Investigating the purposefulness of development planning in Ghana through a political economy lens

Newly independent countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) adopted development planning as a means to achieving their development goals, but there are doubts in the literature concerning the ‘genuine’ purposefulness of development planning in promoting local sustainable development. On this basis, we contribute to the planning literature by examining contemporary local development planning efforts through a political economy lens to empirically clarify the doubts in local development planning practices in Ghana, an SSA country known to have very long experiences of development planning in Africa. We used the mixed methods approach focusing on three (3) local planning agencies—the Bekwai Municipal Assembly, the Atwima Kwawoma District Assembly, and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly—in the Ashanti Region, Ghana. We gathered that despite development planning at the local level satisfying formal statutory requirements, it is not purposeful, and symbolizes an “ideological fantasy”, a “repeated ritual”, and a “hypocritical approach” to local sustainable development efforts. The preparation and implementation of development plans (District Medium Term Development Plans) were characterized by inadequate funding, inadequate capacity, and limited stakeholders’ interest and support, making local planning interventions have very limited impacts on sustainable development efforts. Based on our findings, we argue that unless local-level planning is made apolitical and led by well-resourced technocratic bodies, Ghana’s development planning will continue as a statutory formality, rather than a means to advance local sustainable development efforts.