The Department of Planning and Ghana Association of Student Planners (GASP) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has organized a public lecture on “Planning Practice in the Context of Uncertain World: Key Milestones”. The event was held at the Development Planning Studio on Thursday, 10th March 2022.
The Speaker for the Public lecturer, Mr. Richard Ellimah was received by GASP Patron, Dr. Stephen Appiah Takyi who represented the Head of Department of Planning, Prof. Clifford Amoako.
Mr. Richard Ellimah, a Programme Specialist, Development Minerals at the United Nations Development Programme, revealed in his welcome address that he joined the department as a First-year undergraduate student 20 years ago and had majority of his best life moments there.
“Over 20 years ago, I joined over 100 other students to begin the 4-year course in Planning at this great Department and University. Some of my best moments in life were spent here”
According to Mr. Elimah “Essentially, the Planner is relevant to every sector in our world”. “The confusion of the actual work of the Planner is not only at a micro-level. In fact, even at the national level, I daresay most policymakers are ignorant about the real contributions Planners can make to development” he added.
The Speaker revealed that Ghana is currently in an economic crisis as a result of our sole reliance on economic measures that lacks a long-term planning framework.
“Our country is currently in an economic crisis. This is a fact that both government and opposition admit. There is however no consensus on why we are in a crisis in the first place”.
“In the midst of this crisis I am surprised that the government continues to think that it will take economic measures to take us out. Fact is that all the fiscal and monetary measures taken over the past two years to stabilise our economy have failed. So why do we continue relying on economic measures to save us?”.
He added that efforts of development planning solutions and long-term projections are critical to resurrecting this country from the current economic crisis.
“At this stage, I daresay that we need a Development Planning solution. Its as simple as that. We got into this crisis because we failed to plan long term. If we had robust, comprehensive development planning systems in place from the national to the district levels, we would have been able to cushion our economy against the onslaught of the corona pandemic. We operated a fragile “hand to mouth” economy. It was only a matter of time for this fragile economy to collapse”.
Sharing insights from a recent conference on climate change at Glasgow, he revealed that ““The Department of Planning stands in a unique position to provide leadership by way of research into the link between climate change and development outcomes”
He, therefore urged Department of Planning to consider the establishing a Centre for Climate Change and Development to achieve the above-mentioned objective.
Ending his Presentation, he advised students to limit their use of social media sites and to take advantage of free online education resources to learn Report Writing, Minutes Writing, and Project Management Skills.
“Learn about report writing. As simple as it seems, most of us struggle to write formal reports (Project reports, annual reports, taking minutes at meetings, etc)”
“Study the rudiments of Project Management. These days there are thousands of courses you can study for free online, including Project Management. Take advantage of them. You can save some data each day if you reduced the frequency of watching TikTok videos and rather spend time each day learning new competencies”.
He also added that, due to the complex use of IT systems in many organizations in recent years, it is deemed necessary for one to possess basic IT skills to position himself or herself well in the future.
“You are not going to get anywhere if you are not proficient in IT. These days all international organisations use complex IT systems, and you are required to know how to navigate through these systems. We cannot solve 21st century problems with bond sheets and rudimentary knowledge of IT”
Students, Alumni, and lecturers present were taken through some trending issues on Climate change, Concept of green economy, and green mining. They also learned how to plan for environmental and social sustainability, as well as how to launch advocacy campaigns for inclusive development.
Source: Christopher Sam