Sections:
DFID – Ghana Country Assistance Plan 2008 – 2010 Consultation
What is DFID - Ghana’s Country Assistance Plan?
DFID-Ghana’s Country Assistance Plan (CAP) will set out how we plan to support Ghana’s own efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) over the medium-term. It is a strategy document to guide DFID-Ghana’s programme from 2008 – 2010. The CAP will indicate how we intend supporting Ghana’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II), in particular, which areas within the GPRS II DFID will focus on (recognising that others are also helping), and how we will use our funding to strengthen Ghana’s own institutions.
How will the CAP document be structured?
Ghana developed its GPRS II for 2006 – 2009. In response to this, seventeen
donors, including DFID, developed the
Ghana Joint Assistance Strategy
(757
kb) (GJAS)
setting out our collective analysis of the development challenges in Ghana, the
key areas we should focus on and, defining how we as donors will support Ghana
achieve the goals set out in its own national strategy, the GPRS II.
The GJAS in its entirety will form Part 1 of our CAP. Part 2 will set out what part the UK will play, within what has been agreed in the GJAS. It is the strategy and plan of operation for UK’s development partnership with Ghana. We will set out:
- our overall strategy to help Ghana achieve the MDGs;
- the areas and outcomes of Ghana’s own poverty reduction strategy we intend to focus on;
- what we will not do and leave to other donors;
- how we will manage our own human and financial resources; and
- how we will monitor and measure our progress in achieving these.
The Development Partnership with Ghana
Development partners in the GJAS state that Ghana’s progress towards achieving the MDGs has been “steady, but not transformational”.
Ghana has established a very good track record for governance and in managing its economy. A recent national household survey indicates that Ghana has already almost met its MDG target on improving the incomes of the poor, and is close to meeting its targets on universal primary education and getting girls into school. However, 800,000 children still remain out of school; improvements in health are not materialising despite a lot of investment; and progress on improving sanitation is poor. Inequality between and within certain regions has also increased as has poverty in urban areas.
The UK has a strong partnership with Ghana. We believe that the government of Ghana has a strong commitment to reducing poverty and sound achievements on human rights. We also believe that the government is consistently improving how it manages and accounts for public resources, and is strongly committed to continuing this trend.
What do we propose to do to help Ghana achieve the MDGs?
We will continue to align our overall programme objectives to the three pillars of Ghana’s own poverty reduction strategy, as follows:
- Accelerating private sector competitiveness and growth: We will support government’s efforts to create a positive environment for attracting private sector investment. We will also contribute to ensuring that the benefits of growth are better shared.
- Enhancing human resource development: We will focus on helping Ghana meet MDGs relating to ensuring that all children receive primary education, reducing child death rates and improving the health of mothers. We will help the government improve its delivery of basic social services and work towards ensuring that the poor are in a position to access these. We will also work with others to help poor people ensure that public resources are targeted at meeting their needs.
- Improving governance and civic responsibility: We will concentrate on helping the government improve its ability to respond to the demands from its citizens. We will also work towards helping Ghanaian public institutions become more accountable to its citizens.
We recognise that in addition to what we do, how we do it is also important. Hence, we will include an additional CAP objective:
- Mobilise resources and effective partnerships: In particular we will focus on improving how we work with others, how we use our dialogue with government and other stakeholders, and the way in which we channel our resources.
Specific proposals we are considering…
We currently channel over 80% of our funding as poverty reduction budget support. The government spends this money in accordance with its own priorities as part of its overall budget as set out in Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy (some of these funds are earmarked for the health and education sectors). Through this mechanism, along with other donors, we discuss with government how they can make sure that their public spending is best targeted at reducing poverty. We will increase the amount we channel through poverty reduction budget support to at least 90% of our total spending by 2010/11.
In order to ensure that the money we are putting through government systems is effective in reducing poverty, we will continue to support the Ghanaian government’s own efforts to ensure that government is capable of delivering services to its people, and that it is accountable and responsive to the rights and needs of the poor. This includes helping both the public sector to deliver as well as civil society organisations to be more effective in influencing government’s decisions.
We have made a ten-year commitment for education amounting to £100 million. We intend to follow through on this commitment and encourage others to support the government of Ghana’s plans.
We have made a commitment to help government address the slow progress in achieving the health-related MDGs. On current plans we anticipate spending at least £50 million over the next five years.
We note that Ghana’s own plan to achieve the MDGs acknowledges a very high priority for achieving accelerated economic growth. Apart from reducing poverty in itself, growth provides government with the resources to spend on addressing poverty issues. We do not intend to make large growth-related investments, as other donors are currently doing this. We will, however, engage in these debates to try and ensure that growth is both sustainable and actually benefits the poor. We intend to help provide the analytical basis for making informed decisions on this issue.
We are committed to the declarations the UK and other donors made in Paris in 2005, on how to improve the ways in which we all provide assistance to poor countries. We will play a leading role in ensuring that our funding and that of others strengthens rather than undermines Ghana’s own systems. We will help the Ghanaian government put in place a mechanism to report on whether donors are abiding by global commitments they have made on how aid is delivered and how the government is managing the aid it receives. We will play a leading role in helping Ghana deliver on its aid harmonisation and alignment action plan.
We believe that addressing gender inequalities lies at the heart of achieving the MDGs, both as a means to an end as well as being reflected in MDG targets in themselves. We will work with Ghanaian institutions and donors to ensure that gender inequalities are being addressed.
How can contribute?
We have set out our intention to use the government of Ghana’s own systems for a large proportion of our programme. We need your views and opinions to help us address the following issues.
a) How can we help to make sure that the Ghanaian budget process is effective in addressing poverty reduction and achieving the MDGs? What is the role we, as an external support agency, can and should play?
b) What is our role in ensuring Ghana’s economic growth is environmentally sustainable and helps the poor? How do we deal with the threats and opportunities posed by climate change?
c) How can we improve the focus by others as well as ourselves on addressing gender inequalities and helping other excluded groups?
d) How can we ensure that sectors such as water and sanitation also contribute to meeting the health and education MDG targets?
e) What is our role in ensuring Ghana’s positive trend in governance continues?
f) How can we further reinforce Ghana’s own leadership of the development process? What more can we do to ensure that donors including ourselves provide aid that strengthens Ghana’s institutions rather than undermines them? How do we ensure that donors and government are held accountable to commitments they have made to improve the aid partnership?
g) We have an open dialogue with our donor partners. How should we better use this to ensure that the international system is helping Ghana to deliver on its own goals?
If you have any ideas or suggestions on any of these issues, or indeed any other points or comments you wish to make, please feel free to respond by sending your response to the following e-mail address: DFIDGhanaCAP@dfid.gov.uk
We are very grateful for your comments, but cannot provide a response to all of them.
Last updated: 12 June 2007