By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Mrs. Zeinab El-Bakri has said the Bank is prepared to empower the people of the continent through capacity building.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Accra last Thursday Mrs. El-Bakri said “as a multilateral development bank, we are determined to transform our institution into a knowledge bank and build the capacity for an African voice.”
The meeting was on the Bank’s strategy orientation and support for higher education on the continent. It was in collaboration with the Association of Africa Universities (AAU).
According to El-Bakri, investment in knowledge increases the probability that new goods and services are generated through the use of this knowledge.
Knowledge creates opportunities for growth by developing new ways of making more efficient use of existing resources. She also said the Bank strongly believes that higher education not only serves this purpose but also plays a key role in nation building by being an important place for the popularization of democratic values, the protection of human rights, the promotion of good governance and the rule of law, and by helping society understand itself, its history, its culture and its institutions.
Further, she said a robust and technology base is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth in the context which is accumulation of physical capital, human capital, the rate of innovation and the technological change.
“The East Asian experience is there for us to learn from,” Mrs. El-Bakri said adding “Africa must be seen to be increasingly convinced that such economic transformation is within our reach.”
She said comparable or much higher living standards must be seen as a promise that we owe to the next generation.
Higher education is able to make significant contributions to he provision of scientific and evidence –based knowledge on the key development issues prevailing in our economies.
Today’s new technologies also present higher education with the largest platform to disseminate knowledge to an exponentially larger number of people than ever before.
“We also need to strengthen alliances and relationships with government, the private sector, civil society, professional associations and with he international donor community to meet he MDGs,” she said.
The African Union has included Science and Technology in its second Decade Education Plan of Action which is from 2006-2015 and has adopted Science and technology.
Also one major articulation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is to bridge the technological divide between Africa and the rest of the world through the promotion of cross border cooperation and connectivity by utilising knowledge currently available in existing centres of excellence in the continent.
The President of the AAU Professor Akilagpa Sawyer said university enrolment in Africa has exploded with political independence rising four fold between 1975 and 1985and almost tripling again over he next decade.
In spite of this the pressure for further enrolment and expansion is relentless.
The number of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa increased dramatically following the wave of political independence.
From a total of 52 in 1960 to over 300 in 2000 and still climbing.
In spite of these, he said many African countries have only one, two or three universities.
Also, a dramatic explosion of private universities and other institutions of higher education are beginning to provide some relief to the pressures on the dominant public institutions.
Prof. Sawyer however said the African faculty is “greying” as the first and second generations of academics go into retirement and are not replaced at the rate and at the levels of quality required by the demographics and knowledge required over time.
Africa’s universities according to Prof. Akilagpa Sawyer are faced with a dual challenge; On one hand we have the old problems of access, equity, funding, quality, etc. On the other hand we must deal with the new demands of the knowledge society namely, high-end research and innovation, linkage into industry and international networking, he observed.
He said Africa’s universities should be assisted to integrate fully into the global knowledge pool.
Opening the meeting, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports Papa Owusu
Ankomah said Africa abound with rich natural resources. What is lacking is the capacity to harness the available resources through technological knowledge and application for economic growth.
Speaking at a recent AAU meeting on Higher education, Papa Owusu Ankomah said the rich history of higher education in Africa dates back to the flowering of the Nubian civilization through the great temples of knowledge in ancient Egypt to the era of the great centres of learning in Timbuktu in the middle of hate second millennium.
“Those who understood the role of a university in the greater human setting correctly referred to the scholars of Timbuktu as “ambassadors of peace.’
“Timbuktu was not only a great intellectual centre of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also one of the most splendid scientific centres and contributors to the period described as the European Medieval Renaissance eras.
He also said the African higher education system now cannot but be an important and critical part of the overall continent’s renaissance
The Minister explained that during the 1980s and the 1990s, the significance of higher education institutions was played down in favour of basic education and this policy bias, combined with economic difficulties of most African countries at the time led to a weakening of public support for higher education.
This he said happened at a time when demographic pressure was leading to an enrolment explosion in Africa’s higher education institutions.
Some continental bodies including the AAU and a few African bodies resisted the relegation.”
The Minister however said that in the mid 1990s African Ministers of Finance started making a case for higher education.
“We need to remind ourselves that the current situation of the African higher education system is part of a change process, with a past shaped by many factors, a complex and evolving present and a future that can go a number of different ways, depending on factors some of which are within our control,” he said.
In a continent where 43 percent of the population is under 15 years and another 28 percent is between 15 and 30 years of age, the Minister said African leaders are today asserting the right to an independent place of the world and are engaged in efforts to rebuild the continent.
Friday, April 20, 2007
ICTs can transform the lives of women
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Business Development Officer of the Ghana India, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Sarata Adams has said Information Communication Technology (ICTs) can transform the way women live and the way development takes place in Africa and the world at large.
Speaking at the Just-ended, African E-governance conference in Accra last week, she said, “technologies have many potential benefits for women such as e-commerce and improved access of women to distance learning and work programme.”
She said Africa is in the midst of dramatic technological transformation where women have played a key role in the transformation across society.
