REPUBLIC OF GHANA Development and Implementation of National Strategies for SD: The Case of Ghana A Technical Report Submitted to Food Security and the SD Division of the Economic Commission for Africa by Rudolph Kuuzegh Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment; National Focal Person to the UNCSD [email protected]and D. K. Twerefou University of Ghana, Legon Department of Economics [email protected]/[email protected]December, 2006
Transcript
REPUBLIC OF GHANA
Development and Implementation of National Strategies for SD: The Case of Ghana
A Technical Report Submitted to Food Security and the SD Division of the Economic Commission for Africa
by
Rudolph Kuuzegh
Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment; National Focal Person to the UNCSD
Table of Contents List of Acronyms ...................................................................................................................... iii
4.1 Country Ownership and Commitment. ................................................................................. 6 4.2 Integration of Economic, Social and Environmental Objectives.......................................... 7 4.3 Participation and Effective Partnerships............................................................................... 8 4.4 Development of Capacity and Enabling Environment ......................................................... 9 4.5 Focus on Outcomes and Means of Implementation............................................................ 10 4.6 Ensuring that Implementation give Recognition to the 4 Pillars ........................................ 11
4.6 Strengths and Weaknesses in NSSD Formulation and Implementation............................. 14 4.7. Integration of the pillars of SD in the current NSSD......................................................... 15
4.7.1 Process of GPRS II Policy Matrix Development and Stakeholder Involvement......... 16 5.0 SD Indicator Set..................................................................................................................17
5.1 Methodology and Stakeholder Consultation in SDI Selection ........................................... 18 5.2 Challenges and Constraints................................................................................................. 19
5.2.1. Data availability and delivery ..................................................................................... 19 5.2.2. Other capacity needs ................................................................................................... 20 5.2.3. Quality of Representation by MDAs .......................................................................... 20 5.2.4. Funding ....................................................................................................................... 20
5.3 Strength and Weaknesses in the Development of SDI ....................................................... 20 5.3.1 Strength ........................................................................................................................ 20 5.3.2 Weakness ..................................................................................................................... 21
Annex 1: Main Strategies/Frameworks, Laws and Policies in the Four Dimensions of SD .... 25 Annex 2: Treaties, Conventions, Codes and Standards to Which Ghana is a Signatory.......... 26 Annex 3: Calendar of GPRS Preparation and Consultation ..................................................... 27 Annex 4: Medium-Term Expenditure Framework-MDAs Discretionary Expenditure Ceilings as a percent of total expenditure, 2003 - 2006 .......................................................................... 28 Annex 6: Groups Targeted in the Consultation Process ........................................................... 31 Annex 7: Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Indicators .......................................................... 32 Annex 8: SD Indicators for Ghana............................................................................................ 33 Annex 9: Matrix of Key Stakeholders: Indicator Use and Development in Ghana.................. 35 Annex 10: Comparism of MDG, SDI and GPRS Indicators .................................................... 36
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List of Acronyms APRM African Peer Review Mechanism APR Annual Progress Report BAT Best Available Techniques BEP Best Environmental Practices CDD Centre for Democratic Development CEPA Center for Policy Analysis CPESD Coordinated Programme for Social and Economic Development CDD Centre for Democratic Development CSO Civil Society Organizations CSPG Cross Sectoral Planning Groups CWIQ Core Wealth Indicator Questionnaires DP Development Partners DA District Assembly EAP Environmental Action Plan ECA Economic Commission for Africa EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EPA Environmental Protection Agency ECA Economic Commission for Africa EPC Environmental Protection Council ERP Economic Recovery Programme GDP Gross Domestic Product GDHS Ghana Demographic and Health Survey GIS Geographic Information Service GEACAP Ghana Environmental Assessment Capacity Building Project GLSS Ghana Living Standards Survey GPRS Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy GSS Ghana Statistical Service HIPC Highly Indebted Poor Country IEA Institute of Economic Affairs IMF International Monetary Fund IEA Institute of Economic Affairs ISSER Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research JpoI Johannesburg Plan of Implementation MDAs Ministries, Departments and Agencies MDG Millennium Development Goals MES Ministry of Environment and Science MLGRDE Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment MTEF Medium Term Expenditure Framework NDPC National Development Planning Commission NEP National Environmental Policy NGO Non-Governmental Organization NHIS National Health Insurance Scheme NCSD National Committee on Sustainable Development NSSD National Strategy for Sustainable Development PAMSCAD Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment PEF Private Enterprises Foundation PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers PSIA Poverty and Social Impact Assessment RNR Renewable Natural Resource SAP Structural Adjustment Programme SSA Sub-Saharan Africa
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SD Sustainable Development SDI Sustainable Development Indicators SEA Strategic Environmental Assessment UNCSD United Nations Commission on SD UNDP United Nations Development Programme WB World Bank WSSD World Summit on Sustainable Development
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1.0 Introduction Agenda 21, the main outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, called on countries to adopt (National Strategies for Sustainable Development) NSSDs, which would build upon and harmonize various economic, social and environmental policies and plans operating at the national level. Since the Rio 1992 Summit, governments have been making efforts aimed at integrating environmental, economic and social objectives into decision-making, either by elaborating new policies and strategies for sustainable development (SD) or by modifying or adapting existing policies and plans. Many national-level comprehensive or sectoral strategies on economic growth, social welfare and environmental conservation have been elaborated. Countries have also pursued diverse range of approaches in the design, formulation, and implementation of these strategies. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in August 2002, urged states in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPoI) to take immediate steps to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of NSSD and to begin their implementation by 2005. The United Nations General Assembly has asked countries to set up SD Committees/Councils and report on their SD efforts. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in pursuance of the role assigned to Regional and Sub Regional Commissions by paragraph 158 of the JPoI is undertaking a two-phased study aimed at assessing the level of implementation of Agenda 21 and other commitments agreed upon by the WSSD, particularly paragraph 162(b) of the JPoI. The first phase was conducted through a questionnaire survey and entailed a general appraisal of the status of the NSSD process in Africa. The second entails an in-depth assessment of the strategy type, content and process in selected member States, taking into account the key characteristics of a NSSD process. This will include distilling good practices and lessons learned in those aspects of NSSD development and implementation process in which those countries are deemed to have had experiences worth showcasing. This report is an in depth analysis of the status of implementation of NSSD in Ghana and contributes to the second phase of the study by ECA. Specifically, the objective of the report is to assess the level of development and implementation of NSSD by Ghana; provide recent documentation of experiences in the NSSD process and promote knowledge networking among member States with a view to deepening and enhancing the learning and implementation process. The paper is organized into six sections. Following this introduction is section 2, which provides the socio- economic and environmental setting of the country. Section 3 provides an overview of strategic planning in Ghana while 4 elaborates of the formulation and implementation of Ghana’s NSSD. Section 5 discusses the sustainable development indicator (SDI) set for Ghana. The last section concludes the paper. 2 Socio-economic and Environmental setting of the Country The Ghanaian socio-economic and environmental situation has undergone considerable changes over the years since the inception of stabilization and structural adjustment policies in the mid 1980s. This was against a background of persistent decline in economic activities and the associated fall in the standards of living between 1975 and early 1983. In April 1983, the Government of Ghana initiated the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and later Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) as the first in a series of strategies aimed at reversing the
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economic turmoil of the mid 1970s and early 1980s. The negative economic situation that necessitated the implementation of the reforms was, to a great extent, caused internally by excessive public spending, which led to large fiscal deficits financed by monetary expansion, heavy government interventions through administrative control of prices, distribution and import controls and massive expansion of the public sector. External factors, which led to the economic decline, included severe drought in the early 1980s, decline in international commodity prices of traditional exports, repatriation of about one million Ghanaians from Nigeria, high interest rates on international financial markets and oil price hikes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The reform effort in Ghana, which focused on stabilization and liberalization, was principally aimed at introducing a market-based economy and at promoting the private sector as the “engine” of sustained economic growth. Among the most significant and successful measures adopted were exchange rate liberalization, fiscal discipline, tightening of monetary policy, foreign trade reforms, financial sector reforms, privatization of State-owned enterprises, investment expansion, price deregulation, continued fiscal reforms, labour market reforms, among others. After over two decades, since the implementation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank SAPs, the macroeconomic performance of Ghana has improved significantly. The national economy recorded an annual average growth of –2.2 per cent between 1975 and 1982, average annual inflation rate of 64.9 per cent and balance of payments deficit of $6.8 million. It experienced an average annual growth of 4.8 per cent and per capita growth of 1.9 per cent from 1984 to 2004. In fact, per capita GDP growth rate improved from an average of 1.7 per cent between 1984 and 2002 to 2.6 percent in 2003 although the real per capita GDP of $420 in 2001 falls short of the $450 earned in 1960. Since the end of 2000, the Ghanaian economy has witnessed increasing growth as real GDP growth rate increased from 3.1 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 2002 and to 5.2 per cent in 2003 and to 6.2 percent in 2006 as a result of the improved performance of the agricultural sector. Also, prudent fiscal management, tight monetary policy stance initiated in 2001, coupled with the slow pace of depreciation of the cedi has stimulated the economy. There has been a deceleration of the year-to-year inflation rate from 40.5 per cent, in December 2000, to 21.3 per cent in December 2001 and to 14.8 and 10.8 per cent by the end of December 2005 and 2006 respectively. Inflation, however, rose to 23.6 per cent at the end of 2003 due to the adjustments and corrective measures instituted in the petroleum sector of the economy in February 2003. An important macroeconomic indicator that has repercussions on employment is the lending rate by deposit money banks. Since the end of 2000, lending rates by deposit money banks have declined significantly from 47 per cent in 2000 to about 34 per cent at the end of 2004 and to about 22 percent at the end of 2006. This is expected to increase private investment and thereby generate employment. In 2006, provisional figures indicate that real GDP grew at 6.2 percent. Since 2000, the cedi has remained relatively stable though it depreciated by –0.9, -9.5 and –7.9 to the US dollar, British pounds and the Euro respectively in 2006. Although domestic primary balance has registered on the average a surplus of about 2.4 per cent of GDP between 1999 and 2005, the overall budget has recorded a deficit of about 5.4 per cent of GDP on the average over the same period and 3.2 per cent in 2006. As for interest rates, they have been declining since the end of 2000 in line with the monetary authorities’ objective of ensuring price stability. The
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benchmark 91-day Treasury bill rate has also been decreasing since 2000 as a result of the prudent fiscal stance of the government, Despite the impressive economic performance, which has conferred on Ghana the enviable tag “success story” for SAP in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), the impact of the various policies on the structural transformation of the economy has been weak in the areas of unemployment and poverty, at least in the short-run, due to the partial and fragmented nature of the policies (Baah-Boateng, 2004). The structural transformation of the economy has not achieved the desired results because Ghana still depends on a few primary commodities for exports with value added in agriculture accounting for about 36 per cent of GDP. Ghana also remains highly dependent on development assistance from overseas due to low domestic resource mobilization. Furthermore, the response of the private sector has been slow mainly due to low savings and dwindling Foreign Direct Investments. Public institutional structures are weak and the economy is still vulnerable to external shocks due to over dependence on import and the duality of a large agrarian base with low manufacturing value-added. In fact, Ghana’s over-dependence on external sources for development financing has led to an ever-increasing external debt situation in the 1990s. Renewed efforts in the fight against poverty by both DP and developing countries alike led to Ghana joining the HIPC initiative, which aimed at reducing to "sustainable levels" the debt burden of poor countries. Ghana’s total medium and long-term external debt at the end of 2005 stood at US$6,347.9 million. This amount has reduced significantly to about US$2,143.79 million by the end of September 2006 as a result of the HIPC relief. Like many other reforming countries, the initial phase of Ghana’s reform -SAP and ERP paid very little attention to the social and environmental dimensions of the programmes because it was assumed, albeit erroneously, that the removal of price distortions to ensure efficient resource allocation would by itself enhance productive employment and real income in the long term, thereby reducing poverty and environmental degradation. To address these problems the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) and the assertion to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, which brought about the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) with key components of social development provide evidence of the country addressing the social aspects of development. In the health sector, reforms have focused on increasing access to coverage, improving quality of care as well as enhancing efficiency of delivery though with much difficulty for the poor due to the ‘cash and carry’ system adopted in the 1990s. A National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to finance health delivery in the country has been established, funded by individuals with government providing some incentive for the poor. The scheme is redistributive and could help the poor if properly and carefully implemented. Also, increased population education has resulted in the reduction of population growth rate. Additionally, the educational sector has over the years focused on ensuring equitable access, improving quality, strengthening educational management and emphasizing science, technology, technical and vocational education, though much need to be done in that direction. Since 2004, the capitation grant and school feeding programmes have been introduced to cushion parents and to provide one balance diet for school children in deprived areas of the country respectively.
