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There is currently no comprehensive framework for the conduct of social policy in Ghana, despite attempts by successive governments to introduce one. Social policies so far have been largely uncoordinated responses to donor demands to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and not a reflection of a genuine desire by our leaders to improve the living conditions of our people. We therefore have policies of convenience, rather than policies of conviction. As a result of this, the quality of life in Ghana has declined in recent years, as reported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Indeed, Ghanaians are living shorter lives now than they did only a decade ago.
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2007
One of the first acts of a CPP government will be to pass a Social Development Policy to guide our pursuit of social justice in all its forms, such as the following:
Our Human Development Index between 2000 and 2005 declined
Education Policy
For the CPP, education serves a multiple purpose of aiding the individual to better understand society and nature, and to acquire the skills needed to earn a decent living while contributing to national development. Education, therefore, is as much for personal advancement as it is for social and economic progress, hence the need for the state to take a lead role in ensuring improved access, equity, and quality at all levels in every part of Ghana.
Where necessary, the on-going education reforms will be modified and expanded to conform to our education policy, Under our Accelerated Education Sector Investment Programme (AESIP), educational facilities from kindergarten to the tertiary level will be refurbished and expanded to meet the needs of a growing population and modernising society.
Supply of Education: Despite steady increases in teacher salaries in recent years, dissatisfaction with the general conditions of service in the teaching field has caused many teachers to leave this noble profession for "greener pastures". The CPP will address these problems through the following: - Continue to ensure that teachers are paid well and that those who need training receive them through every available and affordable means, including distance learning.
- Use tax incentives for the private sector, especially financial institutions, to build school infrastructure in particular areas of the country and lease that infrastructure to the state for a specified period, after which they become state property.
- Reduce income taxes for teachers (and health personnel), in addition to other incentives, who work in rural areas and places designated as "deprived".
- Improve working conditions of teachers, including timely payment of salaries for new and current teachers and attractive home-ownership packages;
- Improve education content and administration as well as learning processes by strengthening decentralisation to give local administrators the authority to deal with local problems promptly without waiting for directives from Accra or the regions.
- Accelerate on-going programmes to increase the number of teachers in our classroom while training others already in the classrooms with the minimum disruption for teachers and students.
- Build an educational system that does not only provide academic and life skills but inculcates in our children a high degree of self-esteem, personal responsibility, civic duty, patriotism and community service (volunteerism)
- Introduce and/or strengthen academic and career counselling at all levels of the educational system
- Introduce electronic libraries to help address the current shortage of libraries which undermines the quality of learning at all levels of education
- At the tertiary level, introduce an international distance learning scheme that will allow Ghanaian lecturers abroad to teach some classes in Ghana by the internet or satellite.
Demand for Education: To meet the expanded education needs of a growing population, the CPP, in collaboration with the non-state sector, including religious organisations, will do the following:
- To improve access and quality at all levels throughout the country, Secondary school will become part of basic education and will be made free and boarding schools will be actively promoted as a way of reducing the cost of education and at the same time encouraging Ghanaians from all walks of life to live together and know each other before they enter the world of work. This is one of the surest ways of fighting ethnocentrism and creating a common sense of nationhood among our future leaders.
- 4-Year Secondary Education The CPP supports various proposals in the current round of educational reforms, such as universal kindergarten education for all Ghanaian children; increased contact time between teachers and students; removal of education-quality supervision from the Ghana Education Service to an independent body; as well decentralisation in education administration. With time and proper implementation, these reforms should strengthen the quality of pre- tertiary education in Ghana to international standards. We shall, therefore, review the continued relevance of the 4-year system and explore the possibility of reinstating the 3-year system and using the resources saved to improve access and quality.
• Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE): We shall consider abolishing the BECE, which prematurely condemns too many of our children to failure before they have had a chance to prove themselves in life. This should also ensure that every Ghanaian child gets at least a secondary school education, creating a wider and deeper pool of candidates to train the scientists, engineers, architects, and other professions that we require to build a 21st century society
• Make vocational and technical education mostly post-secondary to ensure that those going to vocational and technical schools are adequately prepared academically. All vocational and technical schools will be adequately resourced under the Accelerated Education Sector Investment Programme to be introduced by the CPP.
• Expand and improve the quality of facilities at all tertiary institutions under AESIP to world-class levels in order to gain a greater share of the international education market. This will do two things: Provide Ghanaians with world-class education at a fraction of the cost, and earn the country foreign exchange by charging international students premium rates, part of which will be used to subsidise Ghanaian students.
• Tertiary Institutions:
o Public tertiary institutions – Set up regional campuses for all state universities and other tertiary institutions to improve access and reduce the cost of higher education to households.
o Decentralise specialised training, such as teaching, for all universities with an established capacity to offer such training. This too will improve access and reduce the pressure on facilities and staff on the specialised institutioins.
o Introduce professional managers, for example, with experience managing large private or public organisations, to head state universities. This will free academics to concentrate on teaching and research and improve the quality of leadership at these institutions
o Give students the opportunity to assess and rate their lecturers regularly in order to improve the quality of tertiary education.
o Enhance governance through quarterly publication of financial and management reports of tertiary institutions and the establishment of more transparent and pro-active mechanism to handle both staff and student grievances.
o Private tertiary institutions - Regulate the quality of private tertiary institutions and encourage them to collaborate with the state and the private sector to provide the manpower needs of the country.
Science and Technology Policy
For the CPP, the poverty gap is a technology gap. The richest nations in the world are also the most technologically advanced; the poorest nations have the lowest level of technological development. Unfortunately, Ghana’s technology ministry was dissolved a few years ago, the first time in the nation’s history that we have been without such a ministry. To place science and technology back at the centre of national development, the CPP will do the following:
• Immediately re-establish the Ministry of Science and Technology and protect it by law against tampering or dissolution by any future government. - Upgrade science and technology facilities at all educational institutions and complete the Science and Technology Museum, which has been under construction for over 40 years.
• Adequately resource the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to play a more active role in national development.
• Set up the Ghana Global Science and Technology Consortium (GGSTC) to foster cooperation between Ghanaian scientists at home and abroad.
• Provide tax incentives to businesses to apply scientific and technological knowledge to industry and the larger society.
• Elevate Ghana Telecom University College to full university status with international programmes.
• Expand and improve the quality of the University of Mines and Technology to attract a bigger share of the international student market while offering first class education to Ghanaians.
• Organise Annual Science and Technology Awards for students and practitioners, both at home and abroad, in addition to promoting pre-tertiary and tertiary science education.
• Set up an expert panel to review all scientific and social research conducted in Ghana over the years for use in policy making and national development.
- Health Policy
A healthy people make a wealthy nation. Fewer illnesses means less absenteeism, higher productivity and an increase in national wealth. Previous governments have tried to increase access to quality health services for both preventive and curative care, with mixed results. The National Health Insurance System (NHIS) and ambulance services have been introduced; there has also been some improvement in the remuneration for health personnel. Yet, equity with regards to access to quality health services is generally limited. The inequitable distribution of health personnel and quality health services continues to pose serious problems to health administration in the country. The existing infrastructure cannot meet increased demand created by the NHIS. Environmental sanitation remains largely poor, especially in cities and towns, increasing patient visits and putting additional strain on the already limited facilities.
The CPP proposes a health policy that will be multi-sectoral, comprising the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (for nutrition), Ministry of Sports (for fitness) and the Ministry of Local Government (for sanitation), among others. Among specific polices would be to:
Decentralize the management of health services to the districts
• Produce and enforce a comprehensive Public Health Law that will improve environmental sanitation, including sanitary inspectors
• Promote equity to quality health services through improved access to
o Preventive and curative health services nationwide
o Promotive health (through better nutrition and exercise)
o Close collaboration between orthodox and traditional medical practitioners
o Equitable distribution of health personnel nation-wide
o Review of NHIS policy, legislation, and implementation
• Broaden emergencies services, including ambulance services, countrywide
• Increase the number of training institutions to produce all cadres of health personnel and provide continuing education for health personnel.