“Women are leaders, entrepreneurs and role models in such positions,” she said.
According to Ms. Adams some visits to some internet cafes in Ghana have shown the enthusiasm with which women are using the internet.
In spite of these, Ms. Adams believe ICT use remains difficult if not impossible for majority of women.
She said there is the need to get young women interested in ICT and also to get employers and workplace culture to encourage women.
Ms. Adams recommended among others, special ICT education programmes, subsides on ICT training for women, workshops and stability in the ICT labour market.
She said girls should also be encouraged to pursue ICT courses while women re-entering the job market should be encouraged to opt for ICT training and ICT jobs.
Added to these there is the need to broaden the perception of what ICT is about as well as develop scholarship schemes for women interested in studying ICT at the higher level.
Also said African governments must ensure that women living on the continent take advantage of opportunities offered by engendering ICTs and transforming the ICT systems using rights based approach.
Government should also create an enabling environment that will encourage more women to join the ICT Industry.
African women’s rights activists insist that Women have scientific and technological expertise and knowledge which should be made more accessible. They also have specific concerns and perspectives which need to be integrated into ICT systems as well as into information systems for sustainable and equitable development.
They also say the ability to communicate their perspectives and concerns is a central empowerment issue, both for publication of their concerns and perspectives, and for access to information and education that will promote women's consciousness-raising. Further, the decentralised, interactive and non-hierarchical nature of these technologies present a non-threatening space for women to develop their views, opinions, benefit from the synergy of interactive communications with women. In addition, once the initial costs of access and technology are covered, ICTs present a low-cost and relatively simple mode of publishing newsletters, articles, statements, etc.
They say the experience of other communications media indicates that if women should be actively involved in the definition, development and information in the new technologies in order to create a space that is conducive to the discussion of their concerns represents their perspectives and abilities in a non-threatening, non-stereotypical manner, and addresses their concerns. Incidents of negative stereotyping, discrimination against women and sexual harassment are already evident online.
Also new strategies for ICT implementation, delivery and use need to be implemented to encourage women's use of ICTs. They will need to include mixed-media and mixed technologies, locally-based distribution systems, and housing in organisational and sectoral contexts which fit with women's daily responsibilities and cater to their time constraints.
Supporting Ms. Adams, a lecturer from the Akan Department, University of Education Mrs. Joanna Portia Antwi-Danso called for a localization of ICT to aid women and others who are not highly literate in eh use of ICTs.
She said survey has proved that majority of aged citizens, especially women are semi literates. “Their educational background is up to basic level and as such their ability to read and write and understand the local languages is far better and overwhelming than they in a second language such as English.”
ICTs offers possibilities and opportunities for development but hey are meaningful only if their content reflect local conditions, she explained.
Localisation if ICT is a way of customizing programmes and materials to suit local people and to have impact on the culture of the local communities.
“Today, in almost every home in Ghana, mobile phone is a common item. She said adding, “I believe that when the language of this technology is localised, a lot more Ghanaians including the aged can use their phones more enjoyably and beneficially.
She said illiterates and semi literate artisans, craftsmen and farmers do not understand the language of the computer and are not attracted to it and therefore never use it in anything.
Localisation of programmes according to her is beneficial because it ensures that IT solutions are taken into higher heights and are more accessible. It also represents a breakthrough for Ghanaian language linguistic and literary studies as well as Ghanaian cultural studies in general.
According to Mrs. Antwi-Danso, localization of programmes ensure that the values and experiences of local cultures are preserved while facilitating work for employees and thereby enhancing work effectiveness
She said in South Africa, computer laboratories are being rolled out into schools where kids do not have English as a mother tongue.
Also software translation efforts are under way in Dares salaam for East Africa’s 130 million Kiswahili speakers and in Kampala for Ugandan software that could be used by 12 million people.
In Kenya also, the localization project has made IT solution more accessible to the Kenyan community as well as to more than 90 percent of the population.
“Finland is a successful example a country that applies local language –Finnish –in all walks of life. Today, the Finnish have succeeded in adopting ICT in their language,” she said.
Source : Public Agenda Ghana
The Business Development Officer of the Ghana India, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Sarata Adams has said Information Communication Technology (ICTs) can transform the way women live and the way development takes place in Africa and the world at large.
Speaking at the Just-ended, African E-governance conference in Accra last week, she said, “technologies have many potential benefits for women such as e-commerce and improved access of women to distance learning and work programme.”
She said Africa is in the midst of dramatic technological transformation where women have played a key role in the transformation across society.
“Women are leaders, entrepreneurs and role models in such positions,” she said.
According to Ms. Adams some visits to some internet cafes in Ghana have shown the enthusiasm with which women are using the internet.
In spite of these, Ms. Adams believe ICT use remains difficult if not impossible for majority of women.
She said there is the need to get young women interested in ICT and also to get employers and workplace culture to encourage women.
Ms. Adams recommended among others, special ICT education programmes, subsides on ICT training for women, workshops and stability in the ICT labour market.
She said girls should also be encouraged to pursue ICT courses while women re-entering the job market should be encouraged to opt for ICT training and ICT jobs.
Added to these there is the need to broaden the perception of what ICT is about as well as develop scholarship schemes for women interested in studying ICT at the higher level.
Also said African governments must ensure that women living on the continent take advantage of opportunities offered by engendering ICTs and transforming the ICT systems using rights based approach.
Government should also create an enabling environment that will encourage more women to join the ICT Industry.
African women’s rights activists insist that Women have scientific and technological expertise and knowledge which should be made more accessible. They also have specific concerns and perspectives which need to be integrated into ICT systems as well as into information systems for sustainable and equitable development.
They also say the ability to communicate their perspectives and concerns is a central empowerment issue, both for publication of their concerns and perspectives, and for access to information and education that will promote women's consciousness-raising. Further, the decentralised, interactive and non-hierarchical nature of these technologies present a non-threatening space for women to develop their views, opinions, benefit from the synergy of interactive communications with women. In addition, once the initial costs of access and technology are covered, ICTs present a low-cost and relatively simple mode of publishing newsletters, articles, statements, etc.
They say the experience of other communications media indicates that if women should be actively involved in the definition, development and information in the new technologies in order to create a space that is conducive to the discussion of their concerns represents their perspectives and abilities in a non-threatening, non-stereotypical manner, and addresses their concerns. Incidents of negative stereotyping, discrimination against women and sexual harassment are already evident online.
Also new strategies for ICT implementation, delivery and use need to be implemented to encourage women's use of ICTs. They will need to include mixed-media and mixed technologies, locally-based distribution systems, and housing in organisational and sectoral contexts which fit with women's daily responsibilities and cater to their time constraints.
Supporting Ms. Adams, a lecturer from the Akan Department, University of Education Mrs. Joanna Portia Antwi-Danso called for a localization of ICT to aid women and others who are not highly literate in eh use of ICTs.
She said survey has proved that majority of aged citizens, especially women are semi literates. “Their educational background is up to basic level and as such their ability to read and write and understand the local languages is far better and overwhelming than they in a second language such as English.”
ICTs offers possibilities and opportunities for development but hey are meaningful only if their content reflect local conditions, she explained.
Localisation if ICT is a way of customizing programmes and materials to suit local people and to have impact on the culture of the local communities.
“Today, in almost every home in Ghana, mobile phone is a common item. She said adding, “I believe that when the language of this technology is localised, a lot more Ghanaians including the aged can use their phones more enjoyably and beneficially.
She said illiterates and semi literate artisans, craftsmen and farmers do not understand the language of the computer and are not attracted to it and therefore never use it in anything.
Localisation of programmes according to her is beneficial because it ensures that IT solutions are taken into higher heights and are more accessible. It also represents a breakthrough for Ghanaian language linguistic and literary studies as well as Ghanaian cultural studies in general.
According to Mrs. Antwi-Danso, localization of programmes ensure that the values and experiences of local cultures are preserved while facilitating work for employees and thereby enhancing work effectiveness
She said in South Africa, computer laboratories are being rolled out into schools where kids do not have English as a mother tongue.
Also software translation efforts are under way in Dares salaam for East Africa’s 130 million Kiswahili speakers and in Kampala for Ugandan software that could be used by 12 million people.
In Kenya also, the localization project has made IT solution more accessible to the Kenyan community as well as to more than 90 percent of the population.
“Finland is a successful example a country that applies local language –Finnish –in all walks of life. Today, the Finnish have succeeded in adopting ICT in their language,” she said.
Source : Public Agenda Ghana
Ghana and the World Bank@50
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It was an evening of exchanging pleasantries, with handshakes and hugs, and meeting of old friends on March 3, 2007. The venue was the House of the Country Director of the World Bank in Ghana, Mr. Mats Karlson. The President of the World Bank Mr. Paul Wolfowitz was in the country to take part in Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary and all the people who ‘matter’ in the country had been invited to dine and wine with him.
As wine and Champaigne glasses got busy and the Gonje band provided music, Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Wolfowitz agreed that Ghana and the bank have been have had relations for about 50 years and this called for a reflection of Ghana-World Bank relations over the past 50 years.
Ghana’s relationship with the World Bank took off in the late 1950s during the first republic when it supported the country with the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
During the Second Republic headed by Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, the relationship was reportedly strengthened.
The World Bank’s relationship with the country however was not always a pleasant one. For instance, some of the military heads of states that ruled the country in the 1970s did not see eye to eye with the Bank and called for the abrogation of all forms of repayment of loans acquired previously.
In 1983, Ghana made a U-turn and reconnected with the bank following a devastating drought that brought about famine and an inflation of about 122 percent, the highest ever.
This new relationship resulted in the Economic Recovery Programme and the Structural Adjustment programmes. (ERP/SAP).
From 1983, Ghana became a test case of the efficacy of the World Bank and the IMF's stabilization and adjustment-based lending policies. This was with as one writer puts it “deregulated currency, liberalised trade, slimmed down state-owned enterprises and strengthened bureaucracies as prescribed by the lending institutions.”
After 13 years of the launch of structural adjustment, Ghana came to grips with the high cost of adjustment on its people when it complained to the visiting World Bank President James Wolfensohn and his wife Elaine and four top officials in February 1997 that it was facing problems with the implementation of the programmes.
''These adjustments have been difficult, but our ability to absorb the pain has been the reason we have been able to move thus far,'' Says the then Finance Minister Kwame Peprah.
Ghana’s President at the time Jerry Rawlings also had his own headaches about the adjustment programmes.
At a meeting with Wolfensohn, President Jerry Rawlings said Ghana's budget had come under severe strain from the rising expectations of the majority of Ghanaians. This, he explained, now made it difficult for the country to generate adequate budget surpluses to service its foreign debt and meet other financial obligations.
The amounts Ghana spent servicing its foreign debt went from 13.2 percent of its exports in 1980 to 24.8 percent in 1994, according to the World Bank's 1996 World Development Report. In the same period, the debt increased from just fewer than 1.4 billion dollars to close to 5.4 billion dollars, according to the same source.
According to an IPS report, Rawlings said that Ghana, like some other SAP-applying developing countries, now faced a dilemma: how to meet the rising expectations of its people and, at the same time, the objectives of the adjustment programme.
In a tacit admission of the lack of achievement of some of the objectives of the programme, Peprah said: ''The same issues are still with us as they were in 1983 when we had to explain them to the people.''
These problems include high unemployment, which government sources put at about 20 percent of the active population while the opposition at the time claimed that it was as high as 35 percent. They also include inflation -- reduced from 71 percent in January 1996 to 32 percent by yearend, but still short of the government's 1996 target of 20-25 percent.
Wolfensohn said in a pre-departure press briefing during his 1997 visit that the basic solution to Ghana's problem of macro- economic instability was for the government to rein in inflation. ''And the best way to do that is to make sure that you don't overspend,.”
Fast forward to March 2004, James Wolfensohn paid another visit to Ghana and if the first one was to assess the impact of adjustment programme, then this was to assess, the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Country’s initiative (HIPC) programmes.
He told Ghanaians that it is wrong for people to place all the problems of third world countries at the doorstep of the Bank. Answering questions at a meeting with students of the University of Ghana Wolfensohn said, “I have no doubt that the Bank has done some good things and I have no doubt that the bank has made some mistakes.” “Ghana was at the same level of development with Korea some forty years ago, they all went through the same programmes but let us ask what happened.” He cited the case of 10,000 ghost names out of 60,000 on the pay role of teachers in Ghana as a clear case of corruption in third world countries.He said while the accusations against the Bank may have an iota of truth, there is no doubt that corruption has played no small part in the impoverishment of the African continent.“We are prepared to change but the system of leadership is yours,” he said.
Wolfensohn also said Ghana has the potential of reaching the Millennium Development Goals than any other country and can become black star or shining star of Africa.
He said the goals set out in NEPAD are not from the Bank but from African leaders themselves who have resolved to fight corruption, have a transparent financial system and strengthen the capacity of its people.
Wolfensohn also said there is no need to debate the image of the Bank, which according to him has changed over the last eight years.
Earlier at the Ghana Institute of management and Public Administration where the fifth Development Dialogue series took place, the Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah said in spite of the World Bank’s insistence that it has good intentions for poor countries, there are many people in Ghana who believe that the removal of subsidies on social services and the prescriptions as well as the conditionalities of the Bank has contributed in no small way to the state of poverty in Ghana. Referring to a Ghanaian Times Article written by a former employee of the Bank, Sena Gabianu on the image of the bank in Ghana, he said the intended privatization of water over the past two years and the privatization of the Ghana Commercial Bank have given the Bank a different image in the country.Dr. Baffour Agyemang-Duah also said there is the need to involve poor people in the drawing up of poverty alleviation programmes.“An open environment is a panacea for development,” he said adding deepening the involvement of poor in problem definition and dialogue can go along way to curb poverty.”“Results will be much better if beneficiaries are kept in the knowledge of what is happening,” he said.He said it is the wish of civil society that decentralization process be put on a fast track to ensure good governance and accountability.
He said the focus now should be on how the Bank can help alleviate poverty and not a debate on its image.“Our focus is on giving opportunities to poor people or putting opportunities in their hands in order to help them.” This he said is reflected in the Bank’s support for the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF).The CDF concept was an attempt to minimize the weaknesses inherent in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development programmes to developing countries.
At an Evaluation of the CDF in Ghana in June 2003, a renowned Economist Tony Killick called on Ghanaians to say no to the World Bank and the IMF if their policies did not suit the country.
“Aid dependency does not have to mean donor domination,” he said.
At a media interaction in July 2003, the World Bank officials in Ghana reported that it has since independence invested about four billion cedis into the Ghanaian economy with an outstanding debt of 3.7 billion cedis at the time.
Since that time, a lot has happened in the relationship between the World Bank and the country. Official say Ghana has benefited immensely, for instance, they argue that without the assistance of the bank, Ghana would not have been able to pull itself out of the economic doldrums in the 1980s.
