Ghana develops 2010 human development report

The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) over the weekend started processes to develop the 2010 National Human Development Report (NHDR) for Ghana.

The report on the general theme: “Democratic Political Transition and Human Development” would focus on seven main thematic clusters.

These are state machinery, governance institutions and security establishment, the economy, social development and national cohesion, public and private corporate sector, general human development and theoretical and analytical framework.

The report would seek to give expression to concerns about the impact of democratic political transition on contemporary human development programmes and bring to the fore the need for radical changes for institutionalization of structures to handle the problem adequately.

Speaking at the project launch and methodology workshop for researchers, media practitioners, political economists, security experts and gender advocates at Akosombo Dr Kamil Kamaluddeen, UNDP Country Director, said transition had become an important process in the life of political governance of Ghana.

“Transition goes beyond change of power between political leaderships…further than change of power, there are many more issues which affect the choices and position that people take,” he said.

He called for the development of national, regional and district structures to holistically manage transition beyond the January 7 handing over period.

“The immediate aftermath of the transition is very important…we therefore need to approach it in a systemic manner to address key national issues”.

On the Ghana 2010 UNDP Human Development Report Dr Kamaluddeen explained that even though the report would focus mainly on democratic political transition and its linkages with human development it would serve as a holistic governance document for all sectors of the Ghanaian economy for managing change of power.

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, IDEG Executive Director, said due to the unsteady political history of the country both the second and third republic lasted for only 27 months, the nation have not build a political transitional mechanism and culture.

He said Ghanaian traditional culture had an inbuilt mechanism for transition from one ruler to the other through well-defined norms, values, principles and practices that they adhere to.

Dr Akwetey said in spite of traditional norms, modern political government failed to establish institutional structures to manager political transition especially “management of regime change”.

He described the lack of institutional political transitional establishment as a challenge that must be addressed…”as elections are related to transitions in our democratic, hence the urgent need for establishment of transitional cultures”.

Dr Akwetey said “with Electoral Commission serving as the governance institution mediating the electoral contest among the political parties, certainly there must be a body to supervise the change over from one regime to the other in a coordinated manner”.

Dr Akwetey said the lack of a transitional governance supervisory body had contributed to the confusion the nation had observed during regime change in 2001 and 2009.

He said transitional management was a huge one which goes beyond politicians, cabinet, parliament, public and civil servants role….in the corporate world it creates, state of uncertainty and fear slow down business.

Prof Kofi Quashigah, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana who chaired the methodology workshop, said the 2010 National Human Development Report would serve as the final input to the Constitution Review Committee.

According to the research timetable, the final report would be presented to the UNDP by mid-November this year.

The Human development is about putting people at the centre of development and helping people to realize their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value.

The HDR is widely considered the most influential of the many regular reports by multilateral institutions.

Unique among UN publications for their tradition of intellectual independence – though sponsored by UNDP, they do not represent its official views or policies – the Human Development Reports are best known for their innovative and often controversial analyses of critical issues.

Source: GNA