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Professor Gyan-Baffour underscores the need to tackle inequality

By
Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug 22, GNA – Professor George
Gyan-Baffour, Minister of Planning has underscored the need to tackle
inequality as part of efforts to help bridge the gap between the poor and the
rich.

He said inequality created obstacles to
overcome poverty and exclusion, and to build prosperous, cohesive societies,

He noted that this could put at risk the
democratic process, as citizens might become permanently disengaged if they
felt that governments no longer worked for them.

Prof Gyan-Baffour made these remarks in
Accra on Thursday during a Technical Review Meeting on Inclusive Development.

The workshop was organised by the National
Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in collaboration with the Ministry of
Planning and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Prof Gyan-Baffour said the national vision
expressed in the Coordinated Programme (2017-2024) was not only aimed at
creating jobs and prosperity but ensuring that opportunity, was for all to
access.

The Minister stated that “Inclusive Growth
and Development” remained a development concept since 2012 and had been
well-articulated by international economic organisations including World Bank
and taken by other United Nation (UN) Organisations.

He said the concept emphasised on the idea
of equal opportunity in terms of access to markets, resources, and unbiased
regulatory environment for businesses and individual.

“The Government is very much in tune with
this realisation, hence, in just about every area of the economy specific
initiatives have been developed for implementation”.

Prof Gyan-Baffour said this included Nation
Builders Corps, the Zongo and Inner Cities Initiatives, Free Senior High School
(SHS), One District, One Factory (1D1F), the expansion of School Feeding
Programme and refocusing of the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP)
Programme, the National Identification Card and revamping of National Health
Insurance Scheme.

He called on all stakeholders to efficiently
work together to achieve inclusive growth for sustainable development guided by
the principle of equity, fairness and inclusion of the marginalised in society.

Dr Grace Bediako, Acting Director-General of
NDPC noted that with the support of development partners, Ghana pursued efforts
at poverty reduction from 2003-2005.

She said upon evaluation, it was realised
that Ghana made substantial progress towards poverty reduction, being one of
the first African countries to meet the Millennium Development Goal’s target of
reducing incidence of poverty by half.

Madam Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF Country
Representative in Ghana, reiterated the need for stakeholders to build a
society without comprising economic growth.

“We believe that prioritising equality
especially with regards to children contributes to Ghana’s economic
growth,” she said.

The Inclusive Growth and Development Fora
organised by the NDPC in collaboration with Development Partners, key
Ministries and Agencies and Civil Society in May 2016 and June and August 2018
have provided critical opportunities for reviewing national efforts and
identifying priorities for the way forward.

These meetings have allowed participants to
analyse capacity and implementation gaps, assess performance on targeted
commitments and review the effectiveness of government policy priorities for
promoting inclusivity.

The 2019 high level inclusive development
forum, held in Accra, was on the theme: “Inclusive Development and Public
Policy Performance: Prospects for Child-Responsiveness and the Way Forward”.

GNA

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