Containing COVID-19 has serious implication on Ghana’s development agenda – NDPC

Professor Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, the Vice Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has reiterated that containing and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic has serious implication on Ghana’s development agenda.

“As we move into the recovery phase, it would be important to determine the drivers of labour productivity and innovations in the labour market that will provide sufficient conditions for attaining Ghana’s development aspirations,” Prof Manuh stated at the 12th National Development Forum in Accra.

The forum, which was organized by the NDPC was on the theme “The Future of Work in Post-COVID-19 Ghana”.

Prof Manuh said it was human beings (and their productivity-human capital) that drive the growth and development of nations; declaring that the means of generating and extracting productivity from employees was an important part of that process.

She noted that, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic had challenged the people’s way to socialize and conduct their business.

“The measures adopted to control the spread of the virus have prompted the need to circumvent conventional strategies for keeping employees productive, including working from home, and the use of virtual media and applications to ensure social and physical distancing,” she said.

“Due to the uncertainty of a cure for the virus and the new thinking of living with the virus, it begs the question, what scenarios for the future of work conditions should occupy the minds of employers as well as employees in the public, private and informal sectors of our economy.”

Prof Manuh intimated that Ghana was seeking to build a solidly developed nation at 100 years and it would rely on the mobilization and full deployment of its human capital to drive that ambition.

She said that the outcome of the forum would inform policy directions for the next medium-term development agenda, 2022-2025.

Source: GNA