• Strengthen training institutions to provide supervision and monitor performance of health personnel to improve quality health services. - Promote close collaboration between training institutions and health services personnel where trainers will practice what they teach and health personnel will teach what they practice.
- Establish health desks at key ministries, such and Food and Agriculture, Education, and Water Resources for promotive, preventive and curative services
- Expand and equip existing health services to meet increased demand created by the NHIS.
- Provide adequate resources for local research and development for both orthodox and traditional medicine.
- Establish inter-sectoral mechanism to support and coordinate equitable distribution of promotive, preventive and curative health services in Ghana.
- Crack down on corrupt practices, especially in procurement, in the health sector that deprive the state of millions of Ghana cedis every year
- Encourage Keep Fit Clubs in all communities throughout the country
- Provide additional incentives, such as the reduction in income taxes on allowances for medical personnel who work in rural or deprived areas, to increase access to health services in those areas. This would be part of a larger programme to improve management in the health sector.
- Intensify HIV-AIDS education, especially among the youth, and make treatment more affordable for those afflicted by this deadly disease.
- Expand facilities, under the Accelerated Capital Investment Programme, to train health personnel as a first step towards combating the brain-drain in the sector.
Human Resource Development and Labour Issues
Our human resource development (HRD) policy aims to create a 21st Century Labour Force made up of highly educated, highly motivated, highly industrious, and healthy workers in safe and modern work environments. To ensure that this labour force is available for national development at all times, our HRD policy will include a migration policy that promotes the equitable distribution of skilled labour across the country while providing the appropriate incentives for our trained professionals to stay at home and for those abroad to return home. In this regard, we shall do the following, among others:
- Employment and earnings: Adopt a National Labour Policy comprising strategies for employment creation and policies to ensure decent wages nation-wide.
- Benchmarking Productivity: Work with the Management Development and Productivity Institute to develop economy-wide indicators for productivity that will serve as the benchmark for determining wages and addressing the concerns of both labour and management.
- Labour Market Information System: Accelerate the creation of a modern labour market system to facilitate job search nation-wide and improve the quality of employment and earnings, especially for the youth
- Job Creation: Launch the Ghana Emergency Employment Programme (GEEP) to directly create over 500,000 well-paying jobs across the country. Using the 22,000 polling stations as the "staging points", the CPP will start planting over 7 million hectares of almond trees in selected areas of the country. Almond trees, which require less rain and have a shorter gestation period (2.5 years) than palm trees (5-6 years) and other tree crops, will form the basis of a bio-fuel industry with potential to create millions of jobs, earn the country billions of dollars in foreign exchange, and help us meet our energy requirements while contributing to the growth of other industries as follows:
High protein almond "cake" to replace soya for the poultry industry. Feed being the highest cost component of the industry, this should make the industry competitive against imports and lead to production and employment expansion - With higher per ton price than palm oil (now in high demand on the world market), almond-based oil will fetch billions of dollars in exports and create a biomass industry of equal earning potential
- iii. Will create employment beyond planting to include: Cracking nuts, toasting kernels, extracting oil, processing oil and by-products (‘almond cake’), and export services
- In addition to GEEP, we shall do the following:
- Work with existing businesses to expand their operations through enhanced productivity and improved access to credit, markets, modern technology, and scientific management practices.
- Create conditions for rapid creation of new businesses through tax incentives, reduction in bureaucratic red tape, and increased market information.