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There have been some improvements in some of the social indicators. Unemployment has declined from 10.1 per cent in 2000 to 5.4 percent in 2003 and overall poverty incidence reached about 40 per cent in 1998 after decreasing from 52 per cent in 1992. Life expectancy at birth increased from 54.0 years in 1982 to 60 years in 2003. Similarly, on average, infant mortality rates fell from 88.4 per 1,000 live births to 64 per 1,000 live births over the same period. In the area of environment, in response to the global call for environmental conservation, Ghana created the Environmental Protection Council (EPC) with the responsibility of managing the environment in 1973. However, the EPC remained largely dormant in the implementation of any programme of environmental sustainability till the 1980s. An Environmental Action Plan (EAP) was formulated and published by the EPC in 1991. The aim of the EAP was to identify specific actions needed to protect the environment and to ensure the better management of the country’s natural resources. Following the publication of the EAP, a National Environmental Policy (NEP) was to be adopted to provide the framework for the realization of the goal of the EAP. The overall goal of the NEP is to improve the quality of life of all Ghanaians, promote SD through sound management and use of natural, human and cultural resources, and to ensure that, exploitation of resources in a manner that cause irreparable damage to the environment is avoided (EPC, 1994). At the sector level, various programmes has been undertaken to enhance SD. In the agricultural sector, the long term Accelerated Agricultural Growth Strategy which aims at doubling the growth of the sector by 2020 through improved technology, market access for sustainable RNR management and improved rural infrastructure was subjected to EIA using the Action Impact Matrix. In the industrial sector the requirement of EIA, environmental permits and reclamation bonds especially in the mining sector has enhanced SD. In the energy sector, promoting energy efficiency, subsidies, rural electrification and liquefied petroleum gas are all measures aimed at SD though much need to be done in this direction. Much has also been done in the area of RNR. In 1995 a RNR Strategy was initiated. The strategy consists of a set of prioritized interventions that could be implemented within the current development environment and those that required significant reforms to overcome structural constraints in the sector. The objective of the strategy was to provide an integrated approach to the management of RNR and to ensure a well-coordinated programme for Renewable Natural Resource (RNR) management. Specifically, the aim of the strategy was to establish effective institutional and legislative arrangements for the effective and efficient management of RNR, enhance regeneration of RNR, including biodiversity, increase the level of value-added to RNR products, make regulations in the RNR sector more enforceable, adopt appropriate technical options for resource utilization and management and to reduce economic over-dependence on RNR. A major set back of the strategy is that the proposed institutional structure for managing the strategy, including the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to issue policy guidelines and the expansion of the District Environmental Management Committees (DEMCs) to embrace other aspects of RNR management was never set up. An elaborative National Land Policy was developed in 1999 aimed at ensuring efficient and sustainable land use, security of tenure and protection of land rights; facilitating equitable access and the development of efficient capacities and institutions has been formulated and is being implemented.
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3.0 Overview of Strategic Planning Ghana has a long history in strategic planning. Development plans of ten or more years are considered long-term strategies. In the area of long-term strategic planning, two major strategies need mention in the history of Ghana. These are the 25-year Ghana Vision 2020 for the period 1995-2020 and the 10-year CPESD1 for the period 2003-2012. The 7-Year Development Plan could also be considered as a long-term strategy, since it was the main instrument of pursuing the socialist vision of the government of the day. Annex 1 summarizes the various short-medium term strategic plans made by the country since 1920. These plans have not operated in vacuum but have links to one another and to varying degrees integrate the four pillars of SD. For example, many of the economic growth strategies do have social and poverty reduction strategies embedded in them. Also, institutional development strategies provide the platform for the development of economic and social strategies. Country ownership and commitment to the development and implementation of NSSD seems to be a problem in the past. Specifically, in many of the development strategies implemented before 2000, the top-bottom approach seems to be the order. Thus, though ownership was to some extent ensured it was only at the top level, leaving those at the bottom who are the primary focus of implementation out of the process. For example, experience with Vision 2020 indicate that thought the public was aware of the plan as a document which aimed at achieving middle-income status by the year 2020, many did not know the details of the document. A relevant component of any NSSD is the interdependency principle. This principle provides that NSSD should not only incorporate economic, social and environmental sustainability among generations but also between generations as well. Implementation of the interdependency principle ensures linkages among various pillars of sustainability. Various documents (see for example Vordzorgbe and Caiquo, 2001; NDPC and EPA, 2004) attest to the fact that integration of economic, social, environmental and institutional objectives across sectors and generations has not been the best in Ghana’s strategic planning. Specifically, the four pillars of SD are to some extent developed in isolation in most of the strategies. A cursory look at strategic planning processes in Ghana suggest that some earlier plans did not stand the test of sustainability in the area of focusing on outcomes and means of implementation in that the plan was not based on sound technical assessment of the present situation and of projected risks, examining links between local, national and global challenges. A typical example is the implementation of the first five-year medium term rolling plan of the Vision 2020, which failed to achieve most of the stated objectives. A number of national strategies and policy directions are expressed in, driven by, or informed by about thirty one international agreements, declarations, standards and codes in the areas of SD to which Ghana is a signatory or has adopted (see Annex 2). For example, the national strategies for climate change adaptation, desertification control and biodiversity management were formulated in response to commitments under UN multilateral environmental agreements in those areas. 1 It is not clear if CPESD is a long-term vision for the country. This is because the current government formulated the policy with little or no input from stakeholders. Also, the GPRS II remarks that the government will present a long term-vision to parliament and the people of Ghana soon (NDPC, 2005, page X).
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Looking at strategic planning not only as a static framework but rather a dynamic one that involves past, present policies and plans to achieve SD, one can conclude that Ghana has some experience in strategic planning. A major challenge of strategic planning in Ghana is that most of the plans are not able to live their natural life. Many of them are abandoned along the way. For example, the 7-year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development which, was meant to span from 1963/64- 1969/70 (7 years) lasted for only 3 years. Also, the Vision 2020 was abandoned after the first five years of its implementation though it had a life span of 25 years. More work should be done to ascertain the reasons why strategic plans in the past did not live their natural life. However, a quick glance suggests that lack of adequate consultations and participation of stakeholders, especially from different political groups in the formulation of such strategic plans could be one of the major reasons. Doing more to ensure national acceptance of strategic plans could help reduce some of these problems. 4.0 Ghana’s NSSD In line with paragraph 162(b) of the Johannesburg plan of Implementation, the GPRS II, which has a 3-year timeframe (2006-2009), is the NSSD for Ghana. It was approved by Parliament and endorsed by Cabinet in 2005. Currently, Ghana NSSD process entails revising/updating existing policies, strategies and plans to incorporate key characteristics of a NSSD. This is due to the fact that the country has utilized the PRSP process as a key tool of development since the mid-1990s. Concern with poverty aspects of socio-economic development began with the implementation of PAMSCAD in 1987. Improved empirical base for poverty assessment, mainly through the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) and the Ghana Extended Poverty Study2 enabled government to produce a National Action Programme for Poverty Reduction in 1995 with the support of the UNDP. An interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which was a requirement for entry into the HIPC initiative, was transformed into a substantive 2002-2004 GPRS, which later became the 2003-2005 GPRS (GPRS I) that provided the medium-term framework for development policy in Ghana. The formulation of the GPRS II, which is currently the NSSD for the country, is based on updating and revising the GPRS. However, the GPRS I was developed in isolation with the vision 2020 due to the non achievement of the main targets of the first phases of the Vision 2020. 4.1 Country Ownership and Commitment. Strategies developed after 2000 has improved in ownership and commitment. The GPRS I for example was country driven, involving multi-stakeholder ownership and was implemented under sound leadership and good governance to some extent. Ghana has enjoyed a relatively stable, peaceful, and secured economic, political and social environment in the sub-region over the past two decades. Various reports by the WB/IMF and rating from credible institutions such as Standard & Poors and Fitch3 attest to this. The formulation and implementation of the strategies were strongly driven by institutions and people at the local level through the bottom-top approach to development. The formulation and implementation of the GPRS II has also been influenced greatly by GPRS I to ensure continuity. An area that seems to pose a problem is the 2 World Bank, Ghana – Poverty Past, Present and Future. Report No. 14504-GH. Population and Human Resources Division, West Africa Department, Africa Region. June 29, 1995. 3 Ghana maintained the sovereign credit rating conducted in 2003 by Standard & Poors (B+) and Fitch (B) ratings in 2004 with positive outlook range.
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lack of strong institutional leadership, technical capacity for coordination and the development of strategies based on long-term shared strategic and pragmatic vision. Various reports have attested to the weak institutions and the lack of technical capacity in Africa that make the formulation and implementation of policies and programs of SD difficult. Also, the country currently has not got a long-term strategic vision. The only one that appears to be a long-term strategic vision is the Coordinated Programme for Social and Economic Development (CPSED). However, the link between the GPRS and the CSPED is not clear. 4.2 Integration of Economic, Social and Environmental Objectives There exists some level of sectoral linkages and coordination between Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for SD. For example, the Vision 2020 and the GPRS I employed Cross Sectoral Planning Groups (CSPG) and identified lead and supporting implementing MDAs for each thematic area covered by the frameworks with the view to ensuring vertical and horizontal integration of the strategies as well as cross-sectoral linkages among MDAs at framework design and implementation stage. However, integration and collaboration between the MDAs has been very difficult due to the vague definition of roles and the quest by lead MDAs to monopolize the implementation of those policies. Also, there are many inter ministerial coordinating mechanisms provided through cabinet meetings. Indeed the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the GPRS (NDPC and EPA, 2004) concluded that although, the GPRS I considered the social, economic, environmental and institutional issues, the linkages among the four pillars were weak. Linking short to medium and long-term plans has also been weakly pursued in strategic planning. Vision 2020 attempted to do that. However, the non-achievement of the targets of the first phase called for the total neglect of the implementation of the strategy. Recognizing the loopholes of the GPRS I with respect to sustainability, a post SEA4 of the GPRS was undertaken. Box 1: Good Practice in Ghana’s NSSD- Development of the SEA of GPRS I Based on comments by the World Bank and other bilateral DP on the integration of environmental and other issues in the GPRS, the Government of Ghana decided to undertake a post SEA of the GPRS I. An independent consultant with the support of the EPA and the NDPC undertook the SEA of the GPRS I. The objective of the SEA was to ensure that the environmental concerns of plans and programmes listed in the GPRS I are clearly identified, assessed and given the needed attention through broad based consultative and participatory approach. The SEA was process-based and provided space for some level of involvement of stakeholders, policy makers and the wider public in discussing policies in the GPRS I. To a large extent the SEA has improved policy debate in Ghana and has helped the government to understand the wider impacts of policies and programs on the environment, economic growth and poverty reduction. In all, 25 MDAs, 108 out of the 132 District Assemblies, parliamentary representatives, civil society, NGOs the Bank of Ghana and business associate have endorsed the SEA document (NDPC & EPA, 2004). The GPRS-II has taken steps to address most of these problems, which hindered the integration of the four pillars of sustainability identified by the SEA. Specifically, a policy matrix developed by the NDPC and later discussed with the MDAs guided the development of policies in the GPRS II. The policy matrix guided them in correcting the deficiencies of GPRS I which made the document less integrative and treated the environment as a sectoral rather than a cross cutting issue.
