The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has emphasised the importance of coordination, harmonisation and teamwork in achieving effective national development planning, noting that institutions must work together to deliver desired development outcomes.

She made the remarks at the opening of a three-day capacity development workshop on Coordination and Harmonisation and Systems Dynamics organised by NDPC’s Development Plan Coordination Division with support from GIZ PAIReD from October 21 to 23 2026, to strengthen staff capacity and improve collaboration, information-sharing and alignment of development planning activities across institutions and stakeholders.

The Director-General highlighted three fundamental roles of a planner: coordinator, facilitator and advocate. She explained that these responsibilities were central to the planning profession and required practitioners to work with stakeholders across public institutions, private-sector organisations and civil society, since development issues concerned everyone.

She said effective collaboration, strong institutional relationships and harmonised efforts were essential to ensuring that development activities produced the intended results. 

She cited collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service on staffing, postings and institutional support as an example of the need for inter-institutional cooperation.

Dr Amoah urged participants to engage actively in the sessions, share their experiences and apply the knowledge gained to their work. She also indicated that she would recognise the participant who demonstrated the highest level of engagement. 

Madam Maria Goretti Quarshie, Technical advisor with GIZ PAIReD, expressed appreciation for the opportunity to learn alongside colleagues from other institutions and encouraged continued collaboration to ensure that the knowledge gained translated into practice.

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NDPC PR-UNIT