Introduction

The overall objective of development is to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people which must reflect in the choices available to them. In contemporary times, governments as well as international donors have contributed in different ways to improve the living conditions of people especially rural folks yet; the scarcity of resource has underpinned the processes.

Since 1957, several policies and programmes to accelerate the growth of the economy and to raise the living standards of the people have been pursued with varying degrees of success. These include Ghana Vision 2020: The First Step (1996-2000); the First Medium-Term Plan (1997- 2000); Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2003-2005); and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2006 -2009). In 2010-2013, the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda was also formulated to give direction and focus the nation toward achieving a middle income status.

Prioritization of Identified Development gaps/Issues

Resource constraints places limitations on the capacity of a nation to achieve the desired level of development within a given time period. Thus, under the circumstance, the best approach to allocate available resource in the best interest of the people is to prioritize the development issues.

It is quite understandable that the focus of planning is basically to allocate resources which for most parts are usually scarce. However, in order to achieve synergy and most importantly to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the scarce resource allocation, appropriate criteria need to be defined to ensure value for money. The criteria below formed the basis upon which the identified issues of the district were prioritized to inform the design of appropriate development interventions. They include:

(i) Impact on a large proportion of the citizens especially, the poor and vulnerable;

(ii) Significant linkage effect on meeting basic human needs/right e.g. immunization of children and quality of basic schooling linked to productive citizens; reduction of gender discrimination linked to sustainable development.

(iii) Significant multiplier effect on the local economy- attraction of enterprises, job creation, increases in incomes and growth, etc

(iv) Impact on even development (extent to which it addresses inequality)

A careful analysis of the district profile and a reflection on the past development strategies revealed that a number of development gaps continue to dominate and widen the inequality 

From the analysis in the prioritization process, developmental gaps/issues emerged as areas which should be critically tackled prior to the consideration of other issues.

It therefore means that, the district must focus on these areas of the development process; since they stand to impact on the local economy more significantly.

ANALYSIS OF POTENTIALS, OPPORTUNITIES, CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES

POCC analysis is carried for the prioritized development issues identified from needs and aspiration of the District and also from the harmonized development issues and the MTDPF (2014 – 2017).

In development planning it is important to scan environment within which the development interventions are to be implemented. In so doing, it is important to identify the supporting factors as well as those that have the capacity to work against the expected development envisioned. The analysis involved is the POCC analysis. The potentials and opportunities comprise all factors which can be successfully tapped for development. The constraints and challenges however, comprise the otherwise.

Below is the outcome of the POCC analysis carried out in a very participatory manner.