INTEGRATING THE APRM INTO THE MEDIUM TERM NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY FRAMEWORK, GPRS II

1. BY KENNETH OWUSU (NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING COMMISSION, NDPC) An Expert Group Meeting on “Harmonizing APRM-NPoAs and other National Development Plans (NDP) into a Common Medium Expenditure Framework (MTEF)” KAMPALA, UGANDA, 29-30 SEPTEMBER 2010 INTEGRATING THE APRM INTO THE MEDIUM TERM NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY FRAMEWORK, GPRS II

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION • Background • Why a successor medium term national development strategy was necessary • The process of formulating the GPRS II • The technical working Group • The technical Experts/Consultants • The Commissioners • The Public Consultation Process • How Ghana’s International Commitments were integrated into the GPRS II • How the APRM was integrated into the GPRS II • Key Lessons

3. BACKGROUND • Since 1919, Ghana has prepared and implemented 12 national development policy framework/plan (including the Guggisberg Plan, 1919 – 1926). • The latest of such development policy framework/plan are Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I, 2003 – 2005) and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II): • The GPRS I (2003-2005), was prepared as a pre-condition for Ghana to benefit from the debt relief under the HIPC initiative • In 2004 Ghana reached the completion point under the HIPC Initiatives • However, in order to sustain the gains achieved under the GPRS I and to provide a framework for donor support and coordination, government prepared a successor medium term national development policy framework, GPRS II to guide government business

4. WHY WAS A SUCCESSOR MEDIUM TERM DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK (GPRS II) NECESSARY • The preparation of GPRS II afforded Ghana the opportunity to have a policy framework around which the nation’s and DPs effort could be coordinated; • It also afforded Ghana the opportunity to integrate the otherwise disparate national development agenda and sectoral commitments that compete for inclusion in the annual national budget in to one comprehensive development policy framework • It also served as the vehicle to operationalize at the national and local levels the various international agreements and commitments to which Ghana is a signatory (including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

5. THE PROCESS OF FORMULATING THE GPRS II • The formulation of the document involved the used of: • Technical working groups known as Cross Sectoral Planning Groups (CSPGs) as specified by the National Development Planning System Act 1994, Act 480 • Technical experts • The NDPC Commissioners to provide the overall policy guidance

6. TECHNICAL WORKING GROUPS • In order to reflect the diverse shades of opinion and experiences at all stages, the process involved the use of technical working teams, known as Cross-Sectoral Planning Groups (CSPGs) organized around the key thematic areas of GPRS II • CSPGs were composed of state and non-state actors drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Professional Bodies, Tertiary Institutions, Research Institutions and Think Tanks, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), Community-Based Organizations (CBO), Private Sector, Identifiable /Organised Groups and Associations (TUC, Federation for the Blind & Disabled etc), Specialized Institutions, outstanding individuals with expertise in related fields as well as Development Partners.

7. TECHNICAL WORKING GROUPS (cont.) • Each CSPG was given a specific terms of reference including the following: • Determine the programmes, policies and plans to be rolled over from GPRS I to the updated GPRS 2006-2009; • Identify national priorities for the theme under consideration; • Take into consideration recommendations from the Annual Progress Report (APRs), the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIAs), the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and other existing sector strategies and studies; • Mainstream cross-cutting issues such as the environment, employment, ICT, disability, HIV/AIDS, and population into the thematic areas; and • Integrate international commitments such as the MDGs, the Millennium challenge account (MCA) NEPAD, PRSC, and MDBS into the various thematic areas.

