IICD supported project: Support for National ICT Implementation Plans - Ghana

Countries: Ghana [GH]

Summary

The committee is developing an ICT-driven socio-economic development policy and plan - rather than a sectoral ICT policy - that will aid Ghana’s developmental effort and with the intent that the economy and society will move towards becoming a knowledge-based information society and economy.

Update

Updated: 2008-06-02

After conducting nation-wide consultation with various stakeholders in the industry, the committee has produced a Policy Framework document followed by the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development Policy that received overwhelming endorsement from the National Legislature in 2004.

Following adoption, the policy document, ICT Implementation Strategies, will be developed (phase 3) for the following selected programmes and initiatives:

• Ministry of Communication
• Physical infrastructure
• eAgriculture and agribusiness
• ICTs and Gender
• ICTs and Health
• eNational Security Law & Order

Introduction

The Information and technology age has provided opportunities for Ghana to mitigate the problems of decades-long stagnation and poor economic performance. The process to develop a national ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) Policy and Plan is an opportunity for the Ghanaian Government to show commitment.

The Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) Process is a consultative one intended to bring on board all key stakeholders, namely: government, private sector and civil society. This should facilitate the required ‘buy-in’ into the process as well as the ownership of the policy and its implementation process.

Objectives

The primary objective of this collaboration between the National ICT Plan and Development Committee is to support the Government. It is committed to:

• Developing and implementing a number of 4-year rolling plans to implement the provisions of the policy;
• Facilitating a number of consultative workshops geared at getting further stakeholder involvement in the policy process;

The process is being carried out in three phases:

Phase 1: Development of an Integrated ICT-led Socio-Economic Development Framework for Ghana (The Framework Document) – including an analytical basis, an outline of the problem and policy areas, as well as policy issues and orientations.

Phase 2: Development of an Integrated ICT-led Socio-Economic Development Policy and Strategies for Ghana (The Policy Document) – including details on what needs to be done to realise the Vision for Ghana through the development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs.

Phase 3: Development of a Policy Plan. This will provide details of how the policy commitments of the Government can be translated into concrete programmes and initiatives for implementation.

Development Impacts

The Policy Plan will be the first in a series of plans to support the development of the economic base and environment for accelerating Ghana’s development towards an information rich and knowledge based economy.