4 Copy of the SEA report is attached.
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It must be noted that SEA has been applied to the GPRS to promote sustainability in development programmes, integrate environmental issues in a cross sectoral manner, broaden stakeholder engagement, create awareness and to build capacity. The SEA was comprehensive and touched on the four pillars of SD. Other tools of integration include Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Poverty and Social Impact Assessment (PSIA). 4.3 Participation and Effective Partnerships Considerable efforts have been made to enhance national ownership of NSSD and to improve on participation through broad –based consultation with stakeholders. Different stakeholders from MDAs, NGOs, private sector, organized labour, CSOs, traditional authorities, scientific and technological community, professional bodies and other civil society groups have been involved in the development of GPRS I and II. The beauty of ensuring participatory decision making is that it contributes to making strategy frameworks nationally-owned and therefore makes implementation easier. GPRS II was built on broader and deeper consultation and stakeholder involvement achieved by the GPRS 1. Annex 3 summarizes the opening of networks and the calendar of consultation of the GPRS I whiles GPRS II (NDPC, 2005, page 11-12) highlights the consultation and communication programmes undertaken. Based on this information, one can conclude that the consultation process was extensive, drew upon a cross-section of stakeholders with various characteristics, such as gender, political, educational and occupational background and religious bodies. Community consultations in GPRS I had four major tasks: disseminate information, obtain perspectives on poverty, identify the priorities and the pathways out of poverty, and find out the obstacles, especially the physical barriers that often find no place in conventional statistics. By going to the community and district levels, the consultations became a source of supplementary and qualitative information gathering especially since the official survey data which formed the basis of the poverty diagnosis was only available at the national and regional level. The consultations enabled the technocrats to explore in detail some of the difficult issues that underlie poverty in the country. The GPRS I took consultation and communication a step further by preparing simplified versions for public consumption. The National Economic Dialogue which was instituted in 2002 and has become an annual programme has also provided an opportunity to re-align and enhance the utility of participation for strategic planning and provided voice for public involvement in economic policy formulation though much of the focus is on the economic aspects of SD. Though strategic planning in Ghana has broadly been participatory and promoted effective partnerships, there are few problems. There are reports that participants of such consultations often have inadequate time to prepare and little advanced information on the subject. Furthermore the quality of the capacity of the CSO to participate effectively in consultation process leaves much to be desired. With the exception of the established think-tanks- Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), many of the CSOs who participate in the consultations are less established and have limited research experience and capacity to carry out a comprehensive, participatory
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consultation exercise with all the requirements in terms of personnel, expertise and documentation. In a gist, questions which arise are how much consultations should be considered enough or optimal to make the document truly country owned? What format of consultation would be considered appropriate to maximize public input? How sufficiently flexible are technocrats to accommodate certain degrees of change in content and direction? In general, care should be taken in addressing the issues of public consultation. This is because too much public debate slows down the process and tends to polarize some segments of the population who may have felt that their views were not adequately reflected in the final product. Mechanisms were also put in place to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the policy with the view to learning from them and using it to update future strategies. Specifically, a monitoring and evaluation plan was prepared and a Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Committee was to be established to guide the implementation of the plan. Although the establishment of the Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Committee never materialized, the National Interagency Monitoring Group which brings together stakeholders from MDAs, Development Partners (DPs) and CSOs at the national level were actively involved in the preparation of the Annual Performance Review (APR) of the GPRS I by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The reports consistently used a set of indicators, triggers and targets for monitoring and evaluating the achievements and impacts of the key policies and programmes in the strategy. Eight Regional Poverty Monitoring Groups were inaugurated to monitor the implementation of the policies in the regions, though many of them could not fulfill their mandate as a result of lack of technical and financial resources. A consistent challenge that saddled the implementation of the monitoring and evaluation programme is data collection and the lack of proper feedback, inconsistency of data from the regional and district levels, lack of incentives to motivate staff of MDAs and the difficulty of institutionalizing the monitoring and evaluation process at the district levels (NDPC, 2005b). 4.4 Development of Capacity and Enabling Environment Effective NSSD needs to emphasize on multifaceted capacity development at both the sectoral and national level, and should build on existing processes and strategies through monitoring and evaluation, learning and continuous improvement. Various documents (for example NDPC, 2002 and NDPC and EPA, 2004) have attested to the weak capacity of personnel in the Civil Service and institutions to effectively plan and implement NSSD. Strenuous efforts have been made by the government over the years to build the capacity of Civil Servants with the view to enhancing existing knowledge and expertise and to optimize local skills in both the private and public sector. Unfortunately, unattractive conditions of service make it difficult to attract and maintain well-qualified and trained personnel. The very few well-qualified and trained staff are always easily absorbed by the private sector. Another problem linked with the loss of human capacity is the loss of institutional memory. In many MDAs weak documentation of processes have led to many institutions being embedded in people. As these people leave employment, they go with the institutional memory. It is imperative to strengthen human resource capacities in all MDAs on the need to integrate environmental issues into economic and social policies through specific awareness raising and
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on-the-job training. Ministries with key role in the implementation of SD should have personnel with diverse background in economics, social and environment so as to be able to formulate win-win policies in all the four pillars of sustainability. Skills in data collection and analysis will also be beneficial since it will enable professional to analyze data with the view to bringing out the interlinkages. Additionally, there might be the need to train personnel in the area of building data bases and networking of such data. The GPRS 1 recognized the weak capacity of the public service in the formulation and implementation of policies (p 122 of GPRS 1). However efforts to address the capacity constraints are vague. There were policies aimed at expanding the size of the service and at improving remuneration for workers. Capacity developments were mostly indirect through programmes such as the Public Sector Management Reforms, which had its own problems. Inspite of these, there has been some improvement in salaries and wages. The national minimum wage for example has increased from 4,200 cedis in 2000 to 16,500 cedis in 2006 in nominal terms. The GPRS II has sought to improve on the capacity challenges. The document has recognized the lack of systematic training for civil and public servant, the poor condition of service and the inconsistent consideration of environment in public policy formulation (NDPC, 2005, p. 140). Responsibility has been assigned to institutions such as the Ministry of Public Sector Reform, Office of the President, Public Services Commission, etc. Unfortunately, the average amount of money allocated for these three institutions is less that 0.5 percent of the discretionary expenditure ceilings for MDAs. It is thus difficult to conclude that this amount will be sufficient for capacity development in the civil and public services and especially for SD. 4.5 Focus on Outcomes and Means of Implementation A review of GPRS I (NDPC, 2005, p 2-3) indicated that most of the set targets on macroeconomic stability were achieved though there are some problems. Limitation and bottlenecks encountered in the formulation and implementation of the GPRS I such as service delivery constraints, regional differences in the distribution of key outcomes, geographical and gender disparities in education and health, over emphasis on macroeconomic stability, insufficient involvement of district and local communities as well as monitoring and evaluations has all been addressed in the GPRS II. With respect to the links between GPRS I and the budget, both documents proposed to tackle the same issues in the area of macroeconomic stability which among others include domestic debt reduction, curtailing deficit financing, among others. Budget allocation to the Social Service sector, particularly health and education increased significantly between 2003 and 2006 in line with the objectives of the GPRS I. For example in 2004, the Government of Ghana spent about 55.1 percent of MDAs discretionary expenditure on social service (NDPC, 2005b). The total cost of implementing the entire GPRS I was estimated at US$5.3 billion over the three year period (2003-2005). This cost is made up of capital expenditures-schools, hospitals, equipments and machines, road construction, among others. Due to the non-availability of funds, government selected some programmes and projects, which were deemed vital for growth and poverty reduction. The total cost of these programmes and projects was estimated as US$2.5 billion over the three years period. Crude estimates from the Medium-Term Expenditure
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Framework (MTEF) of Discretionary Expenditure Ceilings indicate that the government aimed at spending about US$1.4 billion annually with about 22 percent going to investment. This is made up of funds generated locally and those from external sources. This implies that less than US$1 billion was spent on capital investment. This amount is far below the minimum requirement of US$ 2.5 billion required to finance vital programmes in the GPRS I. The implication is that financial constraints seriously hampered the implementation of the GPRS I. 4.6 Ensuring that Implementation give Recognition to the 4 Pillars In order to ensure that the implementation of NSSD process gives due recognition to achieving results in all the dimensions of SD, the government of Ghana has adopted several strategies and laws to guide its implementation. In the preceding section we elaborate on the efforts made by the country to ensure that the four pillars of SD are given due cognizance in our national strategies. 4.6.1 Environment Ghana is one of the few African countries that have taken the development of a National Environmental Action Plan further than the “planning” stage, and as such a host of strategic initiatives have been put in place for environmental management as well as the development of key documentation. These include: the Ghana Environmental Action Plan (volume 1, 1991 and volume 2, 1994); the Ghana Environmental Resource Management Project; the Natural Resources Management Project; the National Framework for Geographic Information; Cleaner Production Technologies; Ghana’s Initial National Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Persistent Organic Pollutants, 2003; Renewable Energy Services Project; SEA of the GPRS I; National Capacity Self-Assessment for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Desertification; Food and Agriculture Sector Development Programme; Development of a National Biosafety Framework for Ghana 2002; Savannah Resource Management Programme; Capacity 21; National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy /Plan; National Action Plan to Combat Desertification (drafting stage); National Strategy on Ozone Depleting Substances; Legal Framework on Waste Management in Ghana. Laws and other legislative instruments (see Annex 1) pertaining to protection, and management of environment have also been instituted to guide the implementation of these strategies. These are very comprehensive and adequately bring to the national arena Ghana’s obligations under the various international conventions that she is signatory to. The broad impacts of environmental degradation on poverty are recognized by the GPRS I environmental conservation and is regarded as one of the important conditions for SD (NDPC, 2003, pp 39, 74-75). The enforcement of EIA and the prevention of activities that damage the environment are the main tools for ensuring environmental sustainability. However, the poverty diagnosis of the GPRS was weak on the environmental dimensions of poverty. As impressive as later discussion of government’s commitment to environmental sustainability may have been, the issues of water scarcity, soil degradation, deforestation, poor agricultural and forest management practices and their effect on rural economies received little attention. The analysis failed to identify the specific dimensions of the environmental problems and the links to poverty. As a result, the GPRS I did not prioritize environmental issues as in the case of health and education. Environmental issues were scantly treated and in isolation without providing the necessary
