Dr. Yao Graham, Coordinator of the Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa), has voiced dissatisfaction with the implementation of the government’s flagship initiatives, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and One District One Factory (1D1F).
Speaking at the TWN-Africa@30 event on November 26, themed ‘Organising for Equitable and Transformative Policies,’ Dr. Graham praised the ambition and transformative potential of these initiatives but criticized their execution, which he believes has undermined their objectives.
He highlighted that while PFJ and 1D1F were conceived as innovative solutions to address Ghana’s agricultural and industrial challenges, their implementation has fallen short of expectations.
Research conducted to assess their impact revealed significant underperformance and misalignment with Ghana’s broader developmental goals.
Dr. Graham’s remarks underline the need for a strategic review of these programs to ensure they achieve their intended benefits and contribute meaningfully to national development.
“In Ghana, the present government announced Ghana Beyond Aid and also set out two programmes which we thought were important markers in the direction in which we should be going if we want to undertake structural economic transformation, and these are the Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District One Factory projects.
“We carried out research on these two projects, and the results are disappointing. The gap between proclamation, implementation and therefore, the results of the researchers concluded that the Planting for Food and Jobs programme is largely one huge fertiliser subsidy programme which has not been interested in the more fundamental questions facing the agric sector.”
“The lack of coordination between the Planting for Food and Jobs programme and the One District One Factory meant that the transformative possibilities of the initiatives were not achieved,” Dr. Graham added.
