Emerging development paradigm and the relevance of CSOs

In an era of dwindling donor support for Ghana, due partly to the country’s attainment of Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC) status, the repercussions awaiting the country include, but not limited to the stunting of the implementation of pro-poor development projects.

An article published on the website of a local radio station, Citi FM, on Monday 3rd March, 2014 stated that donors have withheld direct budgetary support worth US$700 million meant for Ghana in the past two years in response to the government’s large spending overruns and the inability of some ministries to meet conditions for disbursement. 

It quoted Seth Terkper, Ghana’s Finance Minister as saying that, the situation has increased pressure on the government’s domestic revenues, which have to be supplemented by more borrowing to plug the hole created in the budget by the suspension of the grants. In 2014, only 35 per cent of the expected GH₵ 1.26 billion grants-from donors was received.

The World Bank, African Development Bank, the European Union and other multilateral and bilateral partners have in the past religiously supported our social and economic interventions to deal with poverty and associated challenges. But as Ghana became a middle-income economy, amidst worsening fiscal management, donors have started withholding some of their pledged assistance.

To say that a dwindling donor support will have adverse effect on our socio-economic objectives will be an understatement.

With this current situation, SEND-GHANA is of the view that, government will have to prioritize its spending to put emphasis on the provision of social interventions and create an enabling environment for a stable macro-economic environment within which greater opportunities are provided for sustained and equitable growth.

Attainment of the above requires a concerted effort and that the role of Civil Society Organisation is very crucial in this regard. The President of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kutesa has declared on 9 April 2015 that, civil society actors have a critical role to play in the outlining of a successful post-2015 sustainable development agenda. SEND-GHANA is a strong believer in this assertion as the SDG presents us with yet another opportunity to tackle development challenges in a concerted manner.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a new development paradigm set of targets being crafted by the UN to deal with the challenges of persistent global poverty, access to improved drinking water, malaria and tuberculosis beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which wraps up by close of 2015.

If this ‘critical role of Civil Society actors’ claim  is anything to go by, then CSOs must find alternative ways of attracting funding to implement their programmes in order to complement the efforts of governments to achieve the post-2015 sustainable development agenda targets.