Regional Policy and Regional Planning in Ghana

This title was first published in 2002: This work is about the socio-economic and spatial impacts of planning policy aimed at improving the living standards and well-being of the regional communities of Ghana. Implicit, the effectiveness assessment of regional planning practice. It is set within the context of the new national planning system and offers strategic opportunities and challenges. Characteristically, the national and regional policies and contacts are probed and the lack of formal regional plan-making stressed. The author critically analyzes the problem of socio-economic and spatial disparities, over the mid-60s to the early 1990s, explaining the observed changes. The latter is, differentiatingly, done in terms of relevant theories and the empirics undertaken. These include the fashion of perception and conceptualization of development. Change is based on one-off micro-projects at the regional level and a meso-regional project within a sub-regional context. Dr Ofori equally stresses the implementations and local management of the planning policies and programmes. Inclusive in the dynamics behind the processes is the role of partnership. A further distinctive contribution is the identification of opportunities for planning intervention and policy recommendations for a better change in the future: towards making things happen.