- Incomes Policy: Replace the Fair Wages Commission, which focuses mostly on public sector wages, with a National Incomes Commission, whose work will cover both the state and non-state sectors as well as the formal and informal sectors. The new commission, among other things, will regularly report trends and undertake research into various types of incomes, such as wages and salaries in the various sectors; proprietor’s income; rental income; and farmers’ income, as well as the conditions that influence changes in these incomes. The Commission’s work will be the cornerstone of government policies to raise national income and fight poverty.
Labour quality improvement
To ensure that industry gets the required quantity and quality of workers, we shall pursue the following, among others: - 1. Invest in skills training (by both state and private institutions) and align training with demands of the economy
- 2. Special emphasis on women, youth, and People with Disabilities (historically, the most marginalised groups in our society).
- 3. Improve access and quality of education/training for all Ghanaians.
Understanding Labour’s challenges: Promote labour studies in Ghana by expanding and resourcing the existing Labour College in Accra to international standards for both Ghanaian and foreign students.
Combating Child Labour – Tackle the persistent problem of child labour within the context of existing laws and international conventions by attacking the cultural and economic factors that sustain the practice. Housing Policy
- Besides education and health, affordable housing (both in terms of ownership and rental) is one of the most important aspects of a responsive social policy. Yet, successive governments since the 1970s have failed to provide such housing. Landlords continue to exploit workers and small-business owners by charging rent advances far in excess of the 6 months stipulated by law. In a desperate effort to escape paying 3-4 years’ rent advance, most people decide to build their own homes or "container shops" at whatever cost in whatever manner on whatever piece of land they can find. The result is a proliferation of land disputes (and violent land guards) and unplanned growth of our cities and towns, with their associated slums and high concentrations of poverty and crime.
The CPP promises to deal with these problems as follows:
- Pass a revised Rent Act to help alleviate the suffering of workers and small businesses around the country
- Work with the Building and Road Research Institute, the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association and other stakeholders in the housing industry to provide low-cost technologies for building high-quality and high-capacity homes and apartments across the country
- Promote the development of the mortgage industry to increase the rate of home ownership in the country
- Strengthen the role of the State Housing Corporation in the provision of affordable housing throughout the country, including rural areas.
- Work with the Ghana Institution of Engineers and other relevant private and public bodies to improve standards and quality in the construction industry
- Remove tax holidays for high-end housing markets and provide tax incentives for mass-occupancy affordable housing for workers.
Cultural Policy
For years, successive governments have paid only lip service to the development of a national cultural policy, with the result that we have no policy framework to guide the preservation and promotion of our culture beyond annual festivals. We are now a nation adrift, culturally, in an age of globalisation where larger and stronger nations seek to mould the rest of us in their own cultural image. A strong and forceful cultural policy, embedded in our national development efforts, will help us overcome the confidence crisis that today holds us down from achieving our fullest potential as an independent nation. Policy initiatives will include the following:
- Promote healthy lifestyles (under our health and nutritional security policies)
- Foster a spirit of volunteerism by requiring all students to undertake volunteer work in their communities as part of their education process
- Through various initiatives, encourage Ghanaians to celebrate the virtues of family and in particular the importance of parental responsibility at all stages of a child’s life
- Teach the virtues of peaceful co-existence and the importance of resolving our difference through non-violence.
- Harmful cultural practices, especially against women and children, will be aggressively discouraged and eliminated.
- Promote Ghanaian and African literature, including plays
- Promote and improve the quality of the performing and visual arts.
Sports Policy
The CPP looks beyond the entertainment value of sports and considers it as an important factor in promoting good health, fostering a spirit of competitiveness, and celebrating excellence at home and abroad. Sports also brings us together, despite our varied ethnic and religious backgrounds. Following are highlights of our sports policy: .
- Football – To address the current problem of excessive focus on football at the expense of other sports, we shall consider putting professional and amateur football under a separate administratively autonomous body
- Non-football sports - All non-football sports will remain under the Ministry of Sports to ensure that they get the attention that has been denied them over the years.
