Ghana Beyond Aid Committee engages political parties

The Ghana Beyond Aid Committee is to hold separate meetings with the six political parties that took part in the 2016 general election for their input into the draft Ghana Beyond Aid policy.

The engagement of the political parties is in line with the committee’s desire to allow many individuals and organisations to make inputs to enrich the final document.

The Senior Minister and Chairman of the Committee, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, stated this on Tuesday at a consultative meeting for the six political parties that participated in the 2016 elections.

Apart from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP), none of the parties showed up.

Those who could not show up were the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP).

This resulted in the postponement of the meeting.

Aspirations

The committee was charged to develop the broad aspirations of the Ghana Beyond Aid into a clear vision and strategy that can make Ghana prosperous and take it beyond aid in the shortest possible time.

It is to identify the key changes in values, attitudes and behaviours that could be effectively used to implement the strategy.

Briefing the media after the postponement, Mr Osafo-Maafo explained that the six political parties who were invited for the discussions indicated their readiness to attend the meeting but the four could not make it due to a number of competing activities.

He said the committee had decided to visit their respective headquarters to engage them.

Finance Minister

For his part, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, called for a change in attitude towards work, the environment and state assets.

He said Ghanaians must also eschew corrupt practices and other negative attitudes that tended to negate the gains made so far.

“If we want to reach the levels that countries such as Singapore and others have attained, Ghanaians must refrain from negative attitudes,” he said.

Mr Ofori-Atta said considering the successes the country had chalked up since 2017, he was convinced that Ghanaians would vote massively to retain President Akufo-Addo in the 2020 polls to continue with the good work.