NDPC Director-General States the Importance of Coordination and Teamwork in Development Planning
The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has emphasised the need for coordination, harmonisation and teamwork among institutions to ensure effective national development planning and achieve desired development outcomes.
Dr Amoah made the statements 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.
She highlighted three fundamental roles of a planner: coordinator, facilitator and advocate.
According to her, 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 stated that effective collaboration, strong institutional relationships and harmonised efforts were essential to ensuring that development activities produced the intended results.
She noted 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 commended participants to engage actively in the sessions, share their experiences and apply the knowledge gained to their work, and 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.
Freda Marfo, ISD
