A senior economist, Dr Kwadwo Tutu, has called for an independent National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to fashion out a road map by creating a long-term plan for the country. He suggested that such a plan should be national and country owned, in that no incoming government could throw it overboard. Speaking on the topic, “Towards a long-term national development strategy for sustainable development" at a roundtable discussion organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra, Dr Tutu said a long-term national development strategy from which short-to-medium-term strategies could be carved out was the answer to the country's development challenges. He urged the government to pursue a sustainable long-term national development plan for the growth of the country's economy. He said the inability to transform the economy into a vibrant, productive and prosperous one was largely due to the pursuit of short-to-medium-term strategies that had been undertaken since independence. He again suggested that it should integrate economic, social and environmental objectives across sectors, territories and generations. Dr Tutu, who assessed past strategies using the criteria for a national strategy for sustainable development, observed that apart from the inability to formulate and implement a long-term national strategy, the country had improved significantly in formulation of short to medium strategies. He noted that there were shortcomings in terms of inadequate human capacities, resources, over-reliance on donor funding, lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation as well as lack of the independence of the NDPC. He said enough experience had been gained to formulate a long-term strategy and that the plan should be started with a national debate on when to begin such a process. Dr Tutu called for human capacities to be strengthened, especially at the district levels to develop plans. He said since the constitution had mandated the NDPC to formulate a long-term strategy, it should ensure an enabling environment to do so. He called on parliament to enact a law to ensure that all in-coming governments develop short-to-medium strategies through the NDPC from such a long-term strategy. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana