Medium-term development planning in Ghana: capacity constraints and outcomes

Generally, public policies are formulated and implemented by governments to address public issues. Numerous problems and issues such as poverty, education, social, economic, political, cultural, among others have been addressed by the formulation and implementation of public policies. In Ghana, the decentralisation policy mandates District Assemblies to prepare and implement Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs) as a policy tool to ensure the overall development of the district. Several studies have been conducted on MTDPs, unfortunately, most of them merely describe the process, formulation and implementation challenges, and participatory processes. Little however is known about the capacity constraints of formulating and implementing MTDPs. This chapter examines capacity constraints and outcomes in formulating and implementing MTDPs with focus on Ghana's local government system. The findings showed that capacity constraints and human resources are the most vital challenges in the whole process of formulating and implementing MTDPs and therefore must be given the needed attention.