- Provide enough sporting facilities, at the local and national levels, to facilitate the development of sports at both amateur and professional levels. Appropriate laws will be enacted to ensure that such infrastructure is provided as an integral part of socio-economic development
- Sports Studies – Set up a tertiary institution of international standing to study and teach sports, in addition to specialised sports medicine.
Media and Society
- Within the context of the 1992 constitution, we pledge to uphold all the freedoms granted to the media in this country. But we also realise that with freedoms must come responsibilities and the assurance that media work conforms to the values of the society. In this regard, we shall do the following, among others:
- Raising broadcast standards: Create a Broadcast Standards Board (BSB) to ensure that the nation’s airwaves are freed of images and messages that undermine our social and moral values, such as the glorification of violence and the degradation of women in movies and music,
Advertising in Ghana: - Outlaw the use of foreign-made commercials on Ghanaian airwaves as a way to help local media houses build their capacity and create employment while promoting a Ghanaian view of social and economic reality
- Regulate the quality of advertisements to strike a balance between commercial interests and social values
- Building media capacity: Work with various professional organisations to help raise the quality of media practice in Ghana to world standards
- Combating Violent Crime
The recent increase in violent crime, especially armed robberies, around the country has resulted in loss of many lives, loss of property, and a decline in economic activities that take place mostly at night. Indeed, some commercial vehicles have stopped working at night due to the menace of armed robbery. Market women complain about being robbed at dawn. Something must be done. Among actions to be taken by a CPP government are: - Provide police with adequate resources, including walkie-talkies, vehicles, and intelligence-gathering logistics, to fight crime in general and violent crime in particular
- Resource the judiciary to expedite the dispensation of justice, and strengthen existing laws to make penalties for violent crime stiffer
- Launch public education on the social cost of crime and encourage the public through various rewards to help the police, such as reporting illegal manufacturers or sellers of firearms
- Reform the prison system to equip inmates with employable skills and thus reduce the incidence of repeat crime by ex-prisoners
- Create more employment opportunities nation-wide, raise incomes and help reduce the kind of social inequities that create the conditions for all kinds of crimes
Confronting the Narcotics Menace
Ghana is now known as a “narco-state” as we have become a haven for drug trafficking. Drug abuse has also become rampant among the youth and is partly responsible for the crime wave sweeping the country as drug addicts rob and kill to support their expensive habit. The number of young people in the nation’s mental hospitals for drug abuse is also on the rise. In short, we are in the midst of narcotics crisis with serious implications for family stability, public safety and national security (as key members of the security agencies get corrupted by drug dealers). The CPP’s first act would be to rid the security and related agencies of corrupt officials, implement existing recommendations for reforms, and then launch an anti-narcotics policy based on Interception, Prosecution, Treatment, and Education.
(1) Interception: Provide adequate resources to the Narcotics Control Board and other agencies to improve intelligence and interception as well as collaborate with international organisations to stem the flow of drugs
(2) Prosecution: Resource police, judiciary and other state agencies to prosecute and punish drug-related offenders, particularly traffickers. Re-introduce stricter laws on the seizure of properties acquired from drug proceeds directly or indirectly.
(iii) Treatment: Provide resources for existing institutions and create new ones, if necessary, to provide treatment for drug abusers, particularly the youth. We shall encourage civil society organisations to do the same.
(iv) Public Education: Introduce drug-abuse education in schools as well as launch a national public awareness programme on radio, TV and other media on the harmful effects of drug abuse to individuals, families and society
1.11 Fighting General Indiscipline and lawlessness
In recent years, there has been public outcry over growing indiscipline in society, ranging from bureaucratic and political corruption to lawlessness among the general population such as indiscriminate construction of residential and commercial structures; careless driving; littering; drug abuse by the youth; and teenage pregnancy, to name but a few. To deal with this lawlessness, the CPP advocates the following:
• Rebuild national and local institutions: Accelerate the pace of decentralisation and reform local-level institutions to ensure that the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies can enforce their bye-laws with speed and efficiency.
