World Bank Approves US$215million Budget Support for Ghana

Funds to help consolidate macro-economic stability, public financial management, 
public sector reform, energy and social protection.

The World Bank board today approved a US$215 million Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) to the Government of Ghana. The goal of the credit is to support the government’s efforts to consolidate ongoing fiscal stabilization and promote the development objectives set in the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA), Ghana’s national medium term development policy framework for 2010-2013.

Building Capacity to Manage Ghana’s Oil – World Bank assists with US$38 million

Government Agencies, Local Authorities, Educational Institutions and Civil Society to benefit

The World Bank Board today approved a credit of US$38 million to the Government of Ghana for implementation of an Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project.

The Project, which has become necessary following Ghana_s discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities has two main objectives: first, to help improve public management and regulatory capacity and enhance sector transparency by strengthening the institutions managing and monitoring the sector; and second, support the development of indigenous technical and professional skills needed by the petroleum sector through support to selected educational institutions.

So why all the Fuss about Ghana’s 2011 Budget?

Courtesy of IMANI (www.imanighana.org) and AfricanLiberty.org

Ghana’s latest budget has been met with uproar in some quarters.

There is no dismissing or diminishing the fact that under trying circumstances the ruling government has been working hard to balance its books and stabilise the economy.  There may be some disputes over the precision of measurements and accounting conventions, but the evidence does point to some clear successes on the macroeconomic front.

The strengthening cedi has of course led to a significant boost in imports, but in real terms (accounting for inflation) the increase is in line with recent trends in the current account, and is thus not exactly scary (which is what you would expect if the currency had been artificially overvalued).

Ghana is the Global Top Reformer in Improving Access to Credit

and still Overall, the Easiest Place To Do Business in West Africa.

Ghana has established Africa’s newest centralized Collateral Registry and by improving credit information and legal rights through granting an operating license to a private credit bureau, the West African country led the world in making it easier for businesses to obtain credit.

This is a finding of Doing Business 2011:  Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of the flagship annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank benchmarking the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.  The report presents qualitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights for 183 economies _ from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.  The data are current as of June 2010.

Gender Disparities in African Labor Markets Caused by Jobs Scarcity, Not Discrimination

Investments in education and job creation seen as key to fostering gender equality

Gender inequalities remain a concern in African labor markets despite variations from one country to another, a new book published by the World Bank shows. The book, Gender Disparities in Africa_s Labor Market, reveals that overall there is a 17 percentage-point difference between the labor force participation rate for men (78.3 percent) and women (61 percent).

UN Official Says Resources, Policies And Leadership Key To Achieving Anti-Poverty Goals

From www.undp.org

Countries can make headway on slashing hunger, poverty and a host of other socio-economic ills over the next five years, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said today, stressing three essential elements for progress.

“With sufficient and predictable resources for development, the appropriate policies, and strong leadership and capacity, we do believe that the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals can be met,” Helen Clark stated, referring to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

A Snap shot of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings: How to achieve a world without poverty!

By Franklin Cudjoe, Washington, D.C., www.imani.org

The World Bank and the IMF have not had many friends in the developing world since post-Structural Adjustments days, when their advice and interventions, largely backed by aid yielded slow and negative growth.  It is the case though, that dealing with the two Bretton Woods institutions is like loaded dice. In one breadth they provide you with advice, and then in another, they continue to support countries that fail, even when their failure did not originate from bad advice, but essentially rooted in disrespect for the most basic institutions needed to effect real change.

Take Ghana, for instance.  Not all the IMF and World Bank’s involvement in our mostly self-inflicted tottering economy in the 1980s come to doom and gloom? There were significant gains, which could have been used to diversify our agrarian based economy- yet we watched politicians splurge most of the gains on the 1992, 1996 and 2000 general elections. And just when our strangling debts were paid off, with a promise to ‘taking off’ into the middle income bracket, we watered down the gains again in 2008, with a world record deficit of almost 20% to GDP- mostly incurred as a result of light-speed spending, mainly outside of the budget and ostensibly to chase political votes.

NDC, Lying With The Truth

A year ago on 10^th July 2009, I wrote an article attacking NDC public truths. NDC Big and Small Lies Will Un-Make the Party.   Actually walking the soil and riding Mass Metro Transit, Tro-Tro and taxis in Ghana, trying to make sense out of the complex economic chains, is an eye opener of how the macro and micro economic environments are separate from each other.  Ghana is two economies.  The macro numbers, which capture the attention of academia, the donor community and the regulatory authorities and the micro economy, where 80% of Ghanaians live and struggle to make a living.  In stark contrast to each other, visualize the banking hall of Stanchart, Ecobank, Barclays or any of the others and juxtapose that against the trade paths in Makola and Mallam markets or the lines of kiosks on the road sides of Odorkor and Palladium and other peri-urban communities.