Yendi (N/R), Feb. 5, GNA - The Yendi Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region has held a three-day performance review workshop as part of processes towards the development of the Medium Term Development Plan for the Municipality, under the national development policy framework 2010-2013. Departments including the Ministry Agriculture, Ghana Education Servi= ce, Ghana Health Service, NADMO, National Health Insurance Secretariat, among others, presented their activities for the past four years under Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II) and plans for the next four years under the medium-term development plan policy framework.

In an address, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Walvis Hudu, said successive governments in the country had come out with variou= s development plans basically to translate their vision into implementable programmes and policies.

Mr Hudu stated that the need for a regular review of development plans have become imperative in view of the dynamics in the country's social, political, and economic settings, as well as the effects of global changes. He said the medium term development plans for the Assemblies would become the blue print for the development of the various districts, municipalities and metropolis in the country spanning the period 2010 - 2013. According to the MCE, there is no doubt that in contemporary times public private partnership has become an important strategy to accelerate the pace of development in most countries in the developing world.

Mr Hudu noted that it is becoming apparent that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other development partners are refocusing their interventions in response to their changing institutional priorities and requirements. He emphasized the need for strengthened public-private partnership to accelerate the pace of economic development in order to achieve the targe= ts of both the millennium development goals and the GPRS II. The DCE said there was also the need for local development actors suc= h as the Municipal Assembly and civil society groups in the district to tak= e full control of the development process at the local level through the development of a common strategic platform that would ensure that they optimize the use of locally generated resources, as well as continue to attract donor resources for their development programmes. The Yendi Municipal Coordinating Director, Alhaji Shehu Kadin, stated that according to the guidelines developed by the National Development Planning Commission towards the preparation of the District Medium Term Development Plan, assemblies are to organize performance reviews covering the programmes and activities undertaken in relation to the thematic area= s of GPRS II and other interventions not covered by the Strategy but implemented during 2006 - 2009, such as free maternal care, European Uni= on Micro-Projects, and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) based projects, as well as other interventions by NGOs and development partners. Alhaji Kadin pointed out that the review was also to cover the implementation of the municipality's HIV/AIDS plans, gender, environmenta= l, population and social protection programmes. He said the primary objectives of the guidelines are to facilitate the translation of the medium term development policy framework into programm= es, projects and activities to be implemented for the benefit of the people.