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linkages that they required. This neglect made it difficult to coordinate and to provide the linkages that were needed to integrate the four pillars of sustainability - economic, social, environmental and institutional (Vordzorgbe and Caiquo, 2001). The major targets of environmental protection were to reduce degradation arising from agricultural production by 20%, forest loss by 10% and degradation arising from mining by 20% (NDPC, 2003, p. 90). Evidently, these targets are vaguely set and therefore difficult to measure. Data limitations make it difficult to assess what these targets actually mean. Not having established any baseline, it is difficult to know the bases of these numbers and even how to monitor the outcomes. 4.6.2 Social The key objective of the GPRS I was to remove key obstacles to access and utilization, by the poor in the area of basic education and health care. Government also aims at instituting policies that will ensure population control, good drinking water, improved sanitation, prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS and the provision of care for persons living with AIDS and their families. Other objectives include the introduction of special programmes for the vulnerable and excluded, promotion of gender equality and equity, responding rapidly to the needs of those affected by natural and man-made disasters and the introduction of social security scheme. To varying degrees these objectives have been implemented in a coordinated manner to achieve some results. In the health sector for example, a NHIS to finance health delivery in the country has been established, funded by individuals with government providing some incentive for the poor. The scheme is redistributive and could help the poor if properly and carefully implemented. The accession to the HIPC initiative, which brought about the GPRS I and II with key components of social development also provide evidence of the country addressing the social aspects of development. Also, increased population education has resulted in the reduction of population growth rate from 3.4% in 1980-1985 to 2.28 in 1995-2000 and further down to 2.14 in 2000/2005. Additionally, the educational sector has over the years focused on ensuring equitable access, improving quality, strengthening educational management and emphasizing science, technology, technical and vocational education, though much need to be done in that direction. Annex 1 provides some of the social policies and strategies in Ghana. 4.6.3 Economic The core objectives were to ensure macroeconomic stability through prudent fiscal, monetary, and international trade policy measures. While the fiscal measures focused on conversion of short–term debts into long-term instruments, reduction in fiscal deficits, and more effective revenue mobilization, monetary policy objectives focused on effective monetary management to ensure low and competitive interest rates, single digit inflation, stable exchange rates, reasonable spread between lending and savings rates, and the establishment of long-term capital market. International trade policy on the other hand focused on mechanisms to diversify exports and enhance productivity to ensure international competitiveness and to achieve a sustainable level of foreign reserves. Economic strategies adopted include reduction of government recurrent expenditure, diversification of the economy, increase in production of non-traditional exports, exchange rate liberalization, fiscal discipline, tightening of monetary policy, foreign trade reforms, financial
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sector reforms, privatization of state-owned enterprises, investment expansion, price deregulation, continued fiscal reforms, introduction of the Multi Donor Budgetary Support (MDBS), labour market reforms and independence of the Central Bank, introduction of Presidential Special Initiatives and the assertion to HIPC to free up resources for development and to reduce the debt overhang among others. To a large extent the Ministry of Finance, which is the main institution, has collaborated, coordinated and put in place mechanism to ensure the implementation of these strategies. As a result, most of the macro economic indicators had improved significantly. A major setback is the country’s dependence on donor funding and the low value addition in manufacturing. 4.6.4 Institutional In the area of institutional and governance, the objective was to strengthen the leadership and oversight functions of the Executive and Parliament, improve communication between civil society, traditional authority and all branches of government; ensure that no Ghanaian is excluded from their civil liberties; ensure the rule of law through timely access to justice for all; transparency of Government decision making; accountability and zero tolerance for corruption, public participation in decision making and the decentralization of responsibilities among others. The decentralization strategy, which was adopted in 1988, aimed at re-defining the roles and structures of government at the district, regional and national levels. The strategy allocates policy formulation to the center with inputs from the districts. Implementation is mainly by the districts while the regional level ensures coordination. Areas of decentralization include political, fiscal and administrative. In the public service various programmes such as the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP), Civil Service Performance Improvement Programme (CSPIP), Public Finance Management Reform Programme (PUFMARP), MTEF and the MDBS, Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) have to varying degrees been implemented and aim at improving the efficiency of the public service institutions and the management of public finances for SD. The National Procurement Act has also been promulgated into law to streamline procurement in the country. Other institutional strengthening programmes include monitoring and evaluation by the NDPC at the national, district and sectoral levels. Assessing the strategic commitment to the implementation of the SD agenda is quite difficult due to the problem of obtaining requisite output data from the implementation. In this section we use the allocation of funds to the various sectors as a proxy for measuring commitment by government to the implementation of the programme. Annex 4 provides information on government Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for MDAs Discretionary Expenditure Ceilings. Analysis of the data indicates that about 39 percent of government expenditure was meant for the social sector with 9 percent going to the economic sector. Taking Ministries classified under Administration and Public Safety as the main Ministries responsible for institutional development, one can say that on the average about 28 percent was meant for the sector. It is very difficult to assess the amount of money allocated for the environmental sector due to the cross cutting nature of the sector. However about 1.7 percent of the total discretionary expenditure was meant for the Ministry of Environment Science (MES) and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) which are the main organs mandated to move the SD agenda forward. It must be mentioned that the discussions made are just indicative. More
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work should be made on this subject in order to know the actual amount allocated to specific pillars of SD. It is very difficult to assess how the implementation of the GPRS I gave due regards to achieving results in all the four dimensions of SD. This is because most of the programmes and projects are multi-targeted in nature, in that, they can achieve direct and indirect results in the different pillars of SD. For example investment in education (social pillar) could lead to improvement in environmental sanitation (environment pillar). A crude measure of how the implementation of the GPRS I gave due regards to achieving results in all the four dimensions of SD would have been the budgetary allocation to each of the four pillar. However information on this is not available. For the GPRS II such analysis cannot be made because practical implementation of the GPRS II started in 2007. Thus, the time is not enough for us to make any assessment on how the implementation of GPRS II is giving due regards to achieving results in all the four dimensions of SD. It is recommended that government put in more effort in linking the policy objective to the SD pillars to make it easy to assess the implementation of the SD agenda. Due to budgetary constraints, efforts should be made at prioritizing policies in the GPR. Such prioritization should also pay attention to the pillars of SD. 4.6 Strengths and Weaknesses in NSSD Formulation and Implementation The strength of NSSD is that Ghanaians believe that the development and implementation of NSSD is a key guide to the achievement of SD and have accepted both in theory and in principle to adhere to its development and implementation. Ghana’s long history in national development planning earlier discussed, active participation in international activities such as UNCSD and WSSD, growing familiarity with the subject of NSSD, near participatory policy formulation, growing interest in monitoring of policies including the development of SDIs, efforts at streamlining annual budget to policy objectives through MTEFs, development of SEA for the GPRS, growing commitment of government and Civil Society on the subject of NSSD provide evidence of the strength of NSSD. There are however weaknesses and challenges in the implementation of the NSSD. These among others include: • Human Resource Needs: Ghana has a reasonable human resource capacity. However, many
MDAs loss highly qualified experts as a result of poor motivation. There is therefore less continuity of institutional memory. Many experts are moving out in search of greener pastures in the western world. In many MDAs, especially at the district level, the right calibre of people is not available. The problem of human resource needs is being addressed through reforms of the Civil Service in the areas of manpower development, changing negative attitudinal perception to teamwork, equipping personnel with analytical skills through training and the provision of needed logistics. Efforts are also being made to recruit the right calibre of people. However there are challenges, which include inadequate expertise, untimely recruitment of experts, and unclear job description, among others. To resolve this problem, the right calibre of professionals is being recruited into the requisite outfits and their job descriptions are being clearly defined. There are also challenges in relation to Education and Training. These include misallocation of training programmes to individuals and the non-promotion of SD programmes in formal education. To overcome these challenges there is the need to intensify and broaden training in institutions which have regular on-the- job and in-service training.
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• Funding: There are major problems in relation to funding of SD programmes. These include inadequate budgetary allocation and untimely release of counterpart funding which invariably affects the sustainability of programmes and projects; mismanagement of funds for SD Programmes; poor advocacy in the area of Private Sector involvement in SD Programmes and conditionalities of funding from DPs. Infact, funding from DPs are in most cases in conflict with the country’s priorities. Efforts being made to overcome these challenges include increasing funding for research and development5 and prudent management of funds for SD.
• Over reliance on donor funding: Ghana relies on donor funding for many of its development programmes. Crude estimates indicate that about 30 percent of our annual budgetary expenditure is provided by donors. Many environmental programmes are being implemented through donor funding. Over-reliance on donor funding makes our development programmes non sustainable. These is therefore the need improve on the mobilization of domestic resources for development and to better manage fiscal slippages.
• Inadequate commitment to the NSSD process by leadership. This is because to date there has not been any public pronouncement of the subject by leadership at the highest level
• Ineffective coordination with other strategy processes to integrate the four pillars as well as the lack of long-term integrated framework for SD. This makes it difficult to assess the interdependency principle. It is thus difficult to assess whether the growth that we are achieving are not at the expense of environmental degradation which has cost implications.Other weaknesses and challenges include inadequate capacity for the
formulation and implementation of NSSD especially at the district level; Inadequate policy and regulatory instruments; inadequate participation and ownership of programmes and plans; inadequate monitoring and evaluation of NSSD with the view to learning lessons for future strategies; weak Institutions mandated to formulate and implement policies on SD; weak linkage of strategic plans to national budget and to medium and long-term visions; overlaps in the roles of different institutions; lack of a long-term development vision/ strategy/framework for the country. In order to surmount these problems, there is the need to: • Put in place mechanisms for the coordination of the activities of the MDAs • Develop and implement a long term development framework into which medium and short
term plans will be embedded • Provide resources for the implementation of the policy • Develop the capacities of policymakers and implementers especially at the district level to
enable them effectively contribute to the process • Improve on collection and quality of data especially at the district level • Review policies to make enforcement of rules and regulations easier • Undertake environmental accounting in certain sectors 4.7. Integration of the pillars of SD in the current NSSD The NSSD –GPRS II can be said to be integrating the four dimensions of SD. Most of the sectoral strategies that fall under economic, social, environmental and institutional dimensions in