• Law enforcement: Revisit proposals to “localise” the police service by having regional and district police services to make law enforcement more responsive to local problems.
• Judiciary: Work with the chief justice to facilitate the speedy creation of adjudicative structures at the local level.
• Public education: Sponsor periodic public education on the need to be law-abiding and publicise the consequences of breaking the law, such as jail sentences and fines.
1.12 Combating Social Exclusion:
The CPP views “social exclusion” as the limitation of sections of society in participating in the political and economic life of the country. Both dimensions of social exclusion have their roots in the early stages of life, where gender roles and responsibilities are formed among boys and girls. Our attack on social exclusion therefore will deal with the root causes while pursuing policies to address current inequities against particular social groups.
1.12.1 Empowering Women: Beyond Gender Tokenism
The CPP’s record on combating political exclusion of women has not been matched by any political party in our history, as shown in the Table below. As the only political party with a female national organiser and a woman as a regional chairman, we pledge to continue this tradition of ensuring political space for all women in the struggle to liberate the country from poverty.
Ghana Human Development Report 2007
However, we are also aware that the mere increase in the number of women in political life does not automatically translate into improved socio-economic conditions for all women, nor does it address the underlying causes of discrimination against women. In other words, we do not believe in ‘gender tokenism’ for political expediency. We believe instead in real improvements in the living standards of all women in all aspects of national life. There must be a clear link between increased political participation for women and better living conditions for women. Our agenda for gender equity will, therefore, be pursued on two fronts: (1) Aggressively tackle the root causes of discrimination against women from childhood (inter-generational gender discrimination), and (2) Use affirmative action policies to address current discrimination against women in all spheres of national life. CPP Research Committee, based on data from Ghana Education Service; National Council for Tertiary Education(Below: % enrolled at each stage of the education ladder)TertiaryPre-tertiaryMore girls than boys start school, but more boys make it to tertiary institutions
Among CPP policies to pursue gender equality would be the following:
• Intensify efforts to remove discrimination against girls (and by extension women) at all levels of the educational system through adequate resources of the relevant public and non-public institutions.
• Launch a sustained public education campaign against harmful social practices against girls and women
• Declare the growing incidence of teenage pregnancy (especially statutory rape against young girls, many of them still in basic school) as a national epidemic and set up a task force to investigate the causes and propose lasting solutions.
• Encourage girls to develop interest in “non-traditional” vocations, such as auto-mechanics, as a means of uprooting entrenched stereo-types while empowering themselves through employment and other economic opportunities.
• Adopt an Affirmative Action Policy to deal with current discrimination against women in various aspects of national life.
• As part of our broader cultural policy to clean our airwaves of morally offensive broadcasts, we shall outlaw the creation and propagation of films and other media that denigrate women and reduce them to sexual objects. Our mothers deserve better than that.
1.12.2 Protecting our Children
The Ghanaian child remains vulnerable as indicated by the high infant and child mortality rates, the half-a-million children who are still out school (despite the introduction of the capitation grant) and the thousands more who continue to be trafficked across the country to work as slaves.
The CPP, in honouring the United Nation’s Convention on the Child as well as various national laws, such as the Children’s Act of 1998, the Juvenile Justice Act of 2003, and the Human Trafficking Act of 2005, will consolidate all programmes, including The Child Cannot Wait action programme, that are designed to improve the welfare of the Ghanaian child and ensure that they are implemented fully. Among specific actions to be taken to protect the Ghanaian child are: - • Family Hours on Television to ensure that adult programmes that can corrupt the morals of children are shown only late at night
- • Enact appropriate laws to protect children against sexual and other predators, including child pornographers on the internet
- • Educate parents and traditional authorities about the law and children, so that heinous crimes such as rape of children are always prosecuted fully according to the law instead of being treated as private family matters. Crimes such as rape as also crimes against society.
