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61. The Fiscal Effects of Aid in Ghana

Author:
Robert Osei, Oliver Morrissey, and Tim Lloyd
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
An important feature of aid to developing countries is that it is given to the government. As a result, aid should be expected to affect fiscal behaviour, although theory and existing evidence is ambiguous regarding the nature of these effects. This paper applies techniques developed in the 'macroeconometrics' literature to estimate the dynamic linkages between aid and fiscal aggregates. Vector autoregressive methods are applied to 34 years of annual data in Ghana to model the effect of aid on fiscal behaviour. Results suggest that aid to Ghana has been associated with reduced domestic borrowing and increased tax effort, combining to increase public spending. This constructive use of aid to maintain fiscal balance is evident since the mid-1980s, following Ghana's structural adjustment programme. The pa per provides evidence that aid has been associated with improved fiscal performance in Ghana, implying that the aid has been used sensibly (at least in fiscal terms).
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

62. Innovative Ways of Making Aid Effective in Ghana: Tied Aid versus Direct Budgetary Support

Author:
Peter Quartey
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
There has been significant amount of aid inflow s to developing countries including Ghana, but these have been very volatile. Aid flows have been associated with low domestic resource mobilization and have reduced Ghana to a country heavily dependent on aid. The amount of official development assistance (ODA) inflow s has fallen in recent years and has become unpredictable. It is general knowledge that aid has not yielded the desired benefit. In an attempt to improve aid effectiveness donors have used tie d aid not just to promote commercial interests but also to target aid to particular projects that have direct links with poverty. However, this has not yielded the maximum benefits required. Recently, the government of Ghana and its development partners agreed on an aid package dubbed the multi-donor budgetary support (MDBS), which would ensure continuous flow of aid to finance the government's poverty related expenditures.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

63. Networking Symposium on Security Sector Governance in Asia

Author:
Riefqi Muna and Shiam Vidurupola
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:
The Global Facilitation Network (GFN) for Security Sector Reform (SSR) facilitated a symposium in Bangkok from 21-22 September 2004. The purpose of the symposium was to carry out an assessment of the potential of existing and future networks for the promotion and support of Security Sector Reform agendas in Asia. The symposium aimed to encourage a wider debate on SSR by exploring and promoting existing regional networks. Participants attended from a range of many South and South East Asian countries including Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. International experts from Germany, the UK, Switzerland Ghana, and Nigeria also attended, in order to encourage a south-south dialogue and to share experiences from other continents. This diversity of knowledge resulted in enriched debate at a regional level. Experiences were shared and analysed by more than fifty participants from senior positions in academia, politics, military, police, civil society, donor organisations, and the media.
Topic:
Security, Regional Cooperation, and Governance
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Asia, Nepal, Ghana, and Southeast Asia

64. Africa's Discontent: Coping with Human and Natural Disasters

Author:
Robert I. Rotberg
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The inhabitants of tropical Africa in 2003 demand higher levels of performance from their governments than they could, or dared to do, in the 1970s and 1980s, a decade or two after independence from colonial rule. Nowadays they suffer despots reluctantly, as in Zimbabwe, deny them unconstitutional third terms, as in Malawi and Zambia (but not in Togo), gleefully vote for more promising rulers, as in Ghana and Kenya, or insist al- most everywhere on improved governing and government.
Topic:
Civil War, Environment, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Zambia, and Ghana

65. Workshop on Security Sector Governance in Africa

Author:
Anicia Lala and Riefqi Muna
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:
Security Sector Governance (SSG) in Africa was the theme of a workshop that took place from the 24-26 November, 2003, at Elmina, Ghana, under the auspices of Africa Dialogue and Security Research (ASDR), with the support of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) and jointly funded by the UK Government (Africa Conflict Prevention Pool) and the Special Initiative for Africa from the Ford Foundation. Participation and speakers included academics as well as practitioners from both NGOs and Government. Also in attendance were representatives of various security sector areas, namely defence, police and intelligence from a range of regions, including Southern, East and West Africa, Europe and North America. The agenda covered a multitude of subjects within the governance theme, rendering the programme valuable, instructive and enriching the debates. Among the subjects were International and Regional Perspectives on Security Sector Governance, Governance of Police and Policing, Governance of Intelligence and Governance of the Armed Forces.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa, America, Europe, and Ghana

66. Africa Policy Outlook 2001

Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
By the end of the year 2000, a peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea, peaceful transfers of power after elections in Senegal and Ghana, and continued growth of public debate about the future in almost every African country were among signs of advance in a year that was more than usually short of good news. Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa was estimated to climb to 2.7 percent for the year, up from 2.1 percent in 1999. Per capita income in the region south of the Sahara rose by an estimated two tenths of one percent. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced debt reduction packages of $34 billion for 22 countries, including 18 in Africa.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Debt, Development, Diplomacy, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Africa, Ethiopia, Senegal, Eritrea, and Ghana

67. The Impact of Election Administration on the Legitimacy of Emerging Democracies: A New Research Agenda

Author:
Jørgen Elklit and Andrew Reynolds
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In this paper we attempt to push the development of a new subfield of research in the field of democratization and institutional design, which is the relationship between the institutionalization of electoral politics (and in particular the administration of elections) and the emergence of democracy in the developing world. This new avenue of research represents an important advance in the study of causal relationships, which so far has either been completely neglected in the democratization canon or has only been given dramatically insufficient attention.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ghana, and Botswana

68. CIAO: Ghana — Vulnerable Economy

Author:
Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
Government spending is increasing in the run-up to general elections next month and attempts to liberalise the cocoa trade appear half-hearted. The effectiveness of liberal economic reforms will be constrained as long as Ghana remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the prices of a narrow range of exports. Moreover, anti-corruption measures will lose their bite if they are seen to be directed in part against the government's opponents.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Politics, and Reform
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

69. Nutrition and Economic Destitution in Northern Ghana, 1930-1957. A Historical Perspective on Nutritional Economics

Author:
Jérùme Destombes
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
This research takes Iliffe's suggestion seriously. For the student of Sub- Saharan Africa who has decided to explore a plausible route of causation between nutrition and poverty, the most urgent task is to disregard the initial discouragement triggered by the scarcity of references. The lack of relevant data is commonly pointed out and the contrast with the powerful insights made throughout the last decade by development economists is striking: poverty issues have been comprehensively investigated with behavioural models that strive to capture household strategies to cope with nutritional inadequacy and scarcity of resources. Although these strategies potentially have immense effects on welfare, development and the effectiveness of public policies, there have been few attempts to examine nutrition in less-developed countries through an economic history lens.
Topic:
Economics and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Ghana