Ghana is developing a National Spatial Development Framework to guide the provision of amenities and facilities in the various districts and regions in the country.

Mr Richard Geier, Manager of the National Spatial Development Framework Programme announced this at a workshop to present a report on the framework, in Accra.

He said the framework would facilitate a balanced redistribution of urban population, adding that, “it would enable development planners to know which districts are under-served and those that are over-served in terms of the development of infrastructure and distribution of amenities”.

Mr Geier called for the enactment of legislation on land use spatial planning, to strengthen the legal framework for land use.

He explained that the development of the framework would also enable Ghana to have a national spatial data, from which all sectors could use information for development, adding that, any such framework would be updated regularly.

Dr Isaac Frimpong Mensa-Bonsu, Technical Advisor of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), said the preparation of a national spatial development framework was long overdue.

He said: “it appears that the apparent insufficient attention to spatial development issues has now been realized at all levels, leading to the recent re-awakening in spatial planning.”

Dr Mensa-Bonsu said the NDPC had prioritized spatial planning in all development planning efforts, adding that, a successor to the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda was being prepared.

He said a national infrastructure plan was also being formulated with efforts being made to introduce a national long term development policy.

Mr Acquah Harrison, a consultant and spatial developer, said this was the sixth attempt Ghana was making to have any such framework established.

He appealed to stakeholders to co-ordinate efforts to ensure the formulation of a framework that will be acceptable by all of them.

Spatial planning refers to methods used by the public sector to influence the distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales; because types of amenities in a particular district or region can influence the number of migrants to those areas.