Ghana to chalk another first

Ghana is on course to become the first African country to achieve the first target (MDG l) of halving poverty and hunger by 2015, says a report released by the British Overseas Development Institute.

According to the report, “Ghana had reduced hunger by nearly three quarters from 34% to 9% between 1990 and 2004 -an area in which it had out-performed all other countries around the world.”

Disclosing this at the just ended High Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals in New York, USA, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said “We are approximately four and a half years to the target date of achieving the MDGs in 2015, and Ghana’s progress is encouraging.”

Quoting the report, he said, “Ghana is firmly on track to achieving MDG 1 -halving poverty; MDG 2 -achieving universal basic education and part of MDG 3 -ensuring gender parity especially at the primary school level before the target date 2015.”

Alhaji Mumuni stated that significant progress has also been made in achieving the MDG 4 target of reducing both infant and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds by 2015, saying “it is possible for Ghana to achieve the target for this MDG if we scale-up efforts and sustain the child survival interventions which brought about the current improvement.”

He however lamented that despite heightened efforts over the years, Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is still unacceptably high and currently stands at 451 deaths per 100,000 live births, which means Ghana is unlikely to attain the target of reducing by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio by 2015, despite improvement in maternal health care in the past 20 years.

The Foreign Affairs Minister again bemoaned that although the HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) prevalence rate in Ghana fell from 3.2% in 2006 to 2.2% in 2008 the challenge to meet the 2015 target of halting and reversing the spread of the epidemic remains daunting.

He expressed the view that a lot however, needs to be done on educational campaign and other HIV and AIDS programmes, to promote significant behavioural change, adding that the incidence of malaria remains a serious public health concern, and is still considered a leading cause of mortality and morbidity, particularly among pregnant women and children under-five years.

The Minister divulged too that Ghana is on track to achieving the MDG 7 target of reducing by half the proportion of people without access to improved water ahead of the 2015 target. He stated that there are however, critical challenges in accessing improved sanitation, and reducing the proportion of urban population living in slum areas.

“Although access to improved sanitation has been increasing, Ghana is unlikely to achieve the target unless extra effort is made to accelerate the pace of policy implementation,” he opined.

With respect to MDG 8, he adduced that what is of essence is the political will to fulfil pledges already made. “The success stories in a number of developing countries show that rapid progress towards achieving the MDGs is still possible when sound national development policies are supported effectively by development partners and the international community with adequate financial and technical assistance,” he stressed.

Stating that about two years ago, it was said that meeting the MDGs, especially the reduction of poverty by one- half by 2015 would require raising the annual ODA flow to poor countries by at least $50 billion to $60 billion above the prevailing level, Alhaji Mumuni said “We are mindful of the adverse impact unleashed by the global financial, oil and food crises, on major economies, but $60 billion will definitely pale in comparison with the bailouts and other response measures adopted by the advanced economies in the wake of the crises.”

“This notwithstanding, supportive environment for achieving the MDGs remains strong in Ghana, and I believe it is so in many developing countries,” he envisaged.

Affirming that achieving the MDG targets is no mean task, the Foreign Affairs Minister said , for Ghana, halving the proportion of people below the poverty line alone will require an annual investment expenditure of about US$1.9 billion over the period 2005-2015.

In addition, the country also needs to address critical infrastructure gaps, especially in energy, ICT, rural roads, and water and sanitation; low productivity in agriculture and improving business and investment climate,” he said .

He divulged that although poverty levels have declined, inequality exists between and within regions and districts, together with other challenges and that the country continues to depend on primary commodity exports such as cocoa and gold with limited diversification or processing, with a growing concern that the discovery of oil may aggravate the situation.

“Ghana is also vulnerable to external shocks arising out of commodity price volatility, as well as challenges posed by climate change manifested through high temperatures, sea level rise, droughts, floods, which affect agricultural output with repercussions for other sectors of the economy,” he added.

Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, however asserted that despite the constraints, Ghana continues to strive towards achieving the MDGs, adding, Ghana’s current socio-economic development agenda is to attain middle income status by 2020 within a decentralised democratic environment.

He revealed that this is being pursued simultaneously with the adoption of a social protection policy, aimed at empowering the vulnerable and excluded, especially women to contribute to and also share in the benefits of growth of the economy.

He said to underscore Ghana’s commitment to the attainment of the MDGs, the Medium Term Development Policy Framework (MTDF), 2010-2013, (the successor to the GPRS 11,) has also harmonised the MDG targets with the national development priorities.

At the turn of the century, in September 2000, Ghana, along with 189 Member States of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration that laid out the vision for a world of common values and renewed determination to achieve peace and decent standard of living for every man, woman and child. The eight goals that emanated from the Millennium Declaration were expected to generate unprecedented and coordinated action within the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, and within the wider donor community.

Ghana has since mainstreamed the MDGs into its Medium Term Development Policy Frameworks: the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy I (GPRS I), 2003 -2005, and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy I1 (GPRS II), 2006 -2009.

The two policy frameworks focused on the macroeconomic stability, gainful employment, human resource development and provision of basic services, the vulnerable and excluded.

Other areas included good governance; continued macroeconomic stability, private sector competitiveness and civic responsibility.

Ghana’s development agenda has been focused on growth and poverty reduction with the MDGs being adopted as the minimum requirements for socio-economic development. It was estimated that the total resources needed to implement the GPRS II over the period 2006-2009 was US$8.06 billion, with considerable proportions of the funds allocated towards the implementation of the MDGs-related programmes and projects.

By Edmund Smith-Asante