INTERNATIONAL AID - WHAT WAY FORWARD FOR GHANA? (p.31) 02-09-08

Story: Kofi Yeboah

AS the world focuses attention on Ghana for the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which opens in Accra tomorrow, the debate on whether or not Ghana should wean itself off foreign aid has been re-ignited by two highly respected minds on finance and economics.
Whereas the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, insists that foreign aid is necessary for the country’s development, the Chairman of the Board of Unilever, Ghana, Dr Ishmael Yamson, submits that after 50 years of independence, Ghana should have by now been in the driving seat and not be depending on aid for its development.
Ghana depends heavily on foreign grants, loans and technical assistance from multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and about 33 major countries to undertake development projects.
“It’s all about international trade and we all depend on each other. If we wean ourselves off foreign aid, who will buy our cocoa?” Mr Baah-Wiredu asked.
But, according to Dr Yamson, the country was placing too much emphasis on aid and behaving as if without aid, it could not develop, adding, “If we continue to be aid-dependent, we will continue to be poor.”
About 1,200 delegates, including ministers from more than 100 countries, heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor and civil society organisations from all over the world are expected to converge on the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) for the next three days to discuss how best to make aid more transparent, accountable and results-oriented in order to reduce poverty and inequality in the world.
The forum, which is under the joint auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), will examine the results of development aid, what needs to change and how the international aid system can deliver what the organisers describe as the "best bang for the buck".
The delegates, at the end of the forum, are expected to endorse the Accra Agenda for Action, a forward-looking document that identifies the challenges and responses to emerging issues with the aim of achieving the targets agreed in the 2005 Paris Declaration.
Back to the aid debate in Ghana, the finance minister cited the Bible, saying even about 2,000 years ago, people depended on each other and so there was nothing wrong about relying on aid for development.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the important issue was not about Ghana weaning itself off foreign aid but rather, how effective the nation utilised the aid.
When asked to justify that submission, he pointed at the free maternal care programme, the Mallam-Yamoransa road, and various development projects financed through HIPC funds, as some of the landmark legacies of foreign aid.
“We are able to do all these things because others are helping us,” he stressed.
On the Accra forum, Mr Baah-Wiredu said the meeting was expected to be a marketplace for the sharing of ideas on how best to make effective use of aid.
He expressed the hope that Ghana, as the host nation, would have its name placed high on the world map and also derive immense benefit from the meeting, particularly in the promotion of businesses.
“By hosting the event on our soil, Ghana faces a significant opportunity to present itself to the international community not only as a dynamic nation that successfully pursues socio-economic reforms in a complex and globalised environment but also as a nation that has effectively managed donor assistance to the ultimate benefit of our citizens,” the minister said.
Taking a different position on the issue, Dr Yamson said although aid was supposed to help deliver on wealth creation, poverty eradication and enhanced prosperity, the country should not depend on it for development.
He said since time immemorial when the nation started receiving foreign aid, it had not been able to extricate itself from poverty, blaming the situation, to a large extent, on poor monitoring and evaluation.
Dr Yamson stressed the need for aid to be properly monitored and evaluated to convince the donors that “we’ve used it for the intended purpose”.
He said there was the need for Ghana to consolidate the aid received by directing donors to buy into the country’s development programmes, rather than allowing them to dictate how the aid should be utilised.
Dr Yamson said much as it was worthy to mention development projects undertaken from aid resources, the largesse of donors determined how fast the country developed because anytime there was a slack in aid from donors, the country’s development suffered.
He said Ghana should use the Accra forum to demonstrate to the world that it was serious about taking charge of its own development and that “we are a determined people who will not be a beggar country for ever”.
Diverting attention from economics to politics, Dr Yamson, who is also Chairman of Ishmael Yamson and Associates, called on all political parties and individuals to embrace peace in the run-up to the December election.
He said development could not take place in the country unless there was peace and tranquillity, adding that Ghana was more important than any political party or individual and so “we must place the country first before party, individual and anything else”.