Ghana is reviewing regional and district development planning guidelines to address poor coordination between local development priorities, public budgets and projects, a problem that can lead to inefficient use of resources and limit the impact of government spending.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), with support from Germany, the European Union and Switzerland, is leading the review under the Partnership for Accountability, Inclusiveness and Resilience (PAIReD) programme.
The revised guidelines are intended to help regional and district authorities align their development plans with available budgets and planned projects, improving the organisation of local initiatives and the use of public resources.
The exercise supports Ghana’s National Decentralisation Policy Strategy for 2026–2030, which seeks to strengthen local governance and make development planning more responsive to community needs.
Poor coordination among development plans, budgets and projects can leave local authorities with priorities that are not adequately funded or initiatives that fail to deliver their intended outcomes. The review seeks to address these gaps by improving how local development activities are planned and coordinated.
The PAIReD programme is commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, co-financed by the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Finance.
