Country Ownership of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

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Country Ownership of the Ghana Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper

• Joint Donor Staff Training
• Module 1 Session 2
• Zambia, September 2004
• Federico Steinberg World Bank

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A case study in the political economy of the GPRS
Presentation outline

• Background political and economic events
• The CDF and the GPRS
• Country Ownership of the GPRS
• A role play on enhancing country ownership of the
  GPRS

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I. Political and economic events
Independence 1957
Rawlings authoritarian government 1981-1992
Economic stabilization plan 1983
Rawlings democratic government 1992-2000
Real GDP growth averaged 4.5 1991-2003
Kufuors presidency 2000-2004
GPRS 2002-2005
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Poverty has declined
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but progress in economic and social indicators
has been uneven

• There has been substantial progress in education,
  water and sanitation, and on the fight against
  HIV/AIDS
• But the infant mortality rate increased from
  57/1000 to 56/1000 and the under-five mortality
  rate has increased from 108/1000 to 112/1000
  between 1998 and 2002
• Poverty in the northern regions and among farmers
  remains a challenge
• Efforts to diversify the economy and increase
  productivity have been disappointing

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II. The CDF and the GPRS

• Ghana became a CDF pilot country in 1999
• GPRS prepared between 2000 and 2003
• long-term development vision
• broad participatory process
• Medium term targets compatible with MDGs (52
  indicators)
• Influenced by HIPC
• Financing government, HIPC resources, and
  external assistance. (HIPC completion point July
  2004)

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GPRS main pillars

• macroeconomic stability
• production and employment
• human resource development
• protecting the vulnerable and the extremely poor
• governance and public sector reform
• ME conceived as a shared task

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III. Country ownership of the GPRS

• Leadership and coordination across the executive
• Institutional structure of participation
• Role and impact internal partners
• Role and impact of external partners

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Leadership and coordination across the executive

• Government change did not handicap the process
• NDPC responsible for drafting and coordination
• Formation of Core Teams according to five
  cross-sectoral themes.
• Undefined priorities and insufficient
  interministerial coordination at the initial
  stages
• Problems between NDPC, the MoF and line ministers
• Insufficient technical capacity
• Key role of president Kufuor from late 2001 in
  strengthening coordination.
• Regular meetings and discussion of priorities at
  ministerial councils
• Improved coordination between the MoF and the
  MTEF secretariat

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Institutional structure of participation

• NDPCs core teams received input from a variety
  of stakeholders
• Local government level consultations
• Selective Civil Society Organization
  Participation (NED)
• Members from think tanks and academia integrated
  NDPCs Core Teams
• Parliamentary committee on the GPRS
• Capacity constraints
• Insufficient technical and financial capacity
  among regional governments and NGOs
• Problems to clarify priorities and superficial
  discussions at consultations
• Emergence of a consultation culture
• Positive steps towards consolidation of
  consultation
• NED as a focal point

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Role and impact of internal partners

• Civil society substantial participation from
  selected NGOs
• Umbrella NGOs based in Accra played a leading
  role (others excluded)
• Specific input on health and agricultural
  productivity
• Private sector satisfied with the strategy
• Trade Unions critical with the emphasis on
  neoliberal economic policies
• Parliament limited participation
• GPRS draft presented to Parliament in a plenary
  debate
• Parliamentary committee formed in 2001.
  Superficial report
• Local governments limited role
• Presented local development plans to the Ministry
  of Local Government and Rural Development
• Obtained an increase in financial resources for
  improving service delivery. (the percentage of
  tax revenues that government transfers to local
  governments increased from 5 to 7,5)

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Role and impact of external partners

• Strong support of the process without undermining
  government leadership
• Carried out analytical work in partnership with
  local institutions
• Facilitated and supported local capacity through
  training and advice
• Financed consultations
• Came together and established regular dialogue
  among themselves and with government
• Key role in financing implementation
• MDBS
• SWAPs in agricultural development, education,
  HIV/AIDS

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Country ownership of the KCDF/NPRS
Open issues

• Risk of forgetting the poor, especially
  women/farmers in the northern regions.
• Bottlenecks in government implementation
  mechanisms
• alignment between budget, MTEF and GPRS
• prioritization
• over-reliance on external resources
• insufficient governmental capacity
• ME and involvement of internal partners in
  implementation
• Improve coordination and harmonization between
  external partners and the government

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IV. A role play on enhancing country ownership of
the GPRS

• What are the actions each group can undertake to
  deepen country ownership of the GPRS
  implementation?

• Break-out groups identifying 1-2 operational
  mechanism to foster partnership with other
  groups/stakeholders
• A. Executive how to involve civil society in ME
  and evaluate impact of policy measures at
  grassroots level
• B. Parliament how to strengthen relations with
  the executive in monitoring and implementing the
  GPRS
• C. Local government how to get external
  partners support in the implementation of
  pro-poor policies
• D. External partners how to strengthen
  governments leadership role in coordination