The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Audrey Smock Amoah, has urged Planners to prioritize sustainable decentralized planning to build resilient communities.

Speaking at the National Association of Development Planners (NADEP) Conference, at the University of Ghana Learning Centre in Sunyani, she stated that Ghana’s efforts over the past four decades to decentralize planning include the establishment of district and regional structures.

She, however, questioned whether these measures have effectively created resilient communities.

“Resilience is not built in boardrooms, it is built in communities, with the people,” she said.

She outlined various opportunities, including more local participation and responsibility, but also identified difficulties. These include limited capacity in technology like Geographic Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence, incomplete fiscal decentralization, unreliable data, and weak community involvement in planning.

According to Dr. Amoah, the NDPC has introduced initiatives like the Digital District Development Data Platform (DDDP) to improve transparency and revised the Medium-Term Development Planning Guidelines to include climate change and citizen engagement.

She urged for closer NDPC-NADEP collaboration to involve communities directly in planning, adding that local development drives national progress.

The Director-General called for sustained action to reduce inequalities and meet SDGs at the grassroots level.

Joyce Adwoa Animia Ocran, ISD