Urban planning must consider the poor, says Gyan-Baffour

Page 44
15-09-08

A Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, has said that strategic urban planning directed at the poor is essential for economic growth and sustainable development.
In view of that, he said, the implementation of the Urban Poverty Reduction Project (UPRP) should, therefore, take into account the reaction of the urban poor to such plans.
Prof. Gyan-Baffour said this at the opening of the annual review meeting of the UPRP in Accra.
The UPRP is a five-year project which is in line with the government of Ghana’s comprehensive poverty reduction programme enshrined in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II. The UPRP is being implemented on behalf of the government by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment with support from the Social Investment Fund (SIF).
It aims at contributing to the country’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that calls for a reduction by half the proportion of the poor living on less than a dollar a day.
Prof. Gyan-Baffour said the challenges ahead of poverty reduction in the country was to achieve the target more effectively and directly, using pro-poor coherent sectoral policies rather than rely on the trickling down effect of continued economic growth.
Another challenge, he said, was to take into account the spatial dimension of poverty with a distinct emphasis on its urban specificity as well as to include local actors, notably civil society, the private sector, the business community and local governments in a co-ordinated effort.
The Executive Director of SIF, Ms Ama Serwaa Dapaah, who made a presentation on the status of the UPRP as of August 2008, said the low level of participation of some municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies (MMDAs) had placed more responsibilities on the zonal project staff’s mentoring and supervision.
She said inadequate office space to house the project implementing unit and other key consultants to the project was impeding the delivery rate of the project.
“Some of the MMDAs’ physical planning offices are in a very deplorable state of repair and they require extensive rehabilitation works or new construction in some cases”, she stated.
For her part, Mrs Effie Simpson said the focus of the project was sustained poverty alleviation within the framework of the national urban poverty reduction programme.
The project, she said, had four main components comprising capacity building for pro-poor urban development and management, social capital and investment support, urban small-scale enterprise development as well as project management and coordination.
She said the project was expected to improve livelihoods in urban and peri-urban zone through increased access to basic quality services and socio-economic infrastructure.
The project covers 12 towns and cities: Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Koforidua, Ho, Tema, Akim Oda, Agona Swedru, Apam, Wenchi, Agogo and Kasoa.