The debt relief under the HIPC initiative, the over 100 million grant for improvement of urban water supply, project with traditional authorities, traditional medicine practictioners, the development market place programme for youth, business incubation project with Busy Internet etc. are
On the economic front, Ghana has made some giant strides compared to the 1980s and 1990s.
On the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Those statistics, combined with strong improvements in business climate and the democratic process, civil liberties and freedom of the press, indicate Ghana may be able to halve poverty before 2015.
Wolfowitz has however urged Ghanaians not to be complacent with the economic growth obtained so far.
To him Ghana could have done better. On his arrival at the airport on March 2007, he said “I think if we are honest with ourselves, we would say that Ghana’s economic performance in the first years was disappointing and not what the people here wanted, but I am very pleased that in the last 10 years or so, Ghana has become one of the stronger performing African economies. It has come about, I think, through attention to human development, through attention to good, sound economic policy.”
While civil society groups acknowledge the positive role the bank has played in the country’s economy, it believes Ghana would have done better if it had been more transparent in the past.
The Head of the Economics Centre of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena Anaman in an interview with Public Agenda said the Bank has been criticized for being slow in incorporating environmental concerns into their sponsored projects.
“Although they do that now, this has affected projects in the past,” he said.
The Coordinator of the Centre for Budget Advocacy, Vitus Azeem says there is no doubt that the World Bank has contributed positively to the economic development of Ghana. “The huge resources for essential infrastructures like roads, tertiary institutions and hospitals could not have been secured without the support of the World Bank and other donors,” he said adding, “However, the focus of the World Bank’s support and the conditionalities that go with such support have had negative impacts on the lives of the vulnerable and excluded in society. “
According to him, Cost recovery and cost-sharing policies, redundancies, etc. have caused pain and suffering in several families and households.
Also, the emphasis on macro-economic stability as the key indicator of economic advancement has diverted attention from patients being left to die at hospitals, children sitting on the floor in schools without teachers, and corruption.
To the World Bank and other like-minded donors, good governance means opening up our economy to all sorts of imports, he said.
“We welcome the World Bank’s support but it should only focus in ensuring that we use the support for the purpose for which it is meant,” he said.
Meanwhile President Kufuor on independence day urged African youth to stop risking their lives on perilous journeys to Europe because their countries needed their dynamism, energy, creativity and dreams for development. He said Africa was marching forward with a better avenue for financial gains than anywhere else, adding that the future of the continent was in the hands of the youth.
"This is your heritage," declared the Ghanaian leader, current chair of the African Union.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
It was an evening of exchanging pleasantries, with handshakes and hugs, and meeting of old friends on March 3, 2007. The venue was the House of the Country Director of the World Bank in Ghana, Mr. Mats Karlson. The President of the World Bank Mr. Paul Wolfowitz was in the country to take part in Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary and all the people who ‘matter’ in the country had been invited to dine and wine with him.
As wine and Champaigne glasses got busy and the Gonje band provided music, Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Wolfowitz agreed that Ghana and the bank have been have had relations for about 50 years and this called for a reflection of Ghana-World Bank relations over the past 50 years.
Ghana’s relationship with the World Bank took off in the late 1950s during the first republic when it supported the country with the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
During the Second Republic headed by Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, the relationship was reportedly strengthened.
The World Bank’s relationship with the country however was not always a pleasant one. For instance, some of the military heads of states that ruled the country in the 1970s did not see eye to eye with the Bank and called for the abrogation of all forms of repayment of loans acquired previously.
In 1983, Ghana made a U-turn and reconnected with the bank following a devastating drought that brought about famine and an inflation of about 122 percent, the highest ever.
This new relationship resulted in the Economic Recovery Programme and the Structural Adjustment programmes. (ERP/SAP).
From 1983, Ghana became a test case of the efficacy of the World Bank and the IMF's stabilization and adjustment-based lending policies. This was with as one writer puts it “deregulated currency, liberalised trade, slimmed down state-owned enterprises and strengthened bureaucracies as prescribed by the lending institutions.”
After 13 years of the launch of structural adjustment, Ghana came to grips with the high cost of adjustment on its people when it complained to the visiting World Bank President James Wolfensohn and his wife Elaine and four top officials in February 1997 that it was facing problems with the implementation of the programmes.
''These adjustments have been difficult, but our ability to absorb the pain has been the reason we have been able to move thus far,'' Says the then Finance Minister Kwame Peprah.
Ghana’s President at the time Jerry Rawlings also had his own headaches about the adjustment programmes.
At a meeting with Wolfensohn, President Jerry Rawlings said Ghana's budget had come under severe strain from the rising expectations of the majority of Ghanaians. This, he explained, now made it difficult for the country to generate adequate budget surpluses to service its foreign debt and meet other financial obligations.
The amounts Ghana spent servicing its foreign debt went from 13.2 percent of its exports in 1980 to 24.8 percent in 1994, according to the World Bank's 1996 World Development Report. In the same period, the debt increased from just fewer than 1.4 billion dollars to close to 5.4 billion dollars, according to the same source.
According to an IPS report, Rawlings said that Ghana, like some other SAP-applying developing countries, now faced a dilemma: how to meet the rising expectations of its people and, at the same time, the objectives of the adjustment programme.
