Ghana Beyond Aid: A Collective call to action

Tema, Jan. 8, GNA – The Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo has described Ghana Beyond Aid as a collective call to action for Ghanaians to chart a new trajectory in development that will create shared prosperity for all.

“Ghana Beyond Aid is a National Project. It is a non-partisan vision and agenda to create the Ghana we all aspire to have. Over the years, our development landscape has been littered with various plans, programmes and policies that are never fully implemented and are abandoned as soon as there is a change of government and a new one takes over.

“As we all know, a meaningful fundamental change and transformation is a long-term process that will outlast the terms of several governments, Dr Eric Yeboah, Secretary Ghana Beyond Aid Committee stated at the Ghana News Agency, Tema Regional Office’s Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform.

The platform serves as a weekly media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial operators to communicate to the world on topical issues of national interest.

Dr Yeboah noted that it was of utmost importance that Ghanaians from all works of life and across the political divide committed to the Vision and the Paradigm Shift in attitudes and behaviour that constitute the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.

He said once there was popular national buy-in to the direction and the new ways of doing things, each Government of the day can draw up and implement its specific programmes and projects in pursuit of the Ghana Beyond Aid Vision.

He said to ensure that the Ghana Beyond Aid national project was properly implemented over a sustained period of time, strong institutional arrangements for implementation were needed.

He said effective implementation vision would entail regular monitoring and publication of progress on targets; regular structured meetings by the Social Partners to review progress, and to commission needed studies to provide analytic foundations for necessary course corrections, and to take decisions to revise the targets where necessary.

Dr Yeboah said there should also be a strong communications component to keep Ghanaians informed and engaged, including an annual public forum to review and discuss progress on its various aspects.

“To this end, the Ghana Beyond Aid Council will be established to oversee and coordinate implementation. The Council will have 17 members drawn from the Social Partners who are signatories to the Ghana Beyond Aid Charter,” he said.

The Council will be supported by a Secretariat, which will be staffed with adequately qualified and experienced personnel who will monitor the targets, conduct research and analysis of socio-economic issues as directed by the Council, and work to mobilise all stakeholders and sustain the momentum of Ghana Beyond Aid.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager said the stakeholders’ engagement which takes place on the Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue was a progressive media caucus platform created to give the opportunity to both state and non-state stakeholders to interact with journalists and address national issues.

Mr Ameyibor indicated that the Agency used the platform to deepen the working relations with the stakeholders to ensure that both the media and the corporate world worked together towards national development.

GNA