By Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
Accra, Aug. 1, GNA - A two-day Master class workshop opened in Accra on Tuesday with a call on surveyors to have leadership skills that will help influence decision towards development and institutional change.
Mr Edwin Addo-Tawiah, the President of the Ghana Institutions of Surveyors (GhIS), who made the call, said it was time surveyors took strategic decisions for the development of the country and citizenry especially when according to the United Nations Development goal it has been estimated that 60 per cent of Africans would be living in urban areas by 2020.
He said: “This process will bring about structure development possibly in the urban centres so when surveyors equip themselves early to adjust to the change, which will definitely happen, it will be timely for all”.
Mr Tawiah-Addo observed that when measures are put in place on time to save the lands, roads, transport and other land administration processes in the country, the poor, vulnerable and rich would be saved accordingly.
“Our professional role and relevance within the process of urban regeneration to ensure beneficial development will help address how lands and property professionals operates to influence change in their professional institutions as it applies to skills and capabilities in regeneration projects,” he said.
On the core of the workshop, the president of GhIS explained that it was the key objective of the Master class to concentrate upon positioning the profession by articulating the professional’s role as effective leaders to promote and implement infrastructure.
“By the end of this Master class engagement we expect to improve participants’ strategic decision-making skills by developing a thorough understanding of land governance in the context of urban regeneration and our professional place within it,” he added.
According to Mr Tawiah-Addo, among the other goals of the workshop, was to build the awareness and confidence of leading strategic change as well as making positive impacts of becoming aware of engagement and communication styles with leaders to where good governance in the area of structural development would be achieved extensively.
Dr Diane Dumashie, the Vice President of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, the workshop would consider the opportunity land professionals could make to improve the delivery of large scale infrastructure projects, recognising the context that land professionals skills sets by providing in sustainable development and the building of livelihoods.
She said urbanisation across the world was one of the massive drivers with infrastructure being a government tool to build the nation, it was critical for people to contribute to the country’s development and that was what GhIS and FIG sought to do.
Dr Dumashie told the GNA that cities were becoming resilient and economic livelihoods needed development and so articulating the relationship between international and national land governance priorities and gaining a better appreciation of the dimensions and dynamics between governance levels was necessary.
“Let us recognise the leading trends in land governance to lead institutional change within our own profession that will enable us to develop understanding and the use of a business tool as a road map to manage investors,” she said.
Dr Dumashie called for collaborative efforts amongst partners in the sector and challenged them to be in the top rank of infrastructure as Ghana is ranked among the first ten countries in acquiring land according to research.
The workshop which was on the theme: “The Science of Leadership in Land and Property: Leading Institutional Change” brought together land professionals to discuss and increase participants’ influence of becoming more familiar with the process of leading change.
Some participants who spoke to the GNA said the collaborative workshop between GhIS and FIG was timely as it would help them to position themselves well as professionals to lead developmental goals especially where agriculture is competing with estate development in the country.
GNA
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