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In 1994 the Government of Ghana released the national development Policy framework (NDPF) to guide the country's policies and strategies up to the year 2020. A central tenet on which the NDPF is based on the development of the country's human resource potential to its fullest extent possible.
The Ministry of Education is concerned with training students to provide national manpower needs.
The development strategy now taken by the government for the 2020 vision places much emphasis on human welfare unlike the previous approaches which were narrowly focused on economic growth. Within this new development outlook, social policy issues such as poverty, hunger and malnutrition have been accorded high priority. However a problem which continues to face policy makers and planners today, is the general dearth of data on social conditions by which the progress of the nation in meeting the goal of the NDPF can be monitored and evaluated over time. It is in this framework that the development role of the CSPS will be assessed in the next few years.
In this respect of the sectorial goal of the tertiary education, the general issue to be explored is the relation between the preparation of students of students in tertiary institutions and the local world of work. This covers not only the subjects to be taught but most importantly the course content. The CSPS has a mission to bring country into teaching content and to enrich teaching through the provision of local and up to date for teaching purposes. The CSPS will continue its conduct role connecting academia and planners : collecting grassroots information to enrich university teaching and providing sound data and research information to policy makers to enable realistic development planning.
The CSPS has established close links with government planning ministries to ensure a two way exchange of ideas and information for conducting policy relevant research which can feed into policy formulation and design. In this connection the following ministries and government organizations are represented on the CSPS Board of Advisors.
These are:
A major thrust of the recent government development efforts is a move to decentralized planning process as well as the mobilization of individuals and communities within the context of the District. Assembly concept to bring about sustainable development from the grassroots. However, there remains the pressing need to investigate and determine the social situation within the districts in order to provide the necessary data to district assemblies for developing relevant social policies. The role of the CSPS in generating appropriate data and informing District Assemblies through seminars and workshops of crucial importance in the coming years.
There are two principles on which the CSPS has been founded and which will guide its role in the next four years. The first is that more information is needed to develop a viable national social welfare policy. In this, CSPS will contribute to the generation of this information by conducting various short term participatory studies of policy relevance. The second is that an increase in civic and public awareness of policy of policy issues is needed in order to support greater participation in the development of policies and programs of action. In this capacity, the CSPS will advance his in advocacy , information dissemination and training. Bearing in mind these guiding principles, the main objectives of the CSPS in the years ahead will be as follows. · creating greater awareness of policy issues in Ghana; · supporting participatory development policies and programs of action through research and data development · strengthening national capacity for the development of viable social welfare policy issues of Ghana.
Bearing in mind these guiding principles, the overall mandate of the CSPS has been formulated to promote social policy development through a range of research, training and advocacy activities to include the following:
A. RESOURCE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE
It is intended that the CSPS will establish a Resource Centre which will open
to academics and planners interested in undertaking background review on development
topics related to social policy. The resource Centre will include a wide range
of documentation from research work conducted in Ghana as well as relevant books,
articles and reports form outside the country. Already a donation of a private
library has been possible by UNICEF. A computerized retrieval system "data trek"
will facilitate researches and trainers in locating documents of interest for
their work.
B. UNDERTAKING POLICY RELEVANT RESEARCH
As a preliminary to the coordinated policy action necessary to improve social
development in Ghana, the Centre will continue its focus on the following policy
areas to conduct basic research . CSPS will continue to interest both government
and non-government organizations including international agencies in its programs
and activities and respond to requests to conduct research evaluation or feasibility
studies as they arise. Its own research agenda in the ensuring years will be
as follows and at least two researchers will be expected to be completed every
year.
At least 3 major studies will be undertaken yearly.
C. CREATING GREATER AWARENESS OF POLICY ISSUES IN GHANA
i. Social Policy Newsletter, Policy brief and Journal of Social Policy
Owing to its mandate of research and information dissemination, there is the
need to create a medium through which all social policy information from the
Centre and all collaborating agencies could be made available to the general
public especially those at the planning level. Therefore the publication of
a quarterly Newsletter, Policylines, will continue to feature strongly on the
agenda for CSPS. This newsletter will be published at the beginning of each
quarter followed at the end of the quarter with a publication of policy Brief.
Distribution target groups are: Districts Assemblies, Parliamentarians, Journalists,
social sector ministries and decentralized government departments, the academia,
grassroots collaborating NGO's and donor agencies. Whilst Policylines provides
broad based information on social issues, Policy Brief provides in-depth information
and advocates concerns about a particular social issue.
Social Policy a journal on policy issues will be published twice a year. Distribution target group will be Universities in and outside Africa.
ii. In House Seminar
CSPS will continue on yearly basis host monthly seminars on researched topics of social development concern. These seminars are well advertised to the social sector ministries and departments and open to the general public. The overall theme for the in-house seminars held every last Friday of the month is Issues of Family Welfare and specifically focus on the following areas of debate.
iii CSPS Web Page
A CSPS web page was developed early 2000. The web page is expected to contain all CSPS publications and activities.
iv Dissemination Policy Meetings/workshops
To inform the relevant publish on studies of policy relevance the CSPS will continue its policy meetings and workshops periodically.
CSPS intends to hold on twice yearly basis dissemination seminars for Parliamentarians, districts assemblies, district chief executives and the media.
v. Other Publications:
In addition to the above information dissemination strategies, the CSPS publishes its own researches as well as others which are found to be of relevance to policy planning. The publications are distributed to target groups (parliamentarians, policy makers, the academia, NGOs and donor agencies) in order to create awareness and serve as the basis for generation of policies and be used for teaching in the tertiary institutions. To date, eight CSPS publications are out in circulation including twenty five A4 size Social Indicator Subject maps and ten wall maps. These will be revised and updated and new subjects developed in accordance with the 2000 Ghana Census findings.
Beginning from 2002 CSPS intends to publish a yearly basis Women's and Children's Budget appraisal.
Training is an important component to social development. The mandate of the CSPS is not to train persons for academic degrees but to concentrate on providing short term on the job relevant training which will build the capacities of government and NGO's planners as well as academics to perform batter as teachers/researchers development planners.
Two of the following training courses will be developed and run on yearly basis.
In addition CSPS will continue to run workshops on request form collaborating NGO's.