In a tacit admission of the lack of achievement of some of the objectives of the programme, Peprah said: ''The same issues are still with us as they were in 1983 when we had to explain them to the people.''
These problems include high unemployment, which government sources put at about 20 percent of the active population while the opposition at the time claimed that it was as high as 35 percent. They also include inflation -- reduced from 71 percent in January 1996 to 32 percent by yearend, but still short of the government's 1996 target of 20-25 percent.
Wolfensohn said in a pre-departure press briefing during his 1997 visit that the basic solution to Ghana's problem of macro- economic instability was for the government to rein in inflation. ''And the best way to do that is to make sure that you don't overspend,.”
Fast forward to March 2004, James Wolfensohn paid another visit to Ghana and if the first one was to assess the impact of adjustment programme, then this was to assess, the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Country’s initiative (HIPC) programmes.
He told Ghanaians that it is wrong for people to place all the problems of third world countries at the doorstep of the Bank. Answering questions at a meeting with students of the University of Ghana Wolfensohn said, “I have no doubt that the Bank has done some good things and I have no doubt that the bank has made some mistakes.” “Ghana was at the same level of development with Korea some forty years ago, they all went through the same programmes but let us ask what happened.” He cited the case of 10,000 ghost names out of 60,000 on the pay role of teachers in Ghana as a clear case of corruption in third world countries.He said while the accusations against the Bank may have an iota of truth, there is no doubt that corruption has played no small part in the impoverishment of the African continent.“We are prepared to change but the system of leadership is yours,” he said.
Wolfensohn also said Ghana has the potential of reaching the Millennium Development Goals than any other country and can become black star or shining star of Africa.
He said the goals set out in NEPAD are not from the Bank but from African leaders themselves who have resolved to fight corruption, have a transparent financial system and strengthen the capacity of its people.
Wolfensohn also said there is no need to debate the image of the Bank, which according to him has changed over the last eight years.
Earlier at the Ghana Institute of management and Public Administration where the fifth Development Dialogue series took place, the Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah said in spite of the World Bank’s insistence that it has good intentions for poor countries, there are many people in Ghana who believe that the removal of subsidies on social services and the prescriptions as well as the conditionalities of the Bank has contributed in no small way to the state of poverty in Ghana. Referring to a Ghanaian Times Article written by a former employee of the Bank, Sena Gabianu on the image of the bank in Ghana, he said the intended privatization of water over the past two years and the privatization of the Ghana Commercial Bank have given the Bank a different image in the country.Dr. Baffour Agyemang-Duah also said there is the need to involve poor people in the drawing up of poverty alleviation programmes.“An open environment is a panacea for development,” he said adding deepening the involvement of poor in problem definition and dialogue can go along way to curb poverty.”“Results will be much better if beneficiaries are kept in the knowledge of what is happening,” he said.He said it is the wish of civil society that decentralization process be put on a fast track to ensure good governance and accountability.
He said the focus now should be on how the Bank can help alleviate poverty and not a debate on its image.“Our focus is on giving opportunities to poor people or putting opportunities in their hands in order to help them.” This he said is reflected in the Bank’s support for the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF).The CDF concept was an attempt to minimize the weaknesses inherent in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development programmes to developing countries.
At an Evaluation of the CDF in Ghana in June 2003, a renowned Economist Tony Killick called on Ghanaians to say no to the World Bank and the IMF if their policies did not suit the country.
“Aid dependency does not have to mean donor domination,” he said.
At a media interaction in July 2003, the World Bank officials in Ghana reported that it has since independence invested about four billion cedis into the Ghanaian economy with an outstanding debt of 3.7 billion cedis at the time.
Since that time, a lot has happened in the relationship between the World Bank and the country. Official say Ghana has benefited immensely, for instance, they argue that without the assistance of the bank, Ghana would not have been able to pull itself out of the economic doldrums in the 1980s.
The debt relief under the HIPC initiative, the over 100 million grant for improvement of urban water supply, project with traditional authorities, traditional medicine practictioners, the development market place programme for youth, business incubation project with Busy Internet etc. are
On the economic front, Ghana has made some giant strides compared to the 1980s and 1990s.
On the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Those statistics, combined with strong improvements in business climate and the democratic process, civil liberties and freedom of the press, indicate Ghana may be able to halve poverty before 2015.
Wolfowitz has however urged Ghanaians not to be complacent with the economic growth obtained so far.
To him Ghana could have done better. On his arrival at the airport on March 2007, he said “I think if we are honest with ourselves, we would say that Ghana’s economic performance in the first years was disappointing and not what the people here wanted, but I am very pleased that in the last 10 years or so, Ghana has become one of the stronger performing African economies. It has come about, I think, through attention to human development, through attention to good, sound economic policy.”
While civil society groups acknowledge the positive role the bank has played in the country’s economy, it believes Ghana would have done better if it had been more transparent in the past.
The Head of the Economics Centre of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena Anaman in an interview with Public Agenda said the Bank has been criticized for being slow in incorporating environmental concerns into their sponsored projects.