5 Government is considering increasing national budget allocation to R & D to about 1% of GDP.
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the GPRS I were developed in isolation. The SEA conducted on the GPRS I revealed most of the serious shortcomings and proposed measures to improve on integration. The GPRS II benefited immensely from the lessons learnt in the development and implementation of the GPRS I, the SEA and the five PSIA studies to improve on understanding of the potential linkages between policy, poverty and the four pillars of SD. For example the GPRS I treated environment and gender as a stand-alone subject but the GPRS II treated these issues as crosscutting and mainstreamed them into all development policies. Also, members of the SEA team were represented on every CSPG to ensure that recommendations from the SEA are taken into consideration in the formulation of policies under the GPRS II. In general, the integration was achieved through the general framework policy matrix developed to guide MDAs and CSPGS in correcting the deficiencies of GPRS 1, which provided less linkage on the 4 pillars of SD. The formulation of CSPGs (see Annex 5) from both government and non-government institutions and with diverse expertise in the four pillars of SD to discuss policies, and the provision of a uniform and transparent platform for all these institutions to contribute provides evidence of horizontal integration and interlinkages. Another improvement of the GPRS II is that it has mainstreamed the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) targets and indicators and tailored them to country specific contexts to some extent. A major set back is the lack of a long-term development framework to guide the medium term frameworks. This would have guaranteed the existence of a forward vertical integration. 4.7.1 Process of GPRS II Policy Matrix Development and Stakeholder Involvement The preparation of the GPRS II involved broad participation to ensure that the views of stakeholders are captured and to make the document nationally owned. Five technical working teams – CSPGs were formed to plan and coordinate the activities of the five thematic areas of the GPRS II namely:
• Macroeconomic stability • Production and gainful employment • Human development and provision of basic services • Vulnerability and exclusion • Good governance
Box 2: Good Practice in Ghana’s NSSD- Formation of CSPGs In order to make the formulation of the GPRS participatory and integrative, each MDA was asked to nominate technically competent officers to the relevant CSPG. Annex 5 provides details of both government and non-government members of the CSPGs. Each CSPG is facilitated by a consultant supported by a research associate, a co-ordinator selected from the technical staff of the NDPC secretariat and a chairperson selected from among members of each CSPG. The consultants provided the technical backstopping and expertise and were assisted by research associate. To ensure integration in the development of policies and programmes, as required by the MDGs6, the SEA team from EPA/NDPC was represented on each CSPG. This process enabled the groups to build on the GPRS I and provides a link for GPRS II. The broad terms of reference of the CSPG is presented in NDPC (2005, p. 10). The NDPC, based on its past expertise and experience, put together the format for a matrix together with the CSPGs to guide the Groups in formulating their policies and strategies. The matrix is presented in the GPRS II (NDPC, 2005, p78-143). Some of the MDAs used this matrix to pre-formulate their own strategies and policies before attending CSPG meetings to guide them in discussions. The CSPGs for each thematic area discussed the issues and
6 (MDG 7-Target 9),
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policies proposed with the aim of harmonizing them to ensure integration. Each CSPG formed a core-working group, which collated and drafted reports on deliberations of that particular CSPG. Technical staff of the NDPC secretariat coordinated the process. Issues relating to gender, environment vulnerability and exclusion were mainstreamed into each of the thematic areas. After serious deliberations by the CSPGs it became necessary to reduce the five thematic areas to 3-Priorities for private sector development, human development and basic services, good governance and civic responsibility. The matrix has guided the formulation of GPRS II, which is now the blueprint for development in the next three years. Evidently, the matrix has helped provide a concise document addressing the issues of SD, developing policies and strategies to address the issues as well as allocating responsibilities to specific MDAs and elaborating on international obligations that are being implemented. In addition to involving stakeholders in the development of the GPRS, extensive public consultation was made. The strategic objectives for the public consultation programme were to inform the public on Government’s growth and poverty reduction agenda, highlight the new policy areas of GPRS II for stakeholders, solicit the views of stakeholders on priorities for the GPRS II and promote ownership of GPRS II by all Ghanaians (NDPC, 2005). The communication programme of the GPRS II also focused on integrating feedbacks from communication programmes in GRPS I as well as deepening the implementation of the communication strategy to ensure effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the strategy (NDPC, 2005). In order to enhance the participation of MDAs and DAs in the formulation of the GPRS II, the SEA of the GPRS I involved a wide range of stakeholders as evidenced by the endorsement of the process by 27 MDAs 107 out of the 132 DA, parliamentary representatives, CSO, NGOs, Bank of Ghana and business associates (NDPC and EPA, 2004. p 1). Most of the comments made from the interactions have been addressed in the GPRS II. Annex 8 provides groups targeted in the public consultation process. The GPRS II provides vivid roles for implementing and collaborating agencies and attempts to link the goals to that of the MDGs and APRM. Goals have been incorporated into the national policy matrix with accompanying indicators. The major challenge is how to link these medium term objectives of the GPRS II to the long-term objectives of the government, which is envisaged to be presented to Parliament and the people of Ghana. 5.0 SD Indicator Set Generally, SDI can be seen as various statistical values that collectively measure the capacity to meet present and future needs of a country. Indicators provide crucial guidance for decision-making in that they translate physical and social science knowledge into manageable units of information that can facilitate the decision-making process; help to measure and calibrate progress towards SD goals; provide early warning; sounding the alarm in time to prevent economic, social and environmental damage; facilitate intra country comparison of disparities in social development; provide a basis for national and regional planning; give local government bodies requisite data for planning and other interventions; describe national trends in development such as the living standard of the populace; help monitor and evaluate performance of the economy; help refine the country’s development agenda and an important tool to communicate ideas and thoughts.
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Currently there are no formal national institutional arrangements for the formulation of SDI for Ghana. However, in connection with the monitoring and evaluation of GPRS I and II, the NDPC has produced 52 National Development indicators. This is presented as Annex 7. Using the list of indicators and the methodology provided by the UNCSD, a series of workshops, discussions and expert group meetings were organized by the MES to select indicators for Ghana. The indicators selected are presented as Annex 8 5.1 Methodology and Stakeholder Consultation in SDI Selection Broad stakeholder consultation was made in the selection of indicators to measure SD in Ghana. These stakeholders came from the Public Sector, DPs and the Private Sector. Annex 9 presents the stakeholder involvement matrix for the four pillars of SD. The groups recognized that in order to adequately select indicators, one must have a vision of future development based on some measurable standards, and therefore made a clear differentiation between the development and selection of indicators on one hand, and the use of indicators on the other. The National Committee on Sustainable Development (NCSD) provided a list of indicators for the four different groups. These indicators were screened to ascertain their suitability to the Ghanaian context at two workshops of the NCSD and other invited experts. The identification and selection of the indicators were based on the relevance of the indicator, information on indicators of existing national strategies, legal framework, national relevance and the ability of a particular indicator to effectively measure and portray the trends of SD. Some of the indicators were modified while others were re-categorized, A few of the indicators were deleted and new ones added. For example indicators such as imports and exports of hazardous waste, and energy use in agriculture were not suitable to the Ghanaian situation. The indicators were further scrutinized on the grounds of data availability. At this level indicators which have data readily available were selected while those which have no data readily available were flagged for further attention. Other literature and database of research insitutions such as ISSER and publications such as the GPRS, Budget Statements, the State of the Ghanaian Economy, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre documents, Ghana Economic Review were extensively used. The base years were 1999 and /or 2000 depending on data availability. The selected indicators were then subjected to a public hearing after finalization of the first draft document. Various suggestions and recommendations were offered by a wide range of stakeholders. The public hearing was actually a one day validation workshop organised to endorse the indicators that had been selected and developed by MES. Participants were an array of stakeholders, including parliamentarians, members of the NCSD, Academia, CSOs, major groups as identified in Agenda 21,media practitioners, traditional rulers, DPs, Ghana Chamber of Mines among many others. The document was thereafter finalized and launched by the Minister of Environment and Science and widely distributed to all MDAs.The SDI to some extent could be describe as comprehensive in that it can systematicaly monitor the SD agenda of the country. This is due to the fact that the selection of the indicators has been based on the countries environmental, social and economic concerns. A key setback of the UNCSD methodology sheet is that it did not address the cause-effect relationship of indicators. There was no system for establishing the relationship between the four broad groups of SDIs i.e. Social, Institutional, Environmental and Economic. Additionally,
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the base year of 1999 was not applicable to all the indicators. Furthermore there was and absence of a column for “units of measures”. The MES is making efforts to address these problems. Lessons learnt in the monitoring and the evaluation of the implementation of the GPRS is the development and harmonization of indicators as elaborated in box 3.. Box 3: Lessons learnt – Development and Harmonization of Indicators The GPRS and SDIs were developed to monitor the implementaion of the countries development agenda. However, there exist questions in the development of indicators. If the GPRS is the NSSD for the country as earliar mentioned, what then is the need to develop two different indicators –GPRS and SDI indicators to monitor the same framework? Why was the SDI indicators developed separately from the GPRS indicators? There is the needs to harmonize the two indicators if they are meant to monitor the same development framework. Also, a key component in the development of indicators is to take into consideration national specificities. However more need to be done to harmonize indicators and to cover the entire MDG indicator. A comparison of the MDG, GPRS and SD indicators (Annex 10) show that the GPRS and SDI indicators have captured a lot of the MDG indicators but indirectly. For example while the MDG proposes to monitor primary education using Net Enrolment Ratio, the GPRS and the SDI uses Gross Enrolment Ratio. Also, whiles the MDG indicators aims at monitoring improvements in slums using proportion of households with access to secure tenure, the SDI aims at using type of tenure (owning, renting, rent free, perching etc.) in doing this. Furthermore, while there are more environmental indicators in the SDI set than the GPRS set, the GPRS set has more economic indicators that environmental. This could make monitoring of the MDGs difficult and hamper international comparism. Additionally, no indicator has been developed for the 8th goal of the MDG. These are quite worrying and buttress the need to harmonize the MDG, GPRS and SD Indicators for the country. 5.2 Challenges and Constraints 5.2.1. Data availability and delivery The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has always dealt with traditional sources of data collection through the population censuses, Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), GLSS, Core Wealth Indicators Questionnaires (CWIQ) and other sector specific surveys. Unfortunately, these surveys are not carried out on annual bases. SDIs are more dynamic and embracing. Thus, information on them should be collected preferably on annual basis and in an institutional environment. In selecting SDIs, problems encountered with data availability and delivery was varied. For example, the available data is often either incomplete or locked up in respective agencies or sectors. Most of them have not been integrated or mainstreamed into the overall data collection process of the MDAs. There is also the issue of conflicting data between agencies on a particular indicator. Additionally, some aspects of census data with relevance to SD are not published. Other problems encountered include inadequate database due to low research output, lack of institutional coordination, under utilization of Information Technology, lack of funding for research, inefficient management of data, inaccessibility of data, obsolete data and the lack of disaggregated data Data on certain indigenous economic activities, which are of national concern such as traditional herbal medicine, contribution of traditional ceremonies (i.e. funerals and festivals) to national economic development and also the consumption of bush meat do not exist. Furthermore, data was not available for indicators such as intensity of material use, lifetime of proven energy reserves, proven fossil fuel energy reserve, share of consumption of renewable energy reserves, etc. Efforts are being made to overcome this problem through the promotion of institutional
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coordination, increased funding for research, and building of capacity in Information Technology and increased data collection and accessibility 5.2.2. Other capacity needs There are also institutional weaknesses inherent in institutions mandated to manage the collection and analysis of the SDI. Specifically, the capacity of the NDPC to manage the SDI database is weak. Also, there is inadequate infrastructure for effective development of data sets or indicators. To resolve this problem, a SD secretariat within the NDPC has been established. The secretariat is made functional by way of providing both human and material resources to perform its responsibilities. Also, mechanisms are being put in place to facilitate easy networking and collaboration among institutions dealing with SD. These include the setting up of a coordinating body to act as the repository as well as to ensure that data from various indicators are consistent. Furthermore, state-of-the-art facilities such as computers, Geographic Information Services (GIS) software packages on SDI are being provided for various units, dealing with the management of SDIs. 5.2.3. Quality of Representation by MDAs In some case, the MDAs do ask junior officers to represent them in such exercises. Unfortunately such junior officers do not have the requisite experience and expertise to effectively contribute to the process. This, to some extent affects the quality of the outcomes 5.2.4. Funding There were lots of funding constraints- inadequate budgetary allocation for the exercise, and sometimes, late release of funds by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This kept the time schedule off track. To overcome these challenges some of the DPs, particularly the United Nations Development Programme were approached to assist. The members of the NCSD also made a lot of sacrifices in terms of their time to move the process forward. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has also agreed to increase budgetary allocation for SDI process 5.3 Strength and Weaknesses in the Development of SDI 5.3.1 Strength The strengths in the development of SDI among others include: • Willingness to conserve our rich and extensive natural resource • Willingness of DPs to collaborate and support SD efforts • Existence of data collection and analysis institutions • Existence of some data on SDI • Existence of NSSD , which calls for the development of monitoring indicators – GPRS and
to some extent SDI indicators. • Existence of the various legislative frameworks with implication for SDI e.g. National
Development Planning Acts, Acts 479 and 480, the Local Government Act, Act 462 • Commitment to implement national/international Conventions to which Ghana is a signatory • Commitment to implement the outcome of the recent WSSD which required that countries
develop SD indicators • Existence of expertise that can be tapped for development and use of SDI
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5.3.2 Weakness 1. Institutional weaknesses and duplication of efforts Though indicators are in daily use by a variety of stakeholders in Ghana, there is no designated body that is responsible for collating the information derived from the various monitoring units vis-à-vis the needs of SD planning. This has led to duplication of effort, conflicting statistics and a blurring of development targets due to poor monitoring and evaluation. Duplication of effort and different techniques used in collecting and storing information does not allow the system to be a self-checking mechanism with internal control but rather wastes the limited financial resources and scarce human capacity. To move forward the application of the principles of SD based on the use of indicators, there is a need to have the following institutional restructuring: • Widen the membership of the NCSD to include all major groups such as women and rural
communities to promote a framework and focus more on debates on SD and processes of consensus building
• Strengthen the institutional structures and arrangements for managing SD issues in Ghana, including clearly defined roles of the key institutions
• Strengthen the human capacity of current SD units and focal points within the MLGRDE and its key collaborating agencies e.g., NDPC, GSS
• Provide budgetary support, requisite infrastructure and logistics for effective operation of the Focal Point, NDPC and the technical secretariat
2. Weak stakeholder identification and involvement A key aspect in the selection and development of SDIs is the identification of stakeholders. The effectiveness of the indicator selection process is reduced due to the fact that no stakeholder analysis has been carried out for stakeholder identification and involvement not clear. In order to resolve this problem, there is the need to widen the consultative process for the development and selection of SDIs as well as the need to disseminate SD concepts at the grass root level. This could be done through:
• Improving the degree of involvement and diversity of stakeholders (especially policy makers
and civil society at large) in the development of SDI through workshops, seminars, fora, campaigns and projects at local, regional and national levels.
