The Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Mr Daniel Botwe, has called for effective collaboration between policymakers, implementers and academia.

That, according to him, was crucial to Ghana’s planning and development process.
He said this when he called on the Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, at her office in Kumasi to discuss with the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD), the Department of Planners and the College of Agriculture at the KNUST to find ways of implementing the Rural Development Policy.

He suggested that good research work by students should be considered for effective planning and called for deliberate efforts to be made for academia and policymakers to pursue policies and programmes that impact all Ghanaians.

On her part, the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, said that impactful research was not for publication alone but such research must be made available to people who could best utilize them.

She said KNUST was challenged daily to ensure that “the gown should be carried into the communities, with special attention on the deprived ones.”

She was elated that the Local Government Ministry was prepared to collaborate with the University, emphasizing that academia has the expertise to review the 2019-2023 Rural Development Policy together with the Ministry to find solutions to rural development
challenges.

Professor Dickson said the institution has signed a Memoranda of Understanding with some deprived districts such as Sekyere Afram Plains and Sene West to provide them with technical assistance in their planning.

She said the quality of life for humanity must be a concern for all, adding that KNUST was ready, willing, dedicated and committed to finding solutions to rural challenges.