“Although they do that now, this has affected projects in the past,” he said.
The Coordinator of the Centre for Budget Advocacy, Vitus Azeem says there is no doubt that the World Bank has contributed positively to the economic development of Ghana. “The huge resources for essential infrastructures like roads, tertiary institutions and hospitals could not have been secured without the support of the World Bank and other donors,” he said adding, “However, the focus of the World Bank’s support and the conditionalities that go with such support have had negative impacts on the lives of the vulnerable and excluded in society. “
According to him, Cost recovery and cost-sharing policies, redundancies, etc. have caused pain and suffering in several families and households.
Also, the emphasis on macro-economic stability as the key indicator of economic advancement has diverted attention from patients being left to die at hospitals, children sitting on the floor in schools without teachers, and corruption.
To the World Bank and other like-minded donors, good governance means opening up our economy to all sorts of imports, he said.
“We welcome the World Bank’s support but it should only focus in ensuring that we use the support for the purpose for which it is meant,” he said.
Meanwhile President Kufuor on independence day urged African youth to stop risking their lives on perilous journeys to Europe because their countries needed their dynamism, energy, creativity and dreams for development. He said Africa was marching forward with a better avenue for financial gains than anywhere else, adding that the future of the continent was in the hands of the youth.
"This is your heritage," declared the Ghanaian leader, current chair of the African Union.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
Small scale phone business to collapse
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Space to space business, a flourishing mobile retailing business in Ghana and other parts of Africa may soon collapse just like the communication centres.
This is as a result of the introduction of low top up credits by mobile telecommunications networks.
All the mobile phone companies in Ghana such as Areeba which pioneered the space to space business, One touch, TIGO and Kasapa have introduced top up of units some as low as two thousand cedis.
The Coordinator of African Next Knowledge and Brokerage Interaction Dr. Amos Anyimadu, made this known at the recent E-governance conference in Accra organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication organisation (CTO).
Dr. Anyimadu explained that while the space to space or umbrella mobile phone retailing business led to the demise of communication centres, the mobile phone companies themselves are collapsing the space to space business with very cheap top-up credits or units.
The space to space business provides job opportunities for Africa’s semi literate youth and many unemployed as well as unskilled labour force.
If people could top up with 2000, cedis which is the exact amount paid to the mobile retailer, then that person will just top up his credit and move on,” a participant at the conference said.
Dr. Anyimadu was of the opinion that it is important government put in place policies and measures to resuscitate the collapsed communication centres and the private businesses in the ICT sector to facilitate Public Private Partnership in the distribution of ICT services.
He said research in the fishing community of Moree in the Central region of Ghana has confirmed the demise of communication centres. Four years ago, there were no mobile phone networks operating in that central region town. However over the past six months, the intensity of penetration of mobile networks has virtually collapsed all communication centres including a popular one known as Shalom Communication centre.
He described communication centres as very important institutional resource in African countries which must be assisted to survive the ICT revolution.
He said in a country like Ghana that is yet to hit the 1000 dollar per capita income mark, Private public partnership in the form of communication centres must be helped to spread ICT services.
A German researcher Mr. Marcus Koll who did a study in Akatsi in the Volta Region last year also confirmed the collapse of communication centres in Akatsi including a popular one called Westphalia which is now a beer bar.
The essence of e-governance according to Dr. Anyimadu is putting the citizen at the centre of policy development. “E-government must be citizen focused,” he said.
“When a fisherman in Moree’s phone fell into the ocean, his knowledge of the possibility of repairing the phone brought to the fore how the ICT revolution is developing in Ghana,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said there is the need to re-examine the mobile value chain which starts from the carpenter who makes the boxes for the mobile retail business all the way to the president who makes pronouncements on ICT policy directives.
“There is also the need to develop higher trust and broader social capital in our country,” he said.
Dr. Anyimadu also called on African governments to build trust in African ICT companies saying companies in Ghana like Softribe and others in Southern Africa have developed software’ programmes that are being used in all of Africa and other parts of the world.
Though mobile penetration in Africa does not yet match that of other continents, Africa is touted as the fastest growing region in the world for mobile phone users.
According to reports from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by the year 2005, 60 percent of the world’s phones were in developing countries.
It is however argued that these may be accounted for in countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc, African’s are still suffering from teledensities less than 10 percent.
Mobile networks exceed fixed lines in Ghana and other areas in Africa. This is because mobile networks are in many ways easier to expand than fixed line which requires the expensive laying out of thousands of kilometers of cable.
According to the Horizon Magazine of Nokia, predictions are already appearing that mobile phones networks or devices will bring internet access to more Africans with a similar leapfrog over conventional computers which only a tiny percentage of citizens can afford.
The BBC recently reported that 61 percent of its international Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users come from Nigeria with 19 percent coming from South Africa.
WAP allows mobile phone users to access information through their handsets.
The BBC says many people’s first phone are mobile phones instead of a fixed line and the coming years may show that many more will get their first look of internet on their phones and not on computers.
Space to space business, a flourishing mobile retailing business in Ghana and other parts of Africa may soon collapse just like the communication centres.
