Development Partners to review Ghana’s GH¢46.2b economy
Ghana’s Development Partners (DPs) will meet with members of government to review the country’s economy.
The review meeting will look at all sectors of the national economy which was valued by the Ghana Statistical Service at GH¢46.2 billion as at 2010. It will also take a closer look at progress being made by the Ghana government in meeting development objectives set out in the country’s Medium Term Development Agenda (MTDA).
“The Review will look at all the development issues facing Ghana including those related to health, energy, education and agriculture, as well as the Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Guiding Principles, which provide the basis for continuing development partner support”, a release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com on May 12, 2011 from the Switzerland Embassy in Accra, has said.
The review, which will also focus on the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRSII) which ended in 2009, will additionally assess the overall macroeconomic performance of the country using information from the Audit Service Reports on the Consolidated Fund, the Annual Progress Reports prepared by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the report of the National African Peer Review Mechanism (NAPRM), the External Review of Public Financial Management and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) macroeconomic and fiscal assessments, said the release.
According to the release, equitable development, public sector management capacity and coordination as well as revenue management in Ghana’s nascent oil and gas sector will not be left out of the review.
It is expected that at the end of the meeting, the DPs will communicate to government, their intended MDBS contribution for 2012 which will be included in the national budget.
The DPs provide an average of about $300 million every year to support the national budget. Their 2011 pledge to the budget is $456.9 million, according to the Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The partners are the African Development Bank, United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, France and Japan.
The rest are Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland as well as the World Bank.
Dates for the meeting are May 16, 17 and 19, 2011. Civil Society Organizations, the media, Non-Governmental Organizations and other stakeholders are also involved.
By Ekow Quandzie