The Yendi Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region has held a day’s public hearing on Draft Medium Term Development Plan (M.T.D.P) of the Assembly for the period 2018-2021.

The public hearing was to afford the public to come out with inputs for final MTDP for the area.

The local Government Act, Act 936 of 2016 establishes each District Assembly as the planning authority for the area of jurisdiction for the purpose of national economic planning. So the Law mandates all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) to prepare the Medium Term Development Plans every four years.

Mr Gaspard Konzodong Dery, the Yendi Municipal Coordinating Director who delivered the welcome address on behalf of Alhaji Hammed Abubakiri Yusssuf, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive indicated that the most current one was the Ghana shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) II (2014-2017).

Mr Gaspard Dery said there are frameworks that govern planning over a period of time.

According to the Municipal Coordinating Director, the new planning framework as stated in the long-term National Development Plan for Ghana (2018-2057) seeks to identify five major goals on which all the national development framework were anchored.

He announced that the long term development plan was a series of ten medium-term plans, four years each that would be prepared by successive governments.

He explained that a long term plan however provided a strategic framework for harnessing the nation’s development potentials in a more structured and predictable way and indicated that it was for that reason that the first four years Medium Term Development Plan was to be between 2018-2021.

He therefore appealed to all to come out with inputs for the final MTDP while considering the new government policies of One Village, One Dam, One Million Dollar to each Constituency, One District, One Factory and Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).

He said all social interventions were aimed at alleviating poverty ensuring food security and empowering their people economically with the ultimate aim of improving their livelihood and reminded them that the public hearing would also afford them the opportunity to formulate pragmatic strategies that would enable the Assembly to provide the needed developmental interventions in the Municipality.

Mr. Peter Tetteh, the Yendi Municipal Planning Officer said the activities that went into preparation of the MTDP (2018-2021) were data collection analysis of the current situation of the Municipality, proposal strategies, involvement of the plan preparation Team, Assembly members, Community members, opinion leaders and the entire Municipality through interviews and public fora, community action plans were collated and captured in the Programme of Action (POA).

He said thematically, the scope of MMTDP (2018-2021) under Long Term National Development Policy Framework (LTNDPF) 2018-2057) focused on building a proposal to safeguard the natural environment.

The main programmes include; Economic Development, Social Development, Environment, Infrastructure and Human settlements, Government, Corruption and the International Community.

During discussions, questions, clarification and contributions, they called on the Assembly to invest in Tourist Centres, support to teachers and midwives for training, establish smock industry for smock weavers, give in-service training for primary and Junior High School teachers in Dagbani and English among others.

The Chairman of the function Mr. Adam Imoro called on the public to assist the Assembly to generate revenue for the development of the area.