• Encouraging nation-wide participation in Communication, Education and Public Awareness on SD issues;
• Integrating SD concepts into national education programmes and curricula at all levels, including development of specialist advanced courses;
• Ensuring the establishment of environmental desks at MDAs and the DA level;
• Introducing environmental cost of development in national planning and budgeting process (Green Accounting)
• Encouraging private sector to invest in SD initiatives including Best Environmental Practice (BEP) and Best Available Technique (BAT) through financial incentives (tax breaks, reduced tariffs)
22
• Undertaking baseline studies, with the aim of setting up benchmarks for any SD parameters, including local validation of indicators.
• Defining clearly objectives, which are measurable enough to assess progress in the implementation of SD Strategies.
6.0 Conclusions Ghana has a long history in strategic planning. This is evidenced by the many long and short term strategic plans that have been instituted since independence. Looking at strategic planning not only as a static framework but rather a dynamic one that involves past, present policies and plans to achieve SD, one can conclude that Ghana has a considerable experience in strategic planning. Currently, Ghana’s NSSD process entails revising/updating existing policies, strategies and plans to incorporate key characteristics of a NSSD and developing a separate strategic document. Country ownership and commitment to the development and implementation of NSSD seems to be a problem in the past. The situation seems to be improving with the involvement of diverse stakeholders in the formulation of the GPRS I and II. There is ample evidence to show that integration of the 4 pillars of SD across sectors and generations has not been the best in Ghana’s strategic planning. Integration and collaboration between the MDAs has been very difficult due to the vague definition of roles and the quest by lead MDAs to monopolize the implementation of those policies. Considerable efforts have been made to enhance national ownership of NSSD and to improve on participation through broad –based consultation with stakeholders. However more need to be done in that direction to make consultation a valuable vehicle for national development. In recent years strategic planning are also based on sound technical assessment of the present situation and of projected risks, examining links between local, national and global challenges as evidenced by the GPRS I which achieved most of the major set targets. In order to ensure that the implementation of NSSD process gives due recognition to achieving results in all the dimensions of SD, the government of Ghana has adopted several strategies and laws to guide its implementation in all the four pillars of SD. This provides the strength of NSSD formulation and implementation. There are however weaknesses and challenges. These among others include inadequate commitment to the NSSD development process by leadership; ineffective coordination with other strategy processes to integrate the three pillars as well as the lack of an integrated framework for SD; inadequate capacity for the formulation of NSSD especially at the district level; inadequate policy and regulatory instruments; weak stakeholder identification, participation and ownership of programmes and plans; inadequate monitoring and evaluation of NSSD with the view to learning lessons for future strategies; weak institutions mandated to formulate and implement policies on SD; weak linkage of short and medium term strategies to long-term visions;overlaps in the roles of different institutions. It must be noted that the multi-dimensional nature of SD suggests that measures should be multi-faceted requiring co-operation from the citizenry. Such measures should include urging leadership at the highest level to better accept SD strategies; ensuring vertical and horizontal integration of all sectors of the economy; improving participation and ownership of programmes and plans; improving monitoring and evaluation of NSSD with the view to learning lessons for
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future strategies; improving education on SD; increasing efficiency of local resource mobilization; developing an overall and integrative model to effectively monitor and evaluate implementation of SD strategies; putting in place mechanisms for the coordination of the activities of the MDAs; developing and implementing a long term development framework into which medium and short term plans will be embedded; improving on data collection, especially at the district level and the quality of data; reviewing policies to make enforcement of rules and regulations easier; Widening the membership of the National Committee on SD to include all major groups such as women and rural communities and focusing more on debates on SD and processes of consensus building; Strengthening the institutional structures and arrangements for managing SD issues in Ghana, including clearly defined roles of the key institutions, Strengthen the human capacity of current SD units and focal points within the MLGRDE and its key collaborating agencies; providing budgetary support, requisite infrastructure and logistics for effective operation of the Focal Point, NDPC and the technical secretariat; improving the degree of involvement and diversity of stakeholders (especially policy makers and civil society at large) in the development of NSSD through workshops, seminars, fora, campaigns and projects at local, regional and national levels; encouraging nation-wide participation in Communication, Education and Public Awareness on SD issues; introducing environmental cost of development in national planning and budgeting process (Green Accounting); Encouraging private sector to invest in SD initiatives including BEP and BAT through financial incentives (tax breaks, reduced tariffs); Undertaking baseline studies, with the aim of setting up benchmarks for any SD parameters, including local validation of indicators; Defining clear objectives, which are measurable enough to assess progress in the implementation of NSSD.
1994 3. NPDC, (2002). Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2003 -2005: An Agenda for Growth
and Prosperity, Volume 1, Analysis and Policy Statement, Accra. February 19, 2003. 4. NDPC & EPA. 2004, Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Ghana Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper, NDPC and EPA, Accra, Ghana, 2004 5. Republic of Ghana (1964), Seven –Year Plan for National Reconstruction and Development
Financial Years 1963/64 – 1969/70. Office of the Planning Commission, Accra. 6. Republic of Ghana (1983), Economic Recovery Program 1984 – 1986, Volume I, Report
prepared by the Government of Ghana for the meeting of the Consultative Group for Ghana, Paris, November 1983, Government of the Republic of Ghana, Accra, October 1983.
7. Vordzorgbe, S.D. and Caiquo B. OECD/DAC dialogues with Development Countries on National Strategies on SD: reports on Status Review in Ghana submitted to the international Institute for SD, London, UK and the NDPC, Accra, Ghana, (2001)
9. NDPC, 2005b, Implementation of the Ghana Poverty reduction strategy, 2004 Annual progress Report, Government of Ghana, NDPC, March 2005
10. Vordzorgbe, S. D. (2004), Environment Sector in Ghana’s Development – A human rights-based assessment, Common Country Assessment, United Nations Development Programme and Government of Ghana. July 2004.
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ANNEXES Annex 1: Main Strategies/Frameworks, Laws and Policies in the Four Dimensions of SD
Economic Social Environmental Institutional - Guggisberg 10 Year Development Plan 1920-1930 - 10 -Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Gold Coast (condensed into a Five-year Plan 1951-1956) - Consolidation Development Plan 1957-1959 - Second Development Plan 1959-1964- - seven-Year Plan for National Reconstruction and development, 1963/64-1969/70 -Year Development Plan 1968/69-1969/70 - Year Development Plan July 1970-June 1971 -Five – Year Development Plan 1975/76-1979/80 - ERP and SAP (1983-1994) - Country Assistance Strategy (2000-2003, 2004-2007) - National Economic Forum, 1997 - National Economic Dialogues (2001, 2004)
-PAMSCAD,1987 - GPRS I, (2003-2005) GPRS II (2006-2009) Health - National Health Insurance Act - National Health Policy (2006) Education Education Strategic Plan (2003 – 2005 - Introduction of the capitation Grant - Ghana Education Trust Fund (GET Fund) Population -Population Planning for National Progress and Prosperity (1969) - National Population Policy (Revised Edition 1994) - Indepth Assessment of the implementation of the -National Population Policy (1994 Edition, to be published in 2007) Water National Water Policy (Pending Cabinet/Parliament approval) Gender Gender and Children’s Policy (2004) Early Childhood Development Policy (2004) Strategic Implementation Plan (2005 – 2008)
- SEA of the GPRS, 2004 - Protection of the atmosphere, 2004 - Development of National EAP and NEP, (1991-1994) Fisheries Resources Protection - Fisheries Law 1991 (PNDC L 256) - Fisheries Commission Act 1993 (Act 457) - Fisheries Development and Management Bill, 1996 - Fisheries Decree, 1972 (amended 1977, 1984) Integrated Land Resources Planning and Management: - Land Planning and Soil Conservation Ordinance, 1953 (No. 32) - Land Administration Project - National Land Policy, 1999 Forest and Wildlife - Trees and Timber Decree, 1974 (NRCD 273) - Forest Policy of 1948, 1994 - Forestry Ordinance of 1927 (Cap 157) and subsequent amendments of: Forest Protection Decree, 1994 (NRCD 243) Forest Protection (Amendment) Law 1986 (PNDC L 142) Wild Animals Preservation Act, 1961 (Act 43) Wildlife Conservation Regulations, 1971 revised 1999 LI 685) Wildlife Reserves Regulations, 1971 (LI 710) -Wildlife Conservation Policy, 1974 Water - Rivers Ordinance 1903 (Cap 226) - Beaches Obstruction Ordinance 1897 (Cap 240) - Draft Coastal Zone Management Law - Draft Integrated Coastal Zone Management Action Plan (2006) -Coastal Zone Profile of Ghana (1998) - Towards an Integrated coastal Zone Management in Ghana (1996) - Water Resources Act 1997 - Coastal Zone Indicative Management Plan (1992) Wetlands Strategy: National Wetlands Conservation Strategy (MLF 1999) Revised Wetlands Strategy and Action Plan (Pending Ministerial approval) Oil and Gas Development - National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (updated in 2006) - Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Law, 1984 (PNDC L 84) - Minerals (Offshore) Regulations 1963 (L.I.257) - Minerals (Oil and Gas) Regulations 1963 (L.I. 258) - Oil Mining Regulations, 1957 (L.I. 221) - Oil in Navigable Waters Act, 1964 (Act 233) Hazardous chemical, climate change and biodiversity National Implementation Plan for Persistent Organic Pollutants (To be published in 2007) National Profile for Chemicals Management – Ghana (July 1997) Management of Ozone Depleting Substances and Products Regulations (2005, L.I.1812) Country Programme for the Phase out of Ozone Depleting Substances in Ghana (1992) Radioactive Waste Policy – Radioactive Waste Management Regulation (pending Parliament approval) National Biodiversity Strategy for Ghana (2002) National Action Programme to Combat Drought and Desertification (2002) Biosafety Bill (Pending Cabinet/Parliament approval) Draft National Disaster Management Plan (to be published in 2007)
-Decentralization strategy,1988 Volta River Development Act,. Act 46 1961 -Ghana Health Service/ Teaching Hospital Act, Act 525 1995, -National Medium-Term Private Sector Development Strategy 2004-2008 -Forestry Commission Act, Act 571 of 1999 -Water Resources Commission Act, 1996 (Act 522) -National Population Council -Ghana HIV/AIDS -Commission Public Sector Reforms Programme (Civil Service Performance Improvement programme, Public Financial Management Reform Programme, MTEF, National Institutional Renewal Programme, Multi Donor Budget System -Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Act 564, in 1998 The Minerals Commission Act, 1993 (Act 450) Ghana Water and Sewerage Act Act 310 Lands Commission Act, 1994 (Act 483) Local Government Act. 1993 (Act 462) NDPC Act, 1994 (Acts 479, 480) Local Government Instrument, 1994 (LI 158 EPAAct, 1994 (Act 490) Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Act, 1996 (Act 521) Ghana Education Service Act 1995, Act 525; National Council for Tertiary Education
Source: Extracted from Different Project Documents
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Annex 2: Treaties, Conventions, Codes and Standards to Which Ghana is a Signatory Tropical Timber 81 and 94 Convention on Biodiversity ICT Convention UN Framework Convention on Climate Change World Heritage Convention Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants ILO Convention 184 (Health and Safety and Agriculture)
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Dakar Convention on Education United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
The Basel Convention on the Control of the Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal
Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in the International Trade
International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Cooperation
Convention on International Trade in Engendered Species of Wild Animals
Other conventions limiting nuclear testing, pollution from ships and whaling,
Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety Women Convention The Basel Convention (Basel, 22 March1989) International Standards in Auditing Millennium Declaration International Accounting Standards Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency Best Practices for Budget Transparency Guidelines for Public Debt Management Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision Code of Good Practices on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Affairs
Core Principles for Security and Insurance Supervision and Regulations
African Union Conventions on Preventing and Combating Corruption
Principles of Corporate Governance (international and national)
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Annex 3: Calendar of GPRS Preparation and Consultation Dates Activity Participants/
YEAR 2000 March Conceptualization forum Cross section of stakeholders on Poverty
Reduction July Launching of GPRS process Cross section of Ghanaian society August Initial Diagnostic (Poverty) Studies- Core Teams
Orientation for a Core teams
October–November
Community, district and regional consultations Community groups, districts and regional representatives.
