USAID-Ghana Partnership

Politically stable and economically resilient, Ghana continues to be hailed as an African success story. Buoyed by sustained economic growth, poverty has been cut in half over the last two decades. In July 2011, the World Bank reclassified Ghana as a lower middle-income country. And late last year, Ghanaians trooped to the polls in the country’s sixth successful national election since 1992. Yet despite Ghana’s emergence as one of the African continent’s brightest development prospects, the country also faces serious socioeconomic challenges. Roughly a quarter of Ghanaians live below the poverty line. In Ghana’s less developed northern regions, economic growth has yet to translate into significant poverty reduction. The leading cause of death in Ghanaian children under age five, malaria also remains hyper-endemic in the West African country. The U.N. Development Program ranked Ghana 135th out 186 countries in its 2013 Human Development Index. In its 2013-17 country development cooperation strategy for Ghana, the U.S. Agency for International Development pledges Washington’s continued aid engagement with the country. In line with Accra’s Shared Growth and Development Agenda, the document states that the overall goal of USAID programming in Ghana is to accelerate its transition toward established middle-income status. In support of this goal, USAID will focus its resources on achieving the following outcomes in Ghana by 2017: - Strengthened responsive, democratic governance. - Sustained and broadly shared economic growth. - Equitable improvements in health status. - Improved reading performance in primary school. Funding levels For fiscal 2014, the Obama administration has requested $160 million in U.S. foreign assistance to Ghana, down seven percent from fiscal 2012. Ahead of the United Kingdom, the United States is Ghana’s largest bilateral donor. USAID currently delivers the vast majority of U.S. foreign assistance to Ghana. In addition to USAID, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Millennium Challenge Corp. have also channeled significant amounts of U.S. foreign aid to Ghana in recent years. Funding priorities (fiscal 2014 request) The health sector continues to receive the largest share of U.S. foreign assistance to Ghana. For fiscal 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has allocated $67.5 million (43 percent) of its proposed aid budget for Ghana to the health sector. USAID Ghana manages programming for each of the U.S. government’s core global health assistance initiatives: the Global Health Initiative, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and President’s Malaria Initiative. Through 2017, USAID’s health programming in Ghana aims to achieve the following objectives: - Increase access to integrated health services. - Increase availability of community-based health resources. - Strengthen health systems. - Improve health sector governance and accountability. In fiscal 2014, the bulk of U.S. global health assistance to Ghana will support President’s Malaria Initiative programming to scale up preventive and treatment interventions against malaria. PMI has set a goal of reducing malaria-related morbidity by 50 percent in Ghana and 18 other African countries that have a high malaria burden. The agriculture sector garners the second largest portion of U.S. foreign aid to Ghana. For fiscal 2014, the Obama administration has set aside $45 million (29 percent) of its proposed aid budget for the West African country to Feed the Future programming. Feed the Future, the Obama administration’s global hunger and food security initiative, aims to foster country-led agricultural development in Ghana and 18 other focus countries. In Ghana, Feed the Future currently focuses on the development of rice, maize and soya value chains in the country’s northern regions. Through 2017, the initiative is also expected to support programming to improve the management and governance of marine fisheries in Ghana’s coastal areas. Slated for $26 million in funding from the Obama administration next fiscal year, education programming is another priority for USAID in Ghana. For fiscal 2014, the administration has earmarked $15.6 million in assistance to strengthen primary education reading and math instruction in Ghana. In keeping with its pledge to help strengthen democratic governance in Ghana by 2017, USAID also plans to integrate government accountability benchmarks across its programming in Ghana. Devex analysis Over the last four years, Ghana has emerged as a particular focus of the Obama administration’s foreign aid program in sub-Saharan Africa. Most notably, the administration named Ghana as one of only four participating countries in its Partnership for Growth initiative which aims to mobilize resources and expertise from the U.S. and select bilateral partners to support broad-based economic growth. USAID Ghana also manages programming for each of the administration’s marquee global development initiatives: the Global Health Initiative, Feed the Future, and Global Climate Change Initiative. Early indications suggest that Ghana will remain high up in the U.S. aid agenda during Obama’s second term. This month, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Gene Cretz revealed the administration’s plans to roll out a $200 million comprehensive development agenda for Ghana’s northern regions. And in December, the performance-based U.S. aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corp., re-selected Ghana as a country eligible for a second compact. Ghana’s peaceful and democratic transition of power following the death of President John Atta Mills last year has likely bolstered Washington’s imperatives for its development partnership with Accra. The Obama administration’s June 2012 strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa pledged continued U.S. support for model democracies in the region. During his historic visit to Ghana in 2009, Obama had praised Ghana’s adherence to democratic principles over the course of its development. “We must first recognize the fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: Development depends on good governance… That’s the change that can unlock Africa’s potential,” said Obama. 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