Consensus building is key to accelerated development

Professor Kwesi Botchway, a former Minister of Finance, has reiterated the importance of collaboration among actors in Ghana’s political space during the formulation and implementation of national projects.

He said accelerated development required political space built through consensus across party lines to enable governments to take decisions and make policies for the benefit of all.

Prof Botchway said this in his presentation at the Second Edition of the “DC Happy Hour” dialogue series in Accra on the theme: “Consolidating Ghana’s Democracy for Accelerated National Development”.

It was organised by the Development Challenge (DC), a multi-issue public policy think-tank that aims to bridge the gap between intellectuals, researchers, politicians and policymakers by serving as laboratory for innovation thinking.

Prof Botchway said an effective collaboration would enable governments in power to go about their business of governance without looking over their shoulders and worrying that perhaps the opposition would take political advantage of the fallouts that there might be.

Touching on the correlation between democracy, its effectiveness, consolidation, and accelerated development, Prof Botchway called for unbiased and effective key state institutions to ensure stability of the political environment.

“The consolidation of our democracies is important to provide these assurances and to eliminate or prevent perceptions that lead to so much frustrations and its consequences,” he said.