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SPRING Alumni brainstorm on urban planning in Ghana
Accra, Nov. 10, Ghanadot/GNA - Dr William Ahadzie, Chief
Executive Officer, National Identification Authority, has
appealed to the country's development planners and managers to
come together to form a strong association to bring back
planning to Ghana.
He said the absence of a formidable and united front for
planners was making it difficult for the professionals to speak
out their views on planning initiatives and policy issues.
Mr Ahadzie was speaking at the just-ended Ghana Association of
SPRING Alumni workshop to discuss urban planning in Ghana and
the role of the Alumni Portal Deutschland for networking among
Ghanaian development planners.
In 1984 the governments of Ghana and the Federal Republic of
Germany entered into a cooperation agreement to train students
in Development Planning and Management for the developing
countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Department of Planning at the Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Spatial Planning for
Regions in Growing Economies (SPRING) Centre at the then
University of Dortmund, now Dortmund University of Technology,
Germany, were the two tertiary institutions assigned the
responsibility of prosecuting the cooperation.
The Programme was designed such that students pursued the first
year at the University of Dortmund and were awarded a Post
Graduate Diploma in Regional Planning and the second year at the
KNUST, qualifying students for the award of a Masters Degree in
Development Planning and Management.
The objective of this arrangement was to ensure that graduates
returned to their respective countries to contribute to national
development.
The University of Dortmund entered into similar partnership
agreements with the University of Philippines, the ARDI in Dar
es Salaam, Tanzania, and the Univerdad Astral de Chile.
That gave the students an opportunity to choose to do their
second year either in Ghana or Tanzania, the Philippines or
Chile, which gave the programme an international dimension and
status with students now being awarded joint certificates.
Dr Ahadzie, who is also an alumnus, stressed the need for
development planners to respond to the technological challenges
to be abreast with time.
"We had very useful training from Dortmund and I believe we will
apply all those techniques to ensure the sustainability of the
association," he said.
He said the formation of the alumni was long overdue as Ghana
was one of the first countries to start the SPRING programme and
urged members to carry the association forward by frequent
publications, organising seminars and conferences to let their
voices be heard.
Dr Imoro Braimah, Director, SPRING Programme at KNUST, said
although Ghana had the greatest number of alumni they were not
able to come together till now and he was grateful for the
organisers for their sacrifice.
He said the cooperation agreement between the Dortmund
University of Technology and the KNUST had undergone several
changes.
"Five years ago the SPRING Programme in Ghana took on a new
dimension. The first year started in Ghana and so Ghanaians no
longer went to Germany for the first year but Ghana still
received students from other countries who did the first year in
Dortmund.
"In 2008 the main financier of the SPRING Programme, DAAD, the
German Academic Exchange Service - commissioned an independent
evaluation of both Dortmund and Ghana SPRING Centres. The
evaluation recommended the return of Ghanaian students to
Dortmund and the opening of the Ghanaian centre to the entire
world just like Dortmund," he said.
Dr Braimah said the Cooperation agreement had produced over 100
Ghanaian Professional Planners who were at moment engaged all
over the world in various fields and the majority of them were
working in the country and making significant contributions to
the development of Ghana.
Mrs Katharina Samann, a Representative of
Technical University of Dortmud, said the SPRING programme had
not only been intellectually stimulating but "the many
interdisciplinary and extracurricular activities had contributed
and still contribute to my sense of having life-long ties with
the programme" and urged both past and present recipients to be
dedicated to its success.
She said over the years, SPRING had become one of the most
successful international degree programmes in Germany and was
virtually a "brand name".
"Indeed, in September we celebrated its tremendous success on
the programme's 25th anniversary. It was a big family reunion."
Mrs Samann said since its inauguration in 1984, the programme
had travelled around the world and "today five university
partners on four continents shaped this unique program".
"Over the years almost 600 students have successfully completed
the Masters programme - including those who have done both years
in Kumasi.
The largest group of graduates are, of course, are Ghanaians -
almost 100 followed by graduates from the Philippines."
The SPRING programme was initially sponsored by quite a number
of organisations in Germany but the bulk of the funding was
provided by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany
through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Apart from the SPRING programme, DAAD supports a number of
Ghanaians in other courses at various levels especially at the
Masters and PhD levels in various educational institutions in
Germany and in Ghana.
It also supports research works and provides funding for
activities that aim at enhancing human knowledge. One of the key
attributes of DAAD is that it maintains its relationship with
past recipient of its support.
GNA
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