An assessment of the European Union's development aid policy for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries : the case of Ghana

Abstract

The aim for this thesis has been three fold; to ascertain the extent to which the implementation of EU development aid in Ghana is in line with the 2005 Paris Declaration which has been adopted as the international benchmark to make aid more effective in poverty reduction, evaluate the role played by Ghana as an aid-dependent country participating in the Declaration as well as evaluate the appropriateness of the Declaration itself as new ways are sought to improve aid effectiveness. The study finds that; the European Union is not fully complying with the principles of the Paris Declaration even though it has made advancement on some of its indicators. EU aid in Ghana promotes the country’s ownership, fulfils the mutual accountability and partly satisfies the alignment principles. However, EU has decreased it uses of Ghana’s Public Financial Management (PFM) systems and Ghana procurement systems as required by the Declaration. EU co-ordination of technical co-operation in Ghana is also poor and not in line with its commitment to the Declaration. The Union has increased its Parallel Implementation Units (PIUs) in Ghana although it is to reduce them and has failed to increase its use of Programme Based Approach and joint donor field missions and analytical works in Ghana as required by the Declaration. On Ghana, on the positive side has institutionalised ownership and alignment of aid financing programmes with the implementation of GPRS II and other policy initiatives in agreement with the Declaration. However, it is found that Ghana’s compliance with the “managing for result” principles is weak because of inefficient use of data on development strategies. Regarding the appropriateness of the Paris Declaration for aid effectiveness, this study finds that, the Declaration has become a necessary and global catalyst for improving aid effectiveness with its benchmarks. However, international development stakeholders need to properly consider the realities and the politics of implementing international agreements such as the Paris Declaration and give enough time for countries to reform their systems. The fact that the Declaration is not binding also makes its full compliance doubtful. Based on the above findings, this study makes recommendation to the European Union, the Government of Ghana and all international development stakeholders to actually implement policies that will lead to the full achievement of the Paris Declaration because it has proven to be an important step to improving aid effectiveness in Ghana and elsewhere.

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