Policy Brief The National Environment Policy of Ghana
7/17/2012 11:38:58 AM -
The government of Ghana deserves to be congratulated for its National Environment Policy, which is expected to inform all relevant stakeholders in their roles
Policy Brief The National Environment Policy of Ghana
7/17/2012 11:38:58 AM -
The government of Ghana deserves to be congratulated for its National Environment Policy, which is expected to inform all relevant stakeholders in their roles of managing the environment to sustain society at large. By the policy, government has announced a new National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP). In this brief we summarize key elements of the policy, comment on where we think it is strong and weak, and make suggestions for how it can better incorporate youth concerns. The National Youth Authority (NYA) is a key institution that must be given clear roles and responsibilities especially given the fact that the nvironment is one of the priority areas captured the National Youth Policy of Ghana. The youth are arguably the major contributors to negative environmental practices such as creating e-waste, littering, and open defecation. It is therefore necessary to regard young people as key stakeholders by engaging them in the decision-making processes so as to ensure effective and efficient sustainability of this policy.
Among our key recommendations are:
1. There must be clear provisions for youth in the legislative framework.
2. There must be specific requirement for active youth participation in all decision-making processes from local to national levels if goals are to be achieved.
3. There must be an unambiguous and strict framework for punitive and incentive measures to encourage acceptable behavioural practices among young people.
According to Section 3.1 of the policy, the new vision for environmental management is based on an integrated and holistic management system for the environment in Ghana. It is aimed at sustainable development now and in the future. The vision for the environmental policy, therefore, is: “To manage the environment to sustain society at large.”The policy seeks to unite Ghanaians in working toward a society where all residents of the country have access to sufficient and wholesome food, clean air and water, decent housing and other necessities of life. This will further enable them to live in a fulfilling spiritual, cultural and physical harmony with their natural surroundings.
Though the policy has clearly stated aims, SYND requires clarification in some of them. In Section 3.3 (Policy Statement) of page 10, the second bulleted aim reads as follows:
• reversing rapid population growth, economic expansion, persisting poverty, poor governance and institutional weaknesses and failures.
Our difficulty is with the basis of “reversing economic expansion”. Is this what is intended? Is this a good decision to make? We will appreciate some responses.
The eighth bulleted aim also reads:
• taking appropriate measures, irrespective of existing levels of environmental pollution and extent of degradation, to control pollution and the importation and use of potentially toxic chemicals.
Indeed, whiles we applaud the need to take appropriate measures of environmental pollution and extent of degradation to control pollution and so forth we want to know why existing levels should not be taken into account (“irrespective of existing levels”). Is it not a prerequisite to measure the existing situation prior to taking corrective measures?
We do caution that though such statements may be the result of sloppy wording, the consequences can be very costly as it can create confusion among key stakeholders who depend on such national policies for direction in their respective programs or projects.
Section 6.1 of Page 28 captures the Institutional Framework and Responsibilities:
The policy states that “…In order to avoid conflict of interests, the policy assigns responsibilities to separate institutions for environmental and natural resource development and management activities. On the other hand, environmental protection, regulation and monitoring are vested in the lead agency, EPA.
Do we therefore assume that institutions for environmental and natural resource development are different from institutions that manage environmenta