The Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP), on Thursday, 7 November 2019, called on the Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

The meeting which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Institution of Planners (GIP), discussed how the institutions could collaborate to strengthen efforts to promote national development.

The Vice-President for CAP, and a past President of GIP, Dr. Stephen Yirenkyi, in his opening statement said, the visit of the global body was timely and believed it would set the pace for strong partnerships. He said the GIP was one of the pioneers of CAP and helped nurture some countries in the sub-region, particularly the Gambia.

According to him, there was a huge advantage of being part of a global institution like CAP, where ideas were shared and solutions found to common problems. He indicated that plans are afoot to form a West-African Association of Planners to address problems affecting the region.

Speaking on behalf of CAP, Mr. Clive Harridge, Secretary-General of CAP, said the association provided a network of planners across the world to cross-fertilise ideas to deal with peculiar challenges or needs. However, there still existed some challenges globally that required collective efforts to address – urbanisation, population growth, capacity shortages in built environment, were about a few of the challenges member countries encountered. He said these could be resolved through collaborations to achieve national development aspirations.

The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, commended CAP for their exploits and expressed the readiness of the Commission to work together closely with GIP and CAP respectively, adding that “GIP will be stronger with its collaboration with NDPC.”

He said, NDPC, per its mandate to advise the President on development planning policy and strategy would rely on its expertise in the various fields to change the narrative going forward. Dr. Mensah-Abrampa revealed that planners have what it takes in assisting government in revenue mobilisation and generation – property tax among others were avenues these professionals could help in mobilising revenue.

The Director-General on the issue of engaging professional planners to help in national development planning, assured the delegation that he would work with the appropriate institutions to ensure that is upheld. He added that the Commission will ensure that women and youth in planning were given the needed support since they were the future of planning.