YEAR 2001 March Ghana declares to take advantage of HIPC Initiative
GPRS preparation gains further impetus
March Harmonization Core teams, CSO, Private sector, DPs May Special forum as input to National Economic
Dialogue (NED) CSO
May NED Cross section of Ghanaian society June - Linking GPRS to annual/MTEF budget commences MTEF, Budget Division (MoF) July Presentation on draft GPRS DP July GPRS Instructional Workshop for MDAs MTEF Sectoral groupings August 2, 8 10, 17, 20*, 24, 31
7 Separate GPRS Consultation Workshops and call for comments (Proceedings of August 20th Workshop is included as an Annex)
• Chief Directors of MDAs • NGOs and Religious Bodies • Labour Unions and Civil Society • Policy Advocacy groups & Think Tanks • Women’s groups and the media
September 4 Consultation and training workshop Budget Officers – Ministry of Finance Sept 10-11 Policy Review workshops with MTEF/Budget
Division (MoF) Administration- Group A Economic and Public Safety groups
September 12-13
Policy Review workshops with MTEF/Budget Division (MoF)
Social Sector and Infrastructure Ministries
September 20 Consultation group Minister and Deputies Sept. 24 – Oct 1
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultation Meetings Several stakeholders, academics, Civil society, NGOs, Dps
October 26-28
GPRS Retreat Parliamentarians
November Review of 2002 Budget with GPRS priorities Cabinet and Parliament Private sector umbrella groups – Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), Association of Ghanaian Industries (AGI), National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI) Source: Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, February 2003
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Annex 4: Medium-Term Expenditure Framework-MDAs Discretionary Expenditure Ceilings as a percent of total expenditure, 2003 - 2006 MDAs 2003 2004 2005 2006Administration 14.2 17.1 17.2 17.3Ministry of Local Government Rural Development 2.6 2.4 2.3 2.3Office of Government Machinery 3.3 4.4 4.4 4.5Ministry of Foreign Affairs 21.7 21.3 21.5 21.7Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning 2.2 2.1 2.1 2.1Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0Audit Service 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.6Public Services Commission 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.04Electoral Commission 0.3 1.6 1.6 1.6Office of Parliament 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.1District Assemblies Common Fund Administrator 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01Ministry of Regional Co-operation and NEPAD 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2Ministry of Information 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.7National Development Planning Commission 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.4Economic 9.3 8.9 8.7 8.5Ministry of Food and Agriculture 4.0 3.0 2.9 2.8Ministry of Lands and Forestry 1.2 1.0 1.0 1.0Ministry of Energy 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3Ministry of Trade and Industry & PSI 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.0Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1Ministry of Environment and Science. 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3Ministry for Private Sector Development 0.1 0.7 0.6 0.6Ministry of Mines 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2Infrastructure 15.9 10.9 10.5 10.2Ministry of Works and Housing 6.3 3.3 3.1 3.0Ministry of Roads and Transport 9.0 7.2 6.9 6.7Ministry of Communications 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.3Ministry of Railways, Ports and Harbours 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1Social 39.0 38.8 39.1 39.3Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports 26.6 26.7 27.0 27.3Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4National Commission for Civic Education 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3National Commission on Culture 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2Ministry of Health 11.1 11.1 11.0 11.0National Media Commission 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0Ministry of Women and Children Affairs 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2Ministry of Youth and Sports 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0Public Safety 11.7 11.7 11.8 12.0Ministry of Justice 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3Ministry of Defence 4.2 4.9 5.0 5.0Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2Judicial Service 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8Ministry of Interior 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.6Utilities 2.8 2.5 2.5 2.5Utilities 2.8 2.5 2.5 2.5Revenue Agencies 3.2 3.0 3.0 3.1Revenue Agencies 3.2 3.0 3.0 3.1 Contingency 3.9 7.1 7.2 7.3Grand Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: Computed with Date from the Ministry of Finance
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Annex 5: Cross-Sectoral Planning Groups for GPRS II Programmes for the Vulnerable and Excluded Group Consultant: Dr. Ellen B-D Aryeetey Group Coordinator: Mary Asiedu 1. National Development Planning Commission
2. Ghana Statistical Service
3. Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
4. Ministry of Health
5. Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development
6. Ministry of Works and Housing
7. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
8. Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment
9. Ministry of Justice
10. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
11. Ministry of Interior
12. Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs
13. Ministry of Defence
14. Social Security and National Insurance Trust
15. National Disaster Management Organisation
16. Ministry of Information
17. Department of Social Welfare
18. Social Welfare and Community Development
19. ISODEC
20. Abantu for Development (NGO)
21. SEA (Ms. Christine Asare) EP A
22. ILO (Mr. Emmanuel Otoo)
23. African Centre for Human Devpt. (Mr. Wilbert Tengey)
24. Centre for Democratic Development
25. National Population Council
26. Ministry of Mines, Forestry & Lands
27. Ministry of Railway, Ports and Harbours
28. Ministry of Roads and Highways
29. WAJU
30. CHRAJ
31. Ghana National Fire Service
32. Ghana National Commission on Culture
33. Ark Foundation.
34. Ghana Federation for the Disabled
Production and Gainful Employment
Group Consultant: Prof. Agyeman Badu Group Coordinator:
Winfred Nelson
1. National Development Planning Commission
2. Ghana Statistical Service
3. Ministry of Lands and Forestry
4. Ministry of Trade, Industry and PSI
5. Ministry of Energy
6. Ministry of Communications and Technology
7. Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment
8. Ministry of Private Sector Development
9. Ministry of Roads and Highways
10. Ministry of Food and Agriculture
11. Ministry of Ports, Railways and Harbours
12. SEA (Appah-Sampong)
13. Ghana Free Zones Board
14. Ghana Export Promotions Council
15. Customs Excise and Prevention Service
16. Ghana Energy Commission
17. Private Enterprises Foundation
18. Association of Ghana Industries
19. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
20. Ghana National Fire Service
21. ISODEC
22. National Board for Small-Scale Industry
23. State Enterprises Commission
24. Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs
25. Ministry of Mines, Forestry &Lands
26. Ghana Union of Traders' Association (GUTA)
27. Ministry of Regional Cooperation & NEPAD
28. National Commission on Culture
29. Council of lndigenous Business Association (CIBA)
30. Association of Small-Scale Industries (ASSI)
31. Trades' Union Congress (TUC)
32. Civil Servants' Association (CSA)
33. National Population Council
34. Ministry of Railway, Ports and Harbours
35. Ministry of Roads and Highways
Human Resource Development and Basic Services Group
Consultant: Dr. Yeboah.
Group Coordinator: Kwaku Adjei-Fosu
1. National Development Planning Commission
2. Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
3. Ghana Statistical Service
4. Ministry of Environment and Science
5. Ministry of Health
Macroeconomy Group Consultant: Prof. Bart Armah/Dr. Gockel Group Coordinator: Philip Tagoe 1. National Development Planning Commission
