Government To Deliver Inclusive Rural Development

Mr Salifu Saeed, Northern Regional Minister has said “as a government, we are committed to delivering an all-inclusive development agenda; and this Rural Development Policy is an indication of commitment to ensuring no one is left behind.”

Mr Saeed said this in Tamale on Tuesday during a day’s consultative workshop on the draft Rural Development Policy organised by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and attended by selected district assemblies and stakeholders from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

The workshop afforded participants the opportunity to make inputs into the draft policy to pave way for its finalisation and subsequent implementation.

The policy amongst others seeks to promote improvement in standards of living in rural areas in the country through inclusive approaches with a focus on agriculture and industrialisation.

The MLGRD hopes the policy will be finalised and presented to cabinet for approval by the third quarter of this year.

Mr Saeed said the strategies captured in the policy addressed a commitment to modernising agriculture, improve production, achieve food security, improve value chain system and ultimately extend infrastructure and improved service delivery to rural areas.

He said the policy would address the inconsistencies in the implementation of rural interventions and weaknesses in their effectiveness to directly impact on development in the rural areas in the country.

Mr Collins Ntim, a Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development said the policy would help deliver transformative change in the lives of rural dwellers by ensuring the availability of needed infrastructure in rural areas.

Participants expressed need for government to ensure that the policy was gender-sensitive, draw linkages with existing development framework, avoid duplication of work, address issues of population, and transcend successive governments as well as adequate funding to ensure successful implementation.