The Constitutional Review Committee has recommended elevating the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to serve as the central coordinating, monitoring, and evaluation body for national development planning under proposed constitutional amendments submitted to President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, December 22, 2025. The reforms aim to reduce policy fragmentation and ensure long term economic planning takes precedence over short term political priorities. Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development and chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, presented the comprehensive report titled “Transforming Ghana: From Electoral Democracy to Developmental Democracy” to the President. The reforms seek to bind Parliament to Ghana’s National Development Plan in lawmaking and budgeting, ensuring consistency between development planning, legislation, and public expenditure. The NDPC was established under Articles 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution to advise the President on national development planning policy and strategy while coordinating economic and social planning across Ghana. Under its current mandate, the Commission prepares national development plans, monitors and evaluates government programmes, and provides strategic analysis to guide long term development efforts. The proposed constitutional changes would solidify these functions as permanent features of Ghana’s governance architecture. The reforms emphasize that the NDPC must remain strictly non partisan in executing its enhanced mandate. The Committee’s report states the Commission shall not express opinions on the merits of any party or candidate manifesto. When assessing political programme submissions, the NDPC’s certification or notification shall be factual and technical in nature and shall not rank, compare, endorse, or criticize political programmes, according to the report. This provision aims to preserve institutional neutrality while ensuring policy direction remains consistent with long term economic interests. Unpredictable policy shifts when governments change have long disrupted continuity in national planning, often sidelining long term strategies for short term political priorities. Anchoring the NDPC’s evaluations in technical consistency with the National Development Plan rather than political considerations would create a more stable framework, helping ensure policy decisions support sustained economic planning and reduce the risk of abrupt reversals, according to development policy analysts. The Committee links Ghana’s policy instability to legislation passed without alignment to a coherent national development framework, a practice that has undermined investor confidence and effective planning. Laws passed without reference to a coherent national plan have contributed to regulatory volatility, fragmented spending, and short term politically driven decision making, the report states. The constitutional amendment would require that proposed legislation and expenditure align with the National Development Plan or explicitly disclose and justify any divergence. A second pillar of the reforms focuses on transforming broad development goals into measurable benchmarks. The report requires that a long term or medium term national development plan with defined objectives, targets, and milestones shall be prepared for the progressive realization of the goals and objectives set out in the Directive Principles of State Policy. Adding measurable targets to national planning would extend the NDPC’s mandate beyond coordination to include tracking progress against clearly defined outcomes. This change is considered essential for strengthening accountability, improving public sector performance, and building public confidence in how government pursues development goals. The Committee argues that while Ghana has achieved stable democratic peace and regular political turnover since the Fourth Republic began in 1992, these gains have not translated into the level of economic transformation and improved living standards expected by citizens. Ghana risks becoming a “choiceless democracy,” a system where citizens periodically vote in peaceful elections but experience little change in governance quality or socioeconomic outcomes, according to the report. The constitutional amendment process in Ghana is stringent, requiring a two thirds supermajority in Parliament for most provisions. For entrenched provisions, a referendum is required with 40 percent voter turnout and 75 percent approval. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) currently holds a supermajority in Parliament for the first time since 1992, potentially easing the path for constitutional amendments, though broad political and public consensus remains essential for meaningful change. While the Committee permits departures from the National Development Plan, it insists that any such divergence be fully disclosed and justified. The report states that where any proposed expenditure materially diverges from that Plan, such divergence shall be expressly disclosed and justified. This reinforces fiscal discipline, promotes transparency, and helps ensure more stable and predictable public finances. The requirement would create constitutional accountability for deviations from approved development strategies. The eight member Constitutional Review Committee was inaugurated by President Mahama in February 2025, fulfilling a campaign promise. The Committee received written submissions and consulted stakeholders across the country during its six month mandate. By May 2025, the Committee had recorded more than 600 submissions on proposed reforms, including 325 online submissions and over 200 hard copy proposals, according to Dr. Rainer Akumperigya, Secretary of the Committee. Many reform themes are recurrent from previous constitutional review efforts. The 2010 Constitutional Review Commission adopted several recommendations in its 2011 report, notably proposing reforms related to the vast powers of presidential appointment and the mandate and composition of the NDPC. However, past governments did not accept recommendations to change the NDPC from an advisory to independent body, citing concerns about placing executive power in the hands of technocrats without a governing mandate. The current proposals appear to strike a different balance, strengthening the NDPC’s coordinating and monitoring role while maintaining its advisory relationship with the President. Ministries, agencies, and local governments would retain responsibility for implementing the plan within their respective domains. This approach aims to avoid the previous objection while still achieving greater policy coherence and planning discipline across government. Successive reform attempts mean some themes have broad support among Ghana’s two main political parties. There is general consensus that the outsized role of the President in the overall constitutional schema, including control over appointments throughout all levels of the public services and state structure, has retarded the development of independent institutions and hindered credible checks and balances. The NDPC reforms complement broader proposals to reduce executive concentration of power. The early start of the constitutional reform process soon after President Mahama’s inauguration and the short term of the new Committee mean specific reform proposals can emerge quickly, enhancing chances of formal debate and even approval. As President Mahama serves his final term, there is little political incentive for him to backtrack on reform, potentially increasing the likelihood of meaningful constitutional change. This window of opportunity may prove crucial for advancing reforms that have stalled in previous attempts. Other chapters in the Committee’s report focus on promoting equity and inclusion, devolving power and resources to local communities, safeguarding democratic freedoms and stability, and ensuring the Constitution remains a living document capable of evolving with Ghana’s changing needs. The reforms propose extending the presidential term from four to five years while retaining the two term limit, taxing presidential salaries and benefits, and allowing criminal prosecution within four years after leaving office. The report also recommends removing Members of Parliament from ministerial appointments to strengthen Parliament’s oversight role, establishing an Independent Fiscal Council, and introducing stronger constitutional principles for natural resource exploitation. Recognition of ecocide as a constitutional concern and community level benefit sharing for extractive industries feature among environmental governance proposals. These measures aim to create a comprehensive framework for sustainable development beyond electoral cycles. Globally, effective planning bodies play pivotal roles in coordinating long term development frameworks, ensuring governments move beyond short term political cycles. Countries with strong national planning institutions have demonstrated greater policy coherence and more consistent progress toward development objectives. The proposed reforms position Ghana to join this group by constitutionally anchoring development planning as a fundamental governance principle rather than an optional administrative function. The Committee’s ultimate goal is preserving Ghana’s democratic gains while recalibrating the constitutional framework to better support sustainable development and improved quality of life for all citizens. According to the Committee, the reforms do not reject the 1992 Constitution but build upon its democratic foundations while correcting structural blind spots. Where the 1992 Constitution prioritized stability after authoritarian rule, the proposed reforms prioritize performance, inclusion, accountability, and development. The NDPC began operations on April 2, 1990 at Flagstaff House in Accra following establishment of a Preparatory Committee under the chairmanship of Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo. The Commission’s legal status was affirmed by the 1992 Constitution, and the National Development Planning Commission Act of 1994 was promulgated to operationalize its functions. The proposed constitutional reforms would mark the most significant enhancement of the NDPC’s mandate since its establishment 35 years ago.