The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), in 2012, launched the Ghana National Urban Policy Framework and Action Plan and institutionalised the Ghana Urban Forum (GUF). The GUF provides a platform for stakeholders, city managers, academia, civil society organisations and the urban dwellers to dialogue on pertinent urban challenges. This dialogue eventually impacts decision-making and policy direction needed to ensure the necessary changes in our cities and towns.

The participatory process of the GUF and the platform it provides for dialogue, on issues that affect urban development, has underpinned its importance as a consultative mechanism within the urban landscape in the country. The GUF has been used to provide a vehicle for generating inputs for Ghana’s participation in Habitat III, the Country Report and the New Urban Agenda. After the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, Ghana is primed to implement the commitments contained in it. In the aftermath of Habitat III, it is imperative that as a country, we begin the journey of ensuring complete ownership of the New Urban Agenda and strategise on how to localise it for transformative change. The Ghana Urban Forum presents a unique opportunity for this process.

The general object of the #GUF2020 is to support urban development policy dialogues and processes in the country as well as contribute to international urban policy dialogues and strategies.

The #GUF2020 will dialogue on how systems of secondary cities play a vital intermediary role as economic, administrative and logistics hubs within national and global systems of cities. Participants will examine ways in which secondary cities can work more collaboratively to improve their development prospects, lift prosperity, and leverage public resources to support equitable and sustainable sub-national economic growth and development.

The #GUF2020 will outline ways, in which, governments and other stakeholders within systems of secondary cities may invest strategically in public goods and services, improve connectivity, develop networks, and leverage common user facilities, infrastructure, and resources at different geographic levels to support inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development.

The Forum will take place on the 14th and 15th January 2020 under the theme: “Unlocking the systems of planning, connecting and financing for Secondary and Intermediate Cities to propel growth towards the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ Agenda”.Planning as a Pre-Requisite for Ghana’s current Inductrialisation Drive”.