The Northern Development Forum (NDF) has presented a policy paper to the Peoples’ National Convention Party (PNC) at a brief ceremony held at the conference room of the STAR Ghana Foundation in Accra on Wednesday 11^th March 2020. The policy paper described as the `Transformation Agenda` is a culmination of priority initiatives of the people of Northern Ghana. The document is for the consideration of the PNC in its manifesto ahead of the December 2020 general elections in Ghana.

Speaking ahead of the presentation, Major (Rtd) Albert Don-Chebe, Chairman of the Northern Development Forum, expressed his hope that the PNC will factor the policy document in the development of their manifesto ahead of the December 2020 general elections in Ghana. He said:

 “It is my pleasure to hand over to you, this Northern Ghana Development Policy Paper which we call the transformation Agenda for inclusion in your party’s manifesto. We pray that when victory smiles on you, you will implement the issues that we have raised in this document”

On his part, the Chairman of the Peoples’ National Convention Party, Bernard Mornah expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting and commended the NDF for the initiative and to STAR Ghana Foundation for supporting the NDF.

“Today’s meeting with the Northern Development Forum is an eye-opener to the Peoples’ National Convention Party and the team that I represent… we need to commend the Northern Development Forum and their collaborators (funders) STAR Ghana. In our case, it will make our work as a political party easy because we were now going into the field to gather data, but this is information that has been gathered and presented to us. So, we will look at it and factor in those that are not already in our manifesto…we are happy that when we got here, our expectation has been met by the content they (NDF) gave us”

The Northern Development Forum backed by the chiefs and people of the five northern regions, by the policy paper, seeking the endorsement of Political Parties in Ghana to include several strategic and game-changing initiatives from the northern part of the country in their Manifestos which will be beneficial to all Ghanaians. The Forum is scheduled to meet and present the policy document to all the other political parties in Ghana.

In 2018, the STAR Ghana Foundation in collaboration with TAMA Foundation Universal and ISODEC convened a high-level forum on Ghana beyond Aid in Bolgatanga. The aim of the event was to provide a platform for dialogue on the implication of the Ghana Beyond Aid Strategy especially as it pertains to the Northern Regions. These discussions were then expected to be submitted to the Osafo Marfo Committee to inform the final Ghana Beyond Aid Strategy document.  

Following the successful implementation of a Northern Ghana Development Conference held in May 2019, and subsequent meetings between partners and Stakeholders of the Northern Development Agenda, the Northern Development Forum and its partners, with support from STAR Ghana Foundation, employed participatory and bottom-up approaches in building consensus on the prioritized initiatives that should be included in the Manifestos of the Political Parties for the 2020 General Elections.