Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, a development planner and consultant to SMIDO, has said Digitalization is only a planning tool, and cannot be a development policy as is currently being construed in Ghanaian political circles.
He said digitalization, like any form of technology, are planning tool often employed to enhance development policy planning/programmes/projects/activities, and therefore cannot on its own be a substitute for the complex exercise of development planning policy.
Mr. Azongo was speaking in an interview on his view on the two major policies: the 24-Hour Economy policy proposal and Digitalization by the frontline political parties for the election of 2024.
According to Mr. Azongo, there is a need for Ghanaians to draw a distinction between a development policy and a planning tool. He said planning as an art has its own peculiar goals often christened in professional planning circles as ‘Romantic Goals’ and these goals are: Efficiency, Effectiveness Convenience, Comfortability, Flexibility, etc.
Against this background, any tool that is invented and could be deployed to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, convenience, comfortability, etc, in any existing activity or integrated into a development policy planning deliverables are considered planning tools and not development policies. It would therefore be a misnomer to describe these tools as development policies.
24-hour Economy Development policy: most ambitious and overarching development policy proposal in the 4th Republic.
On the substantive issue of the 24-hour Economy Development policy, he said so far it is the most ambitious and overarching development policy proposal since the inception of the 4th Republic, but what remains is the planning and political commitment for a departure from the existing leadership order to raise the standard of political policy-public engagement.
According to him, that Ghana is in a dire crisis cannot be overemphasized and the visible landmark of leadership crisis, symbolic mediocrity, and proletarian pride in the crumbs of wealthy nations in the mist of abundant resources provides a justifiable basis for more such ambitious cutting-edge policy proposals and commitment to a new Ghanaian leadership order
“I must emphasize that apart from the Cutting-Edge 24-hour Economy Development policy proposal, the maze of promises and manifestoes throughout the Fourth Republic are best described as ‘Little drops of water not capable of forming a development ocean.”
“Irrespective of any argument on the existing leadership order from any political lenses in the fourth republic, there is one general consensus: Poverty is widespread and pervasive in Ghana.
This is especially worrying when Ghana’s youthful population is rising at staggering levels without a corresponding commitment to create opportunities for all without discrimination and to guarantee a sustainable future free from the overbearing burden of debt, unemployment, diseases, and cyclical poverty.
The Policy would require a Multi-Sectoral Planning Framework to build consensus and enlist lessons from successful models across the world as well as factor in Ghana’s peculiar context to adopt a 24-hour development policy Model unique to Ghana’s economy.
Ghana needs more ambitious policy proposals from all the political parties considering that the country’s development is at the crossroads of a critical turning point.
Ghana’s population as of independence was about 6 million. With over 30 million currently, we now have 4-Ghana on top of the ‘Foundation Ghana’ we inherited at independence in quadruple numbers, demands, and hopes.