation”, the two agreed that a lot more successes could have been achieved if the public, who were the main beneficiaries of government projects and programmes, were educated on such activities to enable them to monitor their success or otherwise.
Mr Pianim gave a number of reasons responsible for the gaps in policy implementation and identified lack of public involvement in policy formulation, failure to educate and inform the public on the rationale for the policies and their benefits to the public, as well as the opportunity cost of their implementation.
He touched on the lack of adequate institutional capacity in terms of public policy think tank to mount an effective and objective public debate to educate and inform the public on policy issues.
Mr Pianim, who declared his membership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the function, suggested that political parties should be well resourced to enable them to undertake policy research to broaden their policy options and also be able to mount effective public debate to promote their policies and critique the policies of others.
He underscored the need to resource private sector trade associations and non-governmental organisations to participate in public policy dialogue with the government and its agencies to ensure results.
He, however, stated that “Perhaps the most critical source of gaps in policy implementation between the public and the private sectors is the Ghanaian cultural orientation that undermines any attempt at disciplined and orderly implementation of policies,” he declared.