Social Development

Social development in Ghana constitutes the core of “national development,” namely, human development and welfare. Policies on social development therefore cover a broad range of issues, including (but not limited to) the following: education (including training); health (including nutrition); housing (including sanitation); employment (including decent work); cultural activities (including sports); and social protection (both direct and indirect). The long-term objective of social development is to create safe, peaceful and sustainable communities where, in accordance with the Constitution, Ghanaians can live productive, prosperous, and fulfilling lives, in freedom and in peace.

The following are a sample of publications that address the state of social development in Ghana. (More publications may be found under Downloads on the Homepage).

Sixth Ghana Living Standards Survey

Citizens’ Assessment of the National Health Insurance Scheme

Economic Development

Economic development is about more than “GDP growth” or any of the standard measures of economic activity. In its broadest and proper sense, “economic development” deals as much with growth (the expansion in goods and services) as it does with opportunities for citizens to participate in the very process that generates that growth. It implies efficiency, international competitiveness, equality, equity, safety, good health, and the mutual responsibilities of employers and employees in the pursuit of common good. Where for whatever reason, such as disability, infirmity or disaster, some citizens are unable to participate in the process, the State must stand ready to support them out of a collective sense of moral responsibility.

This view of economic development implies inter-dependence between economy and society and the need for development policy to recognise this relationship at all times. For example, efficiency, which is a prerequisite for boosting productivity and competitiveness, requires at the very least a well-educated and healthy citizenry. Higher productivity in turn is a necessary though by no means sufficient condition for raising wages and those moving the country closer to its goal of poverty eradication. These complex relationships between economy and society have guided development policy in Ghana for decades and continue to do so.

The structure of the economy also matters in the formulation of economic policy, especially within the contest of transformation. With a dominant informal sector that accounts for 80-90 percent of employment but only about 40 percent of economic outputs, policies aimed at transforming the sector into efficient hubs of production and productivity become crucial.

The Annual Progress Reports of the Commission constitute one of many reports and policy documents that speak to the complexity of the development process and the implications for attaining our development objectives.

Institutional Development

"Institutions" generally comprise that network of laws, policies, regulations, organisations, cultural practices, belief systems and attitudes that, although abstract, play a critical role in attaining tangible results from national development efforts. Weak laws, for instance, can foster endemic corruption – which diverts scarce resources from development to other uses – or pervasive lawlessness, which undermines social and economic order and thus reduces their contribution to national development. A typical example is the conversion of streets, including highways, into markets and lorry parks, increasing the time and cost of travel and effectively undermining economic efficiency and competitiveness.

Belief systems that disadvantage sections of the population such as women, and work attitudes lower productivity and undermine income growth, all militate against any meaningful efforts at fostering rapid and equitable development and ultimately eliminating poverty.

Institutional development therefore forms a critical part of Ghana’s evolving strategy for long-term national development and socio-economic transformation. It will in many ways determine the success or failure of that strategy.

Environmental Development

In Ghana, environmental development refers both to the “built environment” (largely reflecting spatial planning and the various infrastructure that define it) and the “natural environment” (made up principally of land, water bodies and the atmosphere) and how they influence the process of social and economic development.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development that was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, promoted global awareness of the relationship between the environment and development. Ghana has been in the forefront of mainstreaming “environment” into its development plans since then. The emphasis, however, has been mostly on the natural environment, to the virtual exclusion of the built environment which is the foundation for translating lofty social and economic ideals into concrete manifestations of material and human progress.

Indeed, since the mid-1960s, when a National Physical Development Plan was abandoned, Ghana has not had a comprehensive framework for guiding the development of the built environment. The result is the emergence of informal settlements across the country, haphazard development of infrastructure, and generally inefficient delivery of essential social and economic services. In 2011, the government began taking steps to remedy the situation. One result is the completion in early 2015 of the first National Spatial Development Framework and the introduction of a bill later to harmonise land use and spatial planning in the country.

It is expected that this legislation and policy document, along with others such as the Ghana Urban Development Policy and its Action Plan, will complement existing policies on the natural environment to form a strong and coherent basis for incorporating “environment” into Ghana’s national development and attaining Sustainable Social, Economic and Environmental Development (SSEED).