Tenth Consultative Group Meeting for Ghana's donors to be held in Accra

Accra (Greater Accra) 16 Nov. '99

The 10th Consultative Group (CG) Meeting for Ghana will be held in Accra from November 23-24. A statement from the World Bank in Accra on Monday said participants from all over the world would attend the two-day meeting. This is the first time that the Consultative Group for Ghana is meeting in Ghana. Consultative Groups are forums where developing countries meet with their donor partners to discuss the key policy issues facing the country and for the donors to give indications of their expected financial support to the country concerned.

Some of these CGs are held every year, but in the case of African countries, it is normally held every two years. The last CG for Ghana was held in Paris on 5 -6 November 1997. At that event, some 1.6 billion dollars was committed in external assistance to Ghana for the years 1998-99. "The CG meeting being held in Ghana is an important symbolic change, signalling the growing lead that the Government of Ghana is taking in its relations with its external partners." The statement said this is reflected also in the way the Government has taken charge of launching the Comprehensive Development Framework process in Ghana and is managing the Common Country Assessment with the World Bank and with the rest of the United Nations System.

"This is a very opportune time for Ghana to host this CG meeting. As recent discussions in Parliament and in the press have revealed, Ghana is facing acute financial pressures in the period ahead, not least because of the fall in the world prices of cocoa and gold, and the rise in the price of oil.