GROUP 4 KWESI BOTCHWEY GSGDA 1 11 AND

GROUP 4 KWESI BOTCHWEY. GSGDA 1 & 11 AND GPRS 1 & 11

Prof. Kwesi Botchwey Mr. Botchwey is a Ghanaian former government official and professor in development economics at Tiff university. He was a former minister of finance (19821995) He’s the author of the books“Transforming the Periphery” and “A Study for the Struggle of the social forces in Ghana for Democracy and National Sovereignty”. He holds a LLB, LLM and doctorate from University of Ghana, Yale and Michigan law schools respectively. Currently, he is a member of the President’s Economic Advisory Council and the chairman of the NDPC.

Background information Over the years successive governments have provided Medium-Term National Development Policy Frameworks to guide the preparation and implementation of Sector and District Development Plans aimed at reducing poverty and improving the social wellbeing of the people. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I), Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda are the latest of such national development policy frameworks.

Ghana Poverty Reduction strategy (GPRS) 1 The GPRS I is a comprehensive development policy framework that was formulated and implemented by the Ghanaian government between the years 2003 and 2005 with the main objective of reducing poverty. To achieve this, the framework outlines five keen objective areas: : Ensuring macroeconomic stability Expand production and employment Human resources development Protecting the vulnerable and extremely poor Governance and public sector reformation.

Macroeconomic stability The GPRS 1 underscored macroeconomic stability as a necessary condition for accelerated economic growth and overall poverty reduction. In regards, policies were implemented to attract both foreign and local investors, preserve an adequate real wage and maintain the real value of government revenue all aligned to reduce the incidence of poverty. A target of a 5% real growth rate (from 4. 7% in 2003) was set for 2005.

Production and Employment The GPRS aimed to expand production and employment through various policies and programs. It paid much attention to increasing production in the agricultural and non-traditional export sectors, manufacturing industry and the services sector. It also aimed at creating adequate self-employment opportunities with schemes mainly to support women and improve working conditions.

Human resource development In the area of human resource development, keen interest was placed on five interrelated key areas. They were education, health, HIV/AIDS, population control, and water and sanitation. To attain this, emphasis was placed on quality and quantity education, improved teacher training institutes, PROMOTING SAFE SEX, PREVENTING NEW CASES OF HIV,

Protecting the vulnerable and extremely poor. In relation to alleviate poverty, much emphasis Is on measures to Protect and support the extremely poor and vulnerable Section of the population. To do this, the government Planned to increase spending on social security Schemes and partnership programs with NGOs. Reducing child malnutrition incidents was of equal importance.

Governance and public sector reformation Reformation of the public sector in coordination with the private sector was greatly factored in the quest to reduce poverty. Policies that looked at tax incentives, partnership between private and public sector and decentralization of government powers to the district level were implemented. Transparency in governance was also considered with much attention to the financial areas.

Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS ) 11 With regards to the positive economic environment resulting from the implementation of policies under the GPRS I, there was a need to have a successor which led to the initiation and implementation of the GPRS I 1 which span over the years 2006 to 2009, with priority to accelerated growth and sustained poverty reduction. To achieve this, targets were anchored to the following key areas: Diversified export base. Accelebrated private sector led growth Improved agricultural sector Continued macroeconomic stability

Accelerated private sector led growth The government supported the private sector to be the main engine that drove growth and prosperity. It did this by facilitating the private sector access to capital, innovation and entrepreneurship and strengthening of firms’ competency and capacity to operate efficiently and effectively

Diversified export base To attain the ultimate goal of export diversification, the government put up a plan to improve on our export products by increasing agricultural productivity, processing and storage, removing technical barriers to key current and potential export products and also providing assistance to exporters to abide by international standards from selected export markets.

Improved agriculture sector To counter some of major challenges emanating from GPRS I, the government in this respect planed to improve on increasing agricultural productivity, processing and storage by accelerating the provision of irrigation infrastructure, access to credit union and inputs for agriculture, access to mechanized agriculture and the use of local raw materials, eg; maize and sorghum in brewing etc. .

Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda(GSGDA)1. The large fiscal imbalance experienced in 2008 and the difficult macroeconomic situation inherited triggered the goal of the medium-term national development policy framework, Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA I) from 2010 -2013 to achieve and sustain macroeconomic stability while placing the economy on a higher path of shared growth, and poverty reduction. Policies were implemented in the following objective areas : : Ensuring and sustaining macroeconomic stability. Enhanced competitiveness of the private sector Accelerated agriculture modernization. Human development, empowerment and productivity.

Sustained macroeconomic stability To achieve this objective, policies were implemented under the following strategic areas: Improved fiscal resource mobilization Improving expenditure management Promoting effective debt management Ensuring price and exchange rate stability.

