By Rosemary Wayo/Latifa Ziblim/Rasheeda Yussif
Tamale, August 12, GNA – The Northern Development Authority (NDA) has engaged development partners, Regional Ministers of the five regions in the north and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to align stakeholder initiatives with its emerging medium term development strategy.
The day’s meeting, held in Tamale, was also to co-create a medium-term development strategy for the northern savannah ecological zone in alignment with strategic priorities of development actors and to share insights in planning the 2022 edition of the Northern Ghana Development Summit and Investment Fair.
It provided a platform for presentations on aligning the NDA’s strategic objectives with interventions of development partners in the northern part of the country.
Deliberations of the meeting were expected to foster the finalisation of the NDA’s development strategy document, which would be launched later this year, with the participation of diverse groups that were interested in the transformation of the northern sector.
Mr Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of NDA, speaking at the meeting, said the NDA and partners had a collective agenda of seeing to the rapid transformation of the north to create jobs.
He said the NDA was mandated to act to bridge the development gap between the north and other regions of the country by developing a strategy to coordinate development actors within the zone to deliver to complement one another’s strength.
He said “The document the NDA is working on is to ensure that it achieves development impact. We have set a roadmap to ensure that the document will be launched by October, to become the centre of coordination.
Mr Abdul-Rahman emphasised that the NDA had shifted from focusing on implementation to coordination, facilitation and creation of environment for development partners and other stakeholders to have a central point to demand accountability on issues to enhance their activities.
NDA’s development partners and the Regional Ministers presented inputs pertaining to the development strategy and reassured their support to the NDA in efforts to enhance the growth of the zone.
Madam Mary-Kate Thomson, Northern Ghana Attaché of the UK aid’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the FCDO was prepared to work with the NDA and Regional Ministers to tackle security issues.
Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, expressed gratitude to the NDA for its efforts to push the development agenda of the regions.
Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, Upper West Regional Minister said stakeholder dialogues were necessary to elevate northern Ghana to meet up the development level of other regions in the country.
He solicited more support from the development partners saying, “You have been very supportive towards the development of our regions, but we need more support to double our steps to catch up with the development of other parts of the country.”
Mr Yidana Zakaria, North East Regional Minister said there was no central point to coordinate supportive projects of the numerous international organisations that complemented development efforts, adding that the engagement would help position the NDA as a facilitator to oversee such projects undertaken in the five regions.
Meanwhile, the 2022 edition of the Northern Regional Development Summit and Investment Fair, the NDA’s annual investment drive initiative, is expected to take place later in the year as plans were underway towards its organisation.
GNA