The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has called for a renewed national commitment to decentralised planning as the key to building resilient and inclusive communities.

Speaking at the maiden conference of the National Association of Development Planners (NADEP) in Sunyani on July 31, she underscored that “resilience is not built in boardrooms – it is built in communities, in the districts and with the people.”

Addressing planners and stakeholders under the theme “Sustainable Decentralised Planning for Resilient Communities: Prospects, Challenges and the Way Forward,” Dr Amoah said Ghana’s decentralisation efforts, dating back to the 1980s, had laid a solid foundation but must now be transformed into actionable results.

“It has been close to four decades,” she noted, “but we must ask: to what extent have these structures led to resilient and sustainable communities?”

She warned that decentralised planning must go beyond the preparation of documents and instead involve risk anticipation, inclusive engagement, and systems that adapt to changing conditions.

“It is not a choice for agents of change like you and I,” she stressed, “but a necessity for co-designing context-specific solutions.”

Highlighting positive strides, Dr Amoah acknowledged improved development planning and budgeting at the district level, citizen participation, and increased demand for accountability.

However, she cautioned that challenges such as weak fiscal decentralisation, limited access to disaggregated data, and lack of sustained community involvement continue to hinder progress.

She proposed stronger coordination among sectors and a renewed commitment to serving underserved areas.

“Education cannot succeed without water; agriculture cannot thrive without roads. Our planning must reflect these realities,” Dr Amoah said, urging planners to “plan with the people, not for the people.”