At the opening of the 2025 KNUST Research Week and Scientific Conference, the Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, urged Ghana’s research and policy communities to deepen collaboration for equitable social transformation.
Addressing academicians, policymakers, and development partners at the KNUST School of Business, she praised the university’s role in advancing innovation and policy-relevant research, while emphasising that bridging the gap between evidence and decision-making remains a national imperative.
Dr Smock Amoah cited Ghana’s experience with the Navrongo Experiment and the Capitation Grant Scheme as landmark examples of research driving policy reform. The Navrongo initiative, launched in 1994, demonstrated that community-based health delivery could significantly reduce child mortality and improve access to care, leading to the nationwide adoption of the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) programme. Similarly, she added that NDPC’s 2014 citizen-led assessment of the Capitation Grant exposed systemic weaknesses in basic education financing, prompting reforms that increased per-pupil funding, improved equity targeting, and strengthened monitoring mechanisms.
Despite these gains, Dr Amoah acknowledged persistent structural barriers, including limited institutional capacity for evidence translation, weak data systems, and inadequate funding for policy-relevant studies.
She highlighted NDPC’s efforts to institutionalise evidence use through the National Public Policy Formulation Guidelines and the forthcoming Policy and Legislative Almanac, designed to standardise policy development and enhance coordination. Encouraging signs include a rise in research commercialisation, with 150 findings adopted by industry and 32 technologies brought to market in 2024, alongside targeted research grants issued by MESTI to address national challenges.
Dr Smock Amoah concluded by outlining practical steps for researchers and policymakers to strengthen the research–policy ecosystem.
She called for better alignment of studies with policy priorities, improved accessibility of findings, and greater use of AI and data analytics. Policymakers were urged to create dedicated evidence units, strengthen data management, and foster multi-sectoral collaboration.
She reaffirmed NDPC’s commitment to partnering with academia and civil society, stressing that effective governance depends on the timely and purposeful integration of research into national development planning.