2. Ghana Statistical Service
3. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
4. CEPS
5. IRS
6. VAT Secretariat
30
6. Ministry of Communications and Technology
7. Ministry of Local Government and Rural
8. Development Ministry of Works and Housing
9. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
10. Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment
Ministry of Justice
11. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
12. Ministry of Interior
13. Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs
14. Ministry of Defence
15. Social Welfare and Community Development
16. Green Earth
17. National Disaster Management Organisation
18. ISODEC
19. Friends of the Earth
20. National Population Council
21. Ministry of Railway, Ports and Harbours
22. Ministry of Roads and Highways
7. Bank of Ghana
8. Ministry of Trade, Industry and PSI
9. Controller and Accountant-General's Dept
10. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
11. Private Enterprise Foundation
12. Ministry of Food and Agriculture
13. Association of Ghana Industries
14. ISODEC
15. Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research
16. University of Ghana (Economics Dept.)
17. Environmental Protection Agency
18. Ghana Investments Promotions Centre
19. Third W orId Network
20. National Population Council
21. Ministry of Railway, Ports and Harbours
22. Ministry of Roads and Highways
23. Institute of Economic Affairs (lEA)
Governance Group consultant: Dr. William Ahadzie Group Coordinator: Alice Amekudzi 1. National Development Planning Commission
2. Office of the President
3. Ghana Statistical Service
4. Office of the Senior Minister
5. National Governance Programme
6. Ministry of Regional Cooperation and NEPAD
7. Ministry of Justice
8. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
9. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
10. Minstry of Local Government and Rural Development
11. Ministry of Information
12. Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs
13. Ministry of Works and Housing
14. Ghana Police Service
15. Ministry of Defence
16. Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition
17. ISODEC
18. Ghana Central Government Project
19. Trades' Union Congress
20. Centre for Democratic Development
21. SEA (Badu- Y eboah) EPA
22. Trades' Union Congress (TUC)
23. Civil Servants' Association
24. National Population Council
25. Ministry of Railway, Ports and Harbours
26. Ministry of Roads and Highways
27. CHRAJ
List of civil society groups on CSPGs a. Macro Stability & Growth 1. ISODEC
2. ISSER
3. lEA
4. University of Ghana (Economics Dept.)
b.Human Resource Development & Basic Services 1. ISODEC
2. Friends of the Earth
3. Green Earth c. Production & Gainful Employment 1. ISODEC
2. Friends of the Earth
3. TUC
4. Send Foundation
5. Action Aid
6. Private Enterprise Foundation
7. Ghana Employers Association
8. Civil Servants Association
9. Association of Small Scale Industries
10. Ghana Union of Traders Association
11. Association of Ghana Industries d. Governance 1. Centre for Democratic Development
2. TUC
3. Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition e. Vulnerability & Exclusion 1. Care International
2. Friends of the Earth
31
28. Institute of Democratic Governance 3. African Centre for Human Development
4. Ghana Society for the Blind
5. Third World Network Source: NDPC Annex 6: Groups Targeted in the Consultation Process
Regional Ministers Sector Ministers and their Deputies Council of State Regional Coordinating Directors Regional Planning Committee Units District Chief Executives District Planning Coordinating Units Traditional Authorities Community Groups The Communications Media Professional Bodies Student Unions Women leaders/Coalition of Women’s Groups and Women’s Organisations NGOs in Service Delivery and Religious Bodies National Association of Local Authorities Ghana Employers Association Association of Ghana Industries The Trades Union Congress Research Institutions and Policy Think Tanks Parliament Political Parties Development Partners
Real per capita GDP growth rate Timely disbursement of budgeted MMDA allocations
Food price inflation Proportion of total resources going to key GPRS sectors
Growth of domestic revenue The number of functioning employment centers
Growth of credit to agriculture Lifeline pricing for electricity sector in place and implemented
Feeder road contract time lags Area of degraded lands & water bodies reclaimed through reafforestation
People with access to non wood fuel energy The number of Community Resource Management Areas established
Number of small scale agro-processing firms Child mal-nutrition (emphasis on poorest regions)
Real per capita agricultural growth rate Gross enrolment ratio in pre-school and basic schools
Real per capita food crop growth rate Reduction in the reported cases of Guinea worm
Length of motorable feeder roads Percent of households with access to adequate toilet facilities (flush or KVIP)
Agricultural indicators developed Percent of trained teachers in pre-schools and basic (primary/JSS)
Infant mortality rate Percent of deprived basic schools (primary/JSS) improved, with emphasis on the 3 Northern regions
Survival rate to P6 and JSS 3 Number of new functional water systems (boreholes, wells, pipes etc.) constructed
Percent of household with access to safe water Percent of total government expenditure on health increased from 5.7% 2000 to 7% by 2004
Immunisation coverage (DPT3) At least 10% increase in the amount budgeted for exemption fees
A strategy for full economic pricing in the electricity sector, including lifeline pricing to ensure affordability for low-income users.
The number of functioning Water and Sanitation Boards; District Water and Sanitation Committees; Community Water and Sanitation Committees
Poverty incidence Proportion of supervised deliveries
Extreme poverty incidence Accessibility of services (disaggregated to services, regions districts)
HIV Prevalence Drug based treatment available for people with Aids
Access of extreme poor to services (disaggregated to services, regions. Districts)
Adequate security and protection for women and children
Government expenditure reports published Appropriate indicators developed to monitor change in well-being of vulnerable and excluded, across the entire GPRS
Local safety and security institutions in place Level of perceived corruption in key GPRS functional areas
Utilisation of legal aid services Dissemination of parliamentary debates on poverty and development
Functioning electronic expenditure tracking system Budgets available to institutions caring for vulnerable and excluded
Composite budgets developed and submitted Parliamentary Committee on Poverty Reduction established
Policy feedback from M&E system Democratic Effectiveness of District Assemblies
Source: GPRS I and II
33
Annex 8: SD Indicators for Ghana
Social Indicators 1. Demographic characteristics: • Total population • population growth rate • sex ratio • population under 15 • population 60+ • adult population 18+ • population dependency rate • urban population • rural population • population doubling time 2. Fertility • total fertility rate • contraceptive use - national average • contraceptive use – male • contraceptive use - female 3. Couple years of protection • long term • short term • age at first marriage • age at first sex • age at first birth • age at menarche 4. Education • adult literacy rate • enrolment ratio – gross primary school • enrolment ratio – girls in primary school • enrolment ratio – gross JSS • enrolment ratio – gross SSS • primary dropout rate – girls • primary dropout rate – boys • transition from P6 - JSS1 • transition from JSS – SSS1 • percent government spending on education 5. Transport • road expenditure per year • total vehicles in circulation 6. Health • life expectancy • percent total expenditure on health • percent recurrent expenditure on districts and below • percent capital spending on sub-districts • internally generated funds (IGF) from pre-payment and
community insurance scheme • people consulting qualified health personnel when ill
(orthodox)
• doctor/population ratio • nurse/population ratio • per capita OPD at public facilities • hospital admission rate • maternal mortality rate • ante-natal care coverage • post-natal care coverage • supervised deliveries (institutional) • low birth weight rate • TT2 + immunization cover • infant mortality rate • under-5 mortality rate • % malnourished • % exclusive breastfeeding • EPI coverage (DPT 3) • HIV/AIDS prevalence rate • HIV/AID awareness level (male, female) • condom use to avoid AIDS (national average, male, female) • health facilities for PLWA • reduction of new HIV infections among 15-49 years 7. Human settlements • % of rural population with access to safe water supply • % of urban population with access to safe water • % of rural population with household toilet • % of urban population with household toilet • population with unsafe method of solid waste disposal
(dumping) • reported cases of guinea worm • main source of drinking water (pipe borne water in/outside
house) • main source of eater supply (tanker, borehole, rain,
river/lake, etc) • main source of household energy (lighting) • main source of household energy (cooking) • housing - ownership type (owner occupied, being bought,
relative non-household member, other private individual/employer, others)
• housing - type of tenure (owning, renting, rent-free, perching) • housing – number of sleeping rooms • housing stock (rural/urban share, average household size,
households/house, population/house)
Economic Indicators 1. Amount of new or additional funding for SD (%) 2. Capital goods imports ($) 3. Foreign direct investment ($)
4. External debt service as % of GDP 5. Domestic debt as % of GDP 6. Per capita GDP 7. Project and programme grants ($) 8. Share of manufacturing in GDP (current prices)
• number of agricultural colleges • number of agricultural institutes • percent of women in professional/technical/management • percent of passes in agriculture at SSS Certificate • tertiary
2. Ambient air quality 3. Ambient concentrations of pollutants in urban areas 4. Annual average fish harvest 5. Annual deforestation rate
17. Dissolved oxygen (DO) level in water bodies 18. Emission of green house gases 19. Emission of nitrogen oxide 20. Emission of sulphur oxides 21. Energy consumption 22. Existence of biosafety database 23. Existence of national biosafety regulation or guidelines 24. Expenditure on air pollution abatement 25. Forest resources (FR) as a % of total land area 26. Generation of radioactive waste
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6. Annual withdrawals of ground and surface water as a percentage of available water 7. Arable land per capita 8. Area affected by salinisation and water logging 9. Area of land contaminated by hazardous waste 10. Biodiversity index (Algae) 11. Biological oxygen demand in water bodies 12. Chemical poisoning 13. Concentration of faecal coliform in freshwater 14. Consumption of ozone-depleting substances 15. Density of hydrological networks 16. Discharges of oil into coastal waters
27. Ground water reserves 28. Implementation of ratified global agreements 29. Irrigation % of arable land 30. Land prone to desertification 31. Land use changes 32. Managed forest ratio 33. Number of chemicals banned or severely restricted 34. Protected area (PA) as % of total land area 35. Ratification of global agreements 36. Use of agricultural pesticides 37. Use of fertilizers 38. Wood harvesting intensity (annual allowable amounts)
Institutional Indicators 1. Access to information (number of legal framework in place
for SD) 2. Integrated environmental account per annum (green GDP) 3. Expenditure on R&D as % of GDP 4. EIA
• compliance rate of EIAs • number of inspectors per region
5. Percentage of outstanding SD agreements ratified 6. Level of implementation of SD agreements 7. Environmental desks at MDAs 8. Degree of involvement of major groups 9. Level of contribution of NGOs to SD 10. Number of SD strategies 11. Real GDP growth rate Level of decentralized national resources
Source : MLGRDE
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Annex 9: Matrix of Key Stakeholders: Indicator Use and Development in Ghana Indicator Set Key Stakeholders Economic Environmental Institutional Social Ministries/Gov’t. Agencies Agriculture X X X Bank of Ghana X CSIR X X X District Assemblies X X X X Division of Fisheries X Energy X X Environment & Science X X EPA X X Fin. & Econ. Plan. X X Forestry Commission X Health X X X Information X Justice X X X X Land and Forestry X X Local Govt & Rural Dev. X X X X Manpower Development X X Meteorological Services Mines X X National Comm. Authority X X National Dev. Planning X X X X
Ghana Statistical Service X X X X Universities X X X X Water Resources Commission X X Wildlife Division X Works & Housing X DP e.g. JICA, DFID, DGIS X X X X Multi-lateral UN Agencies X X X X NGOs (local & International)
Int. Financial Institutions X Religious Bodies IUCN X WWF X Local Development NGOs X X X CBOs Chiefs X X X X Civil Service Organisations X X X X Traditional Authorities X X X X Local Communities X X X X Private Enterprises AGI X X Commercial Banks X Non Banking Finance Inst. X GCCI X X
Source: MLGRDE
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Annex 10: Comparism of MDG, SDI and GPRS Indicators MDG SDI GPRS Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 1. Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day 2. Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty] 3. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption 4. Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age 5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary
energy consumption
• % Malnourished
• Child mal-nutrition (emphasis on poorest regions)
• Poverty incidence • Extreme poverty incidence
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education 1. Net enrolment ratio in primary education 2. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 3. Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 1. HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 years 2. Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate 3. Condom use at last high-risk sex 4. Percentage of population aged 15-24 years with
comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS 5. Contraceptive prevalence rate 6. Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of
non-orphans aged 10-14 years Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
7. Proportion of population in malaria-risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures
8. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis 9. Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under
directly observed treatment short course DOTS (Internationally recommended TB control strategy)
• HIV/AIDS prevalence rate • condom use to avoid AIDS
(national average, male, female)
• HIV/AID awareness level (male, female)
• HIV Prevalence • Drug based treatments available
for people with AIDS
Ensure environmental Sustainability 1. Proportion of land area covered by forest 2. Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to
surface area 3. Energy use (kg oil equivalent) per $1 GDP (PPP)
Forest resources (FR) as a % of total land area Protected area (PA) as % of total land area Energy consumption
People with access to non wood fuel energy Percent of households with access to adequate toilet facilities (flush or KVIP)
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4. Carbon dioxide emissions per capita and consumption of ozone-depleting CFCs (ODP tons)
5. Proportion of population using solid fuel 6. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an
improved water source, urban and rural 7. Proportion of population with access to improved sanitation,
urban and rural 8. Proportion of households with access to secure tenure
% of rural population with access to safe water supply % of urban population with access to safe water % of rural population with household toilet % of urban population with household toilet Population with unsafe method of solid waste disposal (dumping)
Number of new functional water systems (boreholes, wells, pipes etc.) constructed**
Goal 8: Develop global partnership for Development
1. Unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 years, each sex and total
2. Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
3. Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population 4. Personal computers in use per 100 population 5. Internet users per 100 population
