[ 2014-08-08 ]

Ghana‘s problem is more of planning than implementation
Project planning and implementation should be
mutually reinforcing for development to thrive in
Ghana, says Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, a development
planner.

There should not be any dichotomy between planning
and implementation, he said.

Mr. Azongo has bemoaned the persisting culture of
contracting experts to lead the planning phase of
national projects, yet allow others to proceed
with implementation without engaging the
planners.

He says such practice allows the architect of
these plans to escape accountability, adding that
the “poverty of implementation” results in the
non-attainment of expected impacts of plans.

“The architects of the plans would often exit
the documentation phase of the plan and when it
comes to the ground engineering aspect of the
plan, they leave it to others who have very little
knowledge about the documentation in terms of the
content and the direction of implementation,”
observed the planner.

Ghana prides in devising excellent plans and
policies to drive socio-economic development but
often fails in implementing such plans.

Mr. Azongo believes plans should not be determined
by the quality of documentation but implementation
outcomes.

“Development is a product of planning,” he
noted. “Ultimately, we’ll have to rely on our
planning regime to be able to generate the kind of
development we all wish to see”.

Mr. Azongo therefore advocates that the architects
of plans for government projects need to be part
of the implementation team to achieve better
outcomes.

The planning-implementation duality has only
succeeded in creating an escape route for
professional laxity, making documentation phase of
planning an exit- route comfort industry, he
observed.

As consultant to Suame Magazine Industrial
Development Organization (SMIDO), Mr. Azongo
planned an initiative to secur a 1000acre land and
a Gh₵10million private funding arrangement
to implement the first phase of the SMIDO
industrial complex project.

The project is a transformational resettlement
scheme for artisans of Suame Magazine contained in
SMIDO’s Policy Blueprint designed by the
consultant in 2007.

The Suame Magazine Industrial Development fund
(SMID Fund) has been launched to drive funding for
the project.

Mr. Azongo has emphasized that there can only be a
case of a good plan or bad plan and not the
split-sided barometer Ghana has been constantly
fed with.

He posited that “if preparing a plan is seen as
rocket-science professional enterprise, then
matching it on the ground cannot just be said to
be the responsibility of others without its
architect as the leading marksman to facilitate
the process towards its realization”.

Source - Kofi Adu Domfeh

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