World Bank to help build foundation for “Ghana Beyond Aid”
The World Bank is looking to help build the foundation for a “Ghana Beyond Aid” with its $4.5bn Country Partnership Framework (CPF).
With the CPF, the World Bank asserts it will be repositioning its partnership with Ghana to support its post Covid-19 recovery and enforce the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
The CPF which begins this year and ends in 2026, the Bretton Wood Institution noted is anchored in the government’s national development plans particularly the Ghana CARES programme.
According to the World Bank, the CPF will support a recovery pathway that is based on green, resilient and inclusive development (GRID) principles and structured around three mutually reinforcing focus areas that include; Enhancing Conditions for Private Sector Development and Quality Job Creation; Improving Inclusive Service Delivery; and Promoting Resilient and Sustainable Development.
The Government’s ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ Vision seeks to transform Ghana into an economically self-reliant country that creates opportunities for all Ghanaians, safeguards the environment, and ensures resilient infrastructure, while maintaining a stable, united and safe country.
The objective is to deliver productivity gains in manufacturing and agriculture, improving human capital and technological capacity, investing in public infrastructure, and ultimately exporting higher value-added products.
The aim is to double per capita income between 2017 and 2024 and increase Ghana’s engagement globally through trade and investment while systematically weaning itself off foreign aid dependency.
These priorities are reinforced in the Government’s various national development plans that also seek to position Ghana in West Africa as a regional hub for expertise and integration.
The CPF will move towards larger and more cohesive and transformational interventions, potentially across multiple sectors, that align closely to strong government programs and with greater use of results-based financing, where appropriate.
It is designed to be flexible, especially during its early years of implementation, with an early review of progress to accommodate needed changes for a post COVID-19 recovery.
The CPF was prepared jointly by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and builds upon the lessons from the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2013 – 2016, which was extended to 2018 through the November 2016 Performance and Learning Review (PLR).