Enhanced competitiveness of the private sector � Improve private sector competitiveness domestically and globally develop micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). � Ensure rapid industrialization driven by strong linkages to agriculture and other natural resource endowments. � Develop tourism as a major industry. � Develop and strengthen Ghana’s creative arts industry.

Accelerated agriculture modernization � The broad objectives to be achieved under the medium term development strategy include: � Improved agricultural productivity. � Increased agricultural competitiveness and enhanced integration into domestic and international markets. � Reduced production and distribution risks/ bottlenecks in agriculture and industry

The Ghana shared growth and development agenda( GSGDA ) 11 The Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda ( GSGDA ) 11 like all the others preceding it, is a policy framework that succeeded the GSGDA 1. The framework was formulated and implemented to address and solve the structural challenges such as the misalignment of allocation of resources that emerged from the GSGDA 1. To achieve this, it focused on the following objective key areas: ensuring and sustaining macroeconomic stability, enhance competitiveness of Ghana’s private sector, accelerate agricultural modernization, developing the oil and gas industry, developing infrastructural and human settlements among others.

Ensuring and sustaining macroeconomic stability The overall goal of macroeconomic stability policies and strategies under the GSGDA II is to correct the distortions that have emerged during the end of GSGDA I implementation, , and place the country on the path to social and economic transformation. To attain the overall goal of macroeconomic stability, priority is placed on the following key policy areas: Improve monetary and financial policy management Have an effective and efficient fiscal policy management International trade and Reginal integration.

Improve monetary and financial policies Ensure price and exchange rate stability : : The strategy is to review the existing policy framework and enhance It’s implemention to ensure it serves the needs of private sector, support increased competition in the financial system, and strengthen the inter-bank foreign exchange market. Improve access to financial services : : Here, it seek to implement Schemes that will improve women access to credit, develop a more comprehensive Insurance market et cetera.

Effective and efficient fiscal policy management. The medium-term policy interventions to effectively and efficiently manage fiscal policies will be among others, improve the fiscal resource mobilization and management, improve public expenditure management, and improve the capacity for effective Public sector management which will be made possible through the maintenance of wage bill Within globally accepted levels and institute efficient expenditure control measures.

Enhance competitiveness of the private sector To attain the long-term goal of enhancing private sector competitiveness, priority attention will be given to the implementation of the Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS) II. Policies and strategic steps to achieving that include the following : Developing the private sector Growing and developing the MSMEs. Industrial development. Etc

Private sector development The policy interventions to be implemented in the private sector will be to achieve an improved private sector productivity and competitiveness both globally and locally, increase the opportunity for private Participation in social-economic infrastructure development, expand access to both domestic and international market, and expand opportunities for accelerated job creation.

Growth and development of MSME. The policy interventions within the medium – term policy framework to enhance the performance of MSMEs will be among others, to improve their operational efficiency and competitiveness, enhance their access to finance and to improve the technical and entrepreneur skills.

Develop oil and gas industry The transformation agenda under the GSGDA II is expected to be aided by the development of the oil and gas industry with effective linkage to the rest of the economy. Policy implementation will focus on addressing the critical constraints and issues identified in these key areas : : Oil and gas industry development and linkage to the rest of the economy. Employment creation Transparency in revenue management.

Oil and gas industry development; linkage to the rest of the economy. The main objectives to be pursued under this focus area will be to : : Use oil and gas endowment as a pivotal tool in diversifying the economy, mainly agriculture and industrial sector. Accelerate development of complementary resources such as salt to trigger development of a petrochemical industry. Promote the re-development of existing settlements in the oil and gas enclave as part of the new urban development.

Employment creation The overall objective to be achieved in this focus area is to leverage the opportunities in the oil and gas industry to create job. The plan actions will include The implementation of the Local Content Participatory Law (LCPL). Ensure the compliance of all companies and other players active in the industry to Prevailing regulations relating to labour recruitment.

Transparency in revenue management The overall objective to be achieved in this focus area is to ensure effective and transparent management of oil and gas revenues. The strategies to be adopted will include: strengthening the existing revenue management regime; and strengthening the monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangement for the oil and gas industry.

Reasons for plan failure Although Ghana has had fairly successful plans like the guggisberg ten years plan, Nkrumah’s ten years plan, the GPRS, yet there have been gaps between the targeted goals and the successes of plans over the plan period. Some clear reasons can be attributed to this. And among them is the listed below: Deficiencies in plans and their implementation Insufficient and unreliable data Unanticipated Economic and political disturbances Lack of political will.

Reference Wikipedia Www. Kwesibotchwey. com Www. un. org The Ghana poverty reduction strategy( GPRS ) 1, february, 2003 The Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS ) 11 paper; NDPC, November 2005 Document from world bank, a joint staff assessment of GPRS Paper. UG Centre for distance learning; Econs 205 course book. The Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA )1 &11 papers; NDPC, December, 2010.