8. TECHNICAL EXPERT/CONSULTANT • Each CSPG was facilitated by a consultant who provided the technical backstopping and expertise; • Consistent with the MDG requirement to ensure integration of environment in country’s policies and programmes (MDG 7 – Target 9), the SEA team of EPA/NDPC was represented on each CSPG. COMMISSIONERS OF NDPC • NDPC has Commissioners who are made of 10 regional representatives, technical experts appointed by the President, selected Ministers of State and 3 Ex-officio members including the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Government Statistician and the Director-General of NDPC; • The overall policy oversight responsibility for the preparation of the policy framework rest with the Commissioners. They are responsible for approving the final document that is presented to parliament

9. THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCESS • The process also involved wide public consultations to solicit the views of a large segment of the Ghanaian population as input into the GPRS II; • The scope and method used for the public consultation process included: • National, Regional, District and community level workshops • use of the electronic media (radio and television) • Public fora • Focus group discussions

10. THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCESS • Among the groups targeted in the public consultation process are;

11. HOW THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTMENTS WERE INTEGRATED INTO THE GPRS II • The process of formulating the GPRS II begun in September, 2004 and ended in November, 2005; • The process begun with the synthesis of all the: • programmes, policies and projects to be rolled over from GPRS I to the GPRS II; • the recommendations from the Annual Progress Reports (APRs), Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIAs), the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and other existing sector strategies and studies; • international commitments such as the MDGs, the Millennium challenge account (MCA), NEPAD, PRSC, and MDBS.

12. These were then harmonized and the broad themes and issues identified for inclusion in the analysis and subsequent identification of national priorities; • Issues that were cross-cutting in nature including those relating to the environment, employment, ICT, disability, HIV/AIDS, and population were also synthesized for inclusion in the analysis; • Based on all these syntheses and harmonization, as well as the situational analysis undertaken to identify existing issues that require policy response, national priorities for the various thematic areas were identified; • Subsequently the synthesis of policies on Ghana’s international commitments such as the MDGs, Millennium challenge account (MCA) NEPAD were mapped unto the identified policy options.

13. SAMPLE HARMONIZATION PROCESS General Policy Matrix

14. SAMPLE HARMONIZATION PROCESS (cont.) Harmonized Policy Matrix

15. HOW THE APRM WAS INTEGRATED INTO THE GPRS II • The preparation of zero draft of the GPRS II was ready by March, 2005 for stakeholder consultations; • By June 2005, a revised draft of the report was ready after the regional consultations; • Following the completion of the self-assessment of Ghana under the APRM and the subsequent country review mission in April, 2005, Ghana prepared a costedProgramme of Action (POA) in June 2005 to address some of the weaknesses identified during the assessment;

16. The integration of the POA begun with review of the POA and re-classification of the policy actions into short-term, medium-term and long-term, and according to the GPRS thematic area. • Classification of POA: • Areas of GPRS II and POA

17. MAPPING THE APRM UNTO THE GPRS II Review GPRS broad policy to reflect POA expected output Specific activity shifted to GPRS II • Under the respective key areas of policy focus, all related policy objectives are harmonized into one that captures the essence of all initiatives; • This involved re-phrasing and re-wording of some objectives in some instances, in addition to introduction of new policy when necessary

18. GPRS II MATRIX

19. The text of the document was accordingly revised to reflect the new matrix; • A comprehensive Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was subsequently conducted to ensure that the appropriate synergies among the policy proposals; • In November, 2005 a final draft of the policy framework was sent to Parliament for debate and adoption; and ultimately became the basis for the 2006 budget following its adoption; • The MTEF was subsequently review with the objective of the GPRS II so that allocation of resources to the GPRS II interventions could be tracked on annual basis, and the budget guidelines for 2006 was based on the GPRS II.

20. Other processes undertaken to ensure full integration of the POA into the GPRS II include: • Updating the costing framework of the GPRS II to include cost associate with the APRM implementation; • Harmonizing and integrating the indicators for measuring progress of implementation; • Coding the APRM intervention in the MTEF to facilitate tracking of resource allocation to APRM related activities on an annual basis

21. Key Lessons • It is important to explore the possibility of using the national systems as far as possible. The use of the national planning, monitoring and evaluation system guarantees greater success in operationalizing and domesticating international commitments including the Programme of Action (POA) of the APRM; • It will also reduce the possible duplication of efforts and high transaction cost associated with the management of public policy; • The integration of the POA into the national policy management should be thorough (i.e. it should involve all stages of the development planning process) to ensure greater success of implementation.

22. THANK YOU!