The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has called for greater use of evaluation evidence in national development planning to improve policy implementation, resource allocation and accountability.
She made the call at the 2026 Ghana Evaluation Week (GEW) Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon, held under the theme, “Strengthening Evidence Use for Inclusive Development: Bridging Policy, Practice and Innovation.”
Dr Amoah said evaluation should go beyond collecting data and producing reports to directly informing policy decisions and delivering measurable development outcomes.
“Evaluation must help us identify what works, understand implementation gaps and determine what needs to change to deliver better outcomes for all,” she said.
She explained that evidence from the evaluation of the 2022–2025 Medium-Term National Development Policy Framework had informed four strategic shifts in the 2026–2029 framework.
These include strengthening institutional and human capital, advancing regulatory and legal reforms, ensuring predictable financing and promoting data-driven coordination.
According to Dr Amoah, incorporating evaluation findings into planning processes is essential to ensuring that development policies respond to identified challenges and achieve their intended objectives.