Pace-setter in search of new levels of growth By David White Published: October 31 2005 16:45 | Last updated: October 31 2005 16:45 The headline in the Daily Graphic, one of Ghana’s best reputed newspapers, was revealing. “Peace at last”, it proclaimed across the front page. Which one of stable Ghana’s more turbulent neighbours could this refer to? But no, it was a domestic story about a protracted chieftaincy dispute in the country’s Eastern Region. The case, an attempted breakaway from the traditional local hierarchy, had gone through the highest courts in the land. As part of the settlement, the offending chief was to provide for a consignment of schnapps, the slaughter of 12 sheep and the burial of a previous office-holder who, by then, had been dead for five years. Two points arise from this story. One is that conflicts in Ghana, when they happen, tend to be of a different order from those that afflict other parts of Africa. The other is that traditional patrimonial structures retain a particular importance alongside the trappings of a modern democratic state. Ghana’s establishment straddles both systems with disconcerting ease. You can find, say, a high-powered financial services consultant who doubles as a paramount chief, with all the deference, paraphernalia and land owning rights that go with the title. Some argue that the compromise between old and new is a factor of social cohesion that has helped recent governments push through unpopular measures. Others, including leading donor representatives and foreign investors, see it in some ways as a brake on the pace of change. Ghana stands out from most of its region as a country that has come back from disaster. In the early 1980s, the nation that had led the wave of independence among the colonies of black Africa was in a state of economic collapse. Since then, it has emerged as a pace-setter for recovery and standards of governance. It passed a milestone five years ago when Jerry John Rawlings, former flight lieutenant, revolutionary leader and then reformist president, stood down after 18 years in office and his party was voted out. The election that brought John Kufuor to power was the first change of government by the ballot-box in Ghana’s history, and one of the first in Africa, too. > >> >Country fact file >> >> > Click here for a PDF file > Returned for a second and final term last December, Mr Kufuor has been a reassuring presence, strengthening Ghana’s image as a haven in a volatile neighbourhood. As a society, Ghana has suffered much less damage than others, either from its experience of colonialism or from subsequent strife. It has had its share of coups d’état but now enjoys a settled political system, with genuine competition between parties of left and right and respect for the rule of law. Generally peaceful within its borders, it has been a promoter of peace outside. A disproportionate number of Ghanaians can be found in senior international posts, starting with Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, and Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the West African regional organisation, Ecowas. For two decades, it has been a testing ground for economic reforms. One of the first African countries to be put through the rigours of “structural adjustment”, it is now one of the first to benefit from combined donor support channelled directly into its government budget. With Rwanda, it was one of the first countries to submit itself to peer review by the African Union in April this year. With its easygoing atmosphere, Ghana is beloved of aid workers and a favoured destination for assistance from the UK and elsewhere. Already a beneficiary of debt relief, it is in line for further debt write-offs and increased support under the plans outlined for Africa by the G8 leaders at the their Gleneagles summit in July. Donors, almost as much as the government, are anxious to portray it as a star performer. Certainly, its recent period of stability is unprecedented since independence and exceptional in tropical Africa. Even the currency, the cedi – which middle-aged Ghanaians can remember being worth $1, compared to the present-day value of barely one hundredth of a US cent – is steady these days. But Ghana’s performance is also a source of frustration, falling short of its promise. Real economic growth has stayed within the same range of between 3 and 6 per cent a year since the mid-1980s. During that time, the population has risen from 12m to 20m, and continues to increase by more than 500,000 a year. With many Ghanaians seeing little or no visible improvement in living standards, Mr Kufuor’s government is searching for ways of attaining a higher growth plateau. The apparent growth barrier is subject to different interpretations. Is it because the free-market reforms that have been prescribed are the wrong medicine? Or is it that the dose has not been large enough? In some respects, Ghana still looks like a classic post-colonial African economy, depending on a few commodities and, more recently, expatriates’ remittances. Cocoa, gold and timber continue to account for three quarters of exports. The “golden age for business” that Mr Kufuor once proclaimed has failed to materialise as rapidly as many hoped. Foreign investment is small, deterred by high business costs and problems such as land tenure. Since most land is vested in local chiefs, transactions are often messy and uncertain. Facilities such as power, water, ports and roads badly need upgrading. Embarrassingly, the triumph of Ghana’s national soccer team last month in qualifying, for the first time, for the final stages of next year’s World Cup in Germany was marred by a nationwide blackout. Development partners complain of slow decision-making by government on big projects, and a reluctance to cut back the country’s bloated civil service. As the Financial Times discovered while preparing this report, Ghanaian bureaucracy can, when it chooses, be as officious and obstructive as any on the continent. Legislation on government procurement and financial management has reduced the scope for abuses. But many say that, despite Mr Kufuor’s anti-corruption platform, low-level graft has continued and possibly increased. Mr Kufuor’s opponents accuse him of nepotism and ethnic favouritism. The impact of stronger recent growth is mixed, and in some areas barely discernable. Figures for extreme poverty show Ghana on course to meeting the target set under the UN’s Millennium Development Goals – halving the 1990 rate by 2015. But some indicators for health and nutrition have been getting worse, with an increase in infant deaths between 1998 and 2003. The government is in the process of pioneering a mandatory national health insurance scheme funded from contributions and earmarked value-added taxes, which will make treatment available without payment. But UN officials say that on present trends Ghana will miss its MDG health targets. The country has been losing more than half its doctors to the brain drain. Money is flowing back from members of Ghana’s diaspora, reckoned to number 3m. But, amid signs of conspicious middle-class spending, the perception among many ordinary people is that they are no better off. Discontent among young urban dwellers now looms as potentially Ghana’s biggest political risk. Some of those who originally voted for Mr Kufuor are bitterly disillusioned. Last December’s election was not the walkover many expected. Whoever his successor as candidate is in 2008 it would not take much for an upset. In common with a number of others in Africa, Ghana’s government is struggling with popular expectations it created when it was elected to power and has so far been unable to meet. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