- • Aggressively work to abolish traditional practices, such as early marriage, that impede the smooth growth and development of the child
- • Introduce a Children’s Budget to track public resources devoted to the welfare of the Ghanaian child, including education and recreation.
Caring for the Aged
Article 37 ( 2) (b) of the 1992 constitution enjoins government to take measures to protect various social groups, including the aged. In addition, Ghana is a signatory to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and was a participant as far back as 1982 in the First World Assembly on Ageing. Yet, there is no coherent national policy to guide care for the aged. A draft policy initiated in 1997 and eventually completed in 2002 (and is yet to be adopted by government) seeks, among other things, to "promote employment of older persons" and "promote community care facilities such as day care centres for older persons." The CPP considers this inadequate, even inappropriate. We need, first, aggressive cultural reforms to restore dignity to the aged, especially old women, who are subjected to all manner of indignities, such as false accusations of witchcraft. A CPP government will establish the necessary state institutions to ensure that all sectors, including civil society organisations, participate adequately in caring for the aged in Ghana. (Our agricultural policy deals with income security for farmers and fishermen in old age). Enabling the Disabled
Despite the passage of the Disability Act, the Disabled in Ghana continue to face serious discrimination and institutional impediments to their efforts to contribute to national development. Physical access to buildings, including government ones, remains limited. The organisational structure to ensure that the Act is implemented is yet to be put in place. On the basis of this disappointment towards fellow Ghanaians, the CPP pledges to do the following:
- Set up the National Disability Council to ensure the smooth implementation of the Act.
- Ensure that all district assemblies fulfil the Parliamentary mandate to allocate 2.0% of the District Assemblies Common Fund to activities that will benefit people with disability in their districts.
- Establish community-based rehabilitation and employment support centres for the disabled.
• Establish, in line with Act 715, Assessment Centres, to aid people with disabilities.
• Decentralise the activities of the National Council of Persons with Disability to improve service access and quality at the local level.
• Create public awareness and understanding of the challenges faced by people with disabilities
1.12.5 Developing our Youth
The CPP values the youth because they are the ones who will run this country when the current generation of leaders retire. The quality of education, training and general upbringing that we give to the youth, therefore, determines the quality of leadership and living standards that Ghana will have in the future. Our youth development strategy thus is both comprehensive and forward-looking, as outlined below:
1. Sound academic and moral education – free and compulsory up to secondary school, with various opportunities for tertiary education
2. Opportunities and facilities for civic, moral and social development and
3. Provision of technical, vocation and other forms of tertiary education.
4. Employment opportunities in both the state and private sectors.
To attain the foregoing, the following are some of our intended policy initiatives:
• Enact a National Youth Policy, if at the time of our election government has still not fulfilled its pledge to produce one.
• Create opportunities for young people to channel their youthful energies into creative and socially desirable ends by requiring every district to provide Youth Activities Centres (YACs). These centres will contain facilities for sports, ICT centres, libraries, and counselling services designed to prevent the youth from falling victim to socially harmful activities, such as drug abuse, alcoholism, and pre-marital sex, all of which have been on the rise in recent times.
• Launch Ghana’s first State of the Youth Report to serve as a guide for implementation of youth development programmes. The report will be produced every two years with the active participation of the youth and other stakeholders.
• Other youth development initiatives are embedded in our social policies, such as education, sports, and human resource development
1.13 Bridging the North-South Divide
We cannot continue to speak of “national development” when the northern half of the country continues to suffer from deprivations of all kinds. Apart from the CPP, which implemented massive infrastructure development in the north, governments since 1966 have paid only lip service to bridging the developmental gap between the north and the south. It is not enough to provide “free education” in the North. We must also provide economic opportunities for those who get that free education. Within our national development programme, therefore, we shall launch a special development agenda, under the Office of the President, to put forward time-bound strategies and initiatives for creating employment and other economic opportunities in the North in line with similar opportunities in the South.
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Well Done but...
