World Bank Approves $145 million to Ghana(Business page) June 5, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor

THE World Bank has approved three credits for Ghana totalling $145 million, in fulfilment of its commitment to provide assistance to the budget annually under the Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) framework.
The credits include additional funding valued at more than $20 million, to support measures designed urgently to help Ghana deal with the rising cost of living due to the global food and oil price hikes.
The other two are Poverty Reduction Support Credit of $100 million and Agriculture Development Policy Operation of $25 million.
The support is a harmonised partnership framework in which the government and a number of its development partners provide direct funding for the implementation of the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy through the annual budget.
Since its inception in 2003, a total of $1.7 billion has been disbursed under the framework, with over $700 million coming from the World Bank alone, through six Poverty Reduction Support Credits.
The World Bank Country Director in Ghana, Mr Ishac Diwan, in an interaction with some selected journalists in Accra last Tuesday, explained that the $20 million was an additional amount meant to ensure that the mitigation measures as announced by the President benefited that poor and most vulnerable in society.
He said that amount had been divided into two equal parts and was to be used to support the purchase of fertiliser to encourage farmers to grow more crops during these trying times.
Mr Diwan said the second part will support the government’s LEAP programme and lactating mothers.
The World Bank Country Director described the measures as timely, saying, “they are to ensure that the poor and vulnerable in society escape to some extent, the very hash conditions that the increasing world food prices and soaring oil prices had brought to the world”.
He said the poverty reduction support remained the cornerstone of donor support for Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy, while the environmental governance programme and agricultural development policy will provide new important support for policy reform on natural resources and environment, as well as the agriculture sector.
He said policy actions under the poverty programme would focus on the implementation of various reform programmes to accelerate private sector-led growth by facilitating private sector development and increasing agricultural productivity and exports; develop human resources by consolidating achievements in education, health, and water and sanitation.
He explained further that these would also promote good governance by deepening decentralisation, strengthening public financial management and enhancing efficiency, transparency and accountability in public investments and service delivery at both central and decentralised levels.
Mr Diwan expressed the hope that the natural resource programme would support governance reforms in the interrelated sectors of forestry and wildlife, mining and environmental protection.
He said they were intended to ensure effective forest law enforcement, improve the mining and forestry sectors, revenue collection, management, and transparency.
Mr Diwan said it would also address social issues in forest and mining communities, environmental protection into growth, safeguards and adaptation to climate change.
He added that it would also initiate support to the adoption and future implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI++) approach in the existing forestry and mining sectors as well as in the emerging oil sector.
Mr Diwan noted that the agricultural development policy would support the recent positive achievements in the agricultural sector, including: Further diversification of horticulture exports; addressing constraints to productivity of food crops and improving the planning and execution of budgets in the sector.
He said the programme specifically supported the government’s national agricultural strategy by promoting key reforms essential for the growth of the sector.
Mr Diwan said in addition, it provided support to help the country respond to recent rises in global food prices.
He explained that these operations focused on accelerating the kind of growth that benefited the poor; improved environmental sustainability for the benefit of future generations; supported the delivery of basic services, especially water, to the citizens across the country, and continued to work towards better and more inclusive governance.