'Ghana Beyond Aid' is not a rejection of aid

The President’s vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ does not mean a rejection of aid but a national vision to strengthen institutions to be effective and harness the nation’s resources to improve livelihoods.

Arrangements made with people outside the country in the form of aid were meant to assist the country to get the fundamental objectives of development.

Dr Yaw Ansu, the Special Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, said this at a forum jointly organised by Star Ghana Foundation and Civil Society Platform Ghana in Accra on Thursday.

On the theme: “Ghana’s Journey to the Sustainable Development Goals in a Beyond Aid Context,” the meeting sought to discuss the nexus between the Ghana Beyong Aid Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

It also sought to strategize for the universal call to action to end poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Dr Ansu said the Ghana Beyond Aid essentially was to mobilise and conscientize Ghanaians "that no one was going to come from anywhere to develop Ghana for them other than themselves".

“Progress will be made when we accept responsibility for our own actions and thereby, conduct ourselves in a manner that will be fruitful.”

Dr Eugene Owusu, an Official from the Office of the President, during a panel discussion, explained that the SDG’s aim of transforming and improving the livelihood of the world was in sync with the ideals of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, which sought to improve the lives of Ghanaians.

He said both SDG’s and Ghana Beyond Aid ideals sought to build on strong institutions and strengthen the private sector to be vibrant and robust to achieve its objectives.

Dr Owusu noted that the two ideals sought to fully leverage on innovation in the area of science, technology and agriculture to achieve results.

“One of the challenges to our development is poor governance in the past 62 years. It is important to reinvent governance and make it work for poverty reduction. This is the only scenarios that can help us to achieve the SDGs and the Ghana Beyond Aid,” he said.

Dr Owusu said another important factor to facilitate the achievement of the two was to bridge the gender gap and fully utilize the energy and ingenuity of women.

Mr Rachel Glennerster, the Chief Adviser at the Department for International Development, touching on the contribution of the donor community to support the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, said the Department would support the country with effective skills on taxation and revenue mobilization to be used for the public good.

He said the Government needed to initiate effective steps to protect people from shocks and pledged the support of donor agencies to make its expertise available.

Mr Glennerster noted that Ghana needed to see herself as a donor-recipient but a global player and develop new partnerships to enable her to achieve set goals.