The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese has launched a five-year Diocesan Strategic Plan and Development Policy to enhance the Church’s mission of providing for the spiritual and physical needs to the people.
The two documents would guide the activities of all the 20 Parishes in the diocese.
The goal is to reposition the church to continue to render vital services that would help to transform the lives of the people.
The Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, the Diocesan Bishop, said the documents encompassed the plan of action of the various parishes, pastoral care and human development departments.
This, he added, would enable the Church to achieve its mission of combining the spread of the gospel with the socio-economic development of the people. The documents were going to help tackle the development needs of the people – aid them to become self-reliant and to add momentum to the drive towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.
“The Diocese is confronted with a perpetuation of development disparities between and within the Parishes. “The Diocese is faced with worsening poverty, conflicts, food and nutrition insecurity, low access to quality education and health, high illiteracy, low access to potable water, poor sanitation and waste management, continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which the people depend for their livelihood.”
Bishop Agyenta said it would require total commitment of all the stakeholders and individuals to implement the plan. He called for strong backing and cooperation from organizations to achieve inclusive and improved wellbeing of the population.
He encouraged the Parish Priests to involve their members in the implementation, to promote transparency and accountability. It was also the way forward to achieve sustainability. Presenting the Development Policy, Professor David Millar, President of the Millar Institute for Trans-disciplinary and Development Studies, said conflict management, climate change, sanitation, women, youth empowerment, disability issues and the aged among had all been incorporated in the policy.
They had focused priority on building the capacity of the human resources for sustainable socio-economic development. Mr. Mahammadu Azonko, the Chief Director of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), applauded the leadership of the Diocesan Church for the invaluable services it had been rendering to the people in the region.
“It is an acknowledged fact that no single church has complemented the efforts of government in the provision of social services more than the Catholic Church.” He pledged that the RCC was going to continue to work with the Church to make things better for the people.