This is as a result of the introduction of low top up credits by mobile telecommunications networks.
All the mobile phone companies in Ghana such as Areeba which pioneered the space to space business, One touch, TIGO and Kasapa have introduced top up of units some as low as two thousand cedis.
The Coordinator of African Next Knowledge and Brokerage Interaction Dr. Amos Anyimadu, made this known at the recent E-governance conference in Accra organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication organisation (CTO).
Dr. Anyimadu explained that while the space to space or umbrella mobile phone retailing business led to the demise of communication centres, the mobile phone companies themselves are collapsing the space to space business with very cheap top-up credits or units.
The space to space business provides job opportunities for Africa’s semi literate youth and many unemployed as well as unskilled labour force.
If people could top up with 2000, cedis which is the exact amount paid to the mobile retailer, then that person will just top up his credit and move on,” a participant at the conference said.
Dr. Anyimadu was of the opinion that it is important government put in place policies and measures to resuscitate the collapsed communication centres and the private businesses in the ICT sector to facilitate Public Private Partnership in the distribution of ICT services.
He said research in the fishing community of Moree in the Central region of Ghana has confirmed the demise of communication centres. Four years ago, there were no mobile phone networks operating in that central region town. However over the past six months, the intensity of penetration of mobile networks has virtually collapsed all communication centres including a popular one known as Shalom Communication centre.
He described communication centres as very important institutional resource in African countries which must be assisted to survive the ICT revolution.
He said in a country like Ghana that is yet to hit the 1000 dollar per capita income mark, Private public partnership in the form of communication centres must be helped to spread ICT services.
A German researcher Mr. Marcus Koll who did a study in Akatsi in the Volta Region last year also confirmed the collapse of communication centres in Akatsi including a popular one called Westphalia which is now a beer bar.
The essence of e-governance according to Dr. Anyimadu is putting the citizen at the centre of policy development. “E-government must be citizen focused,” he said.
“When a fisherman in Moree’s phone fell into the ocean, his knowledge of the possibility of repairing the phone brought to the fore how the ICT revolution is developing in Ghana,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said there is the need to re-examine the mobile value chain which starts from the carpenter who makes the boxes for the mobile retail business all the way to the president who makes pronouncements on ICT policy directives.
“There is also the need to develop higher trust and broader social capital in our country,” he said.
Dr. Anyimadu also called on African governments to build trust in African ICT companies saying companies in Ghana like Softribe and others in Southern Africa have developed software’ programmes that are being used in all of Africa and other parts of the world.
Though mobile penetration in Africa does not yet match that of other continents, Africa is touted as the fastest growing region in the world for mobile phone users.
According to reports from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by the year 2005, 60 percent of the world’s phones were in developing countries.
It is however argued that these may be accounted for in countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc, African’s are still suffering from teledensities less than 10 percent.
Mobile networks exceed fixed lines in Ghana and other areas in Africa. This is because mobile networks are in many ways easier to expand than fixed line which requires the expensive laying out of thousands of kilometers of cable.
According to the Horizon Magazine of Nokia, predictions are already appearing that mobile phones networks or devices will bring internet access to more Africans with a similar leapfrog over conventional computers which only a tiny percentage of citizens can afford.
The BBC recently reported that 61 percent of its international Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users come from Nigeria with 19 percent coming from South Africa.
WAP allows mobile phone users to access information through their handsets.
The BBC says many people’s first phone are mobile phones instead of a fixed line and the coming years may show that many more will get their first look of internet on their phones and not on computers.
Ghana's independnece was shaped by India- Dr. Anyimadu
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
A Lecturer at Department of Political Science Dr. Amos Anyimadu has said the independence of India in 1947 directly shaped the Ghanaian independence of 1957.
Speaking at New Delhi, India on the theme, “Ghana at Fifty, India at Sixty: The Challenge of the Democratic Developmental State” on March 7, 2007, Dr. Anyimadu said “It is fair to say that we shall not be celebrating Ghana at fifty today had India at sixty not been sown.”
It was organised by the Ghana’s High Commission in India in collaboration with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on Ghana’s Golden Jubilee.
He said the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was clear about the importance of the Indian experience to the struggle for freedom in Ghana.
Thus in his autobiography he wrote: “After months of studying Gandhi’s policies and watching the effect it had, I began to see that, when backed by a strong political organisation, it could be the solution to the colonial problem”.
According to him, the Nkrumah-Gandhi axis was driven much more deeply.
“I would suggest that it is not simply incidental that Gandhi’s favourite hymn was “Lead Kindly Light” and that this also became Nkrumah’s, and his party’s, favourite.”
He also said that it is not simply coincidental that Kwame Nkrumah’s most famous aphorism “Seek ye first the Political Kingdom and all things shall be added unto you”, is attributable not simply directly to the Christian scripture but, perhaps more directly, to Gandhi’s fundamental position that:
“You cannot serve God and Mammon is an economic truth of the highest value. We have to make our choice. Western nations are groaning under the monster-god of materialism. Their moral growth has become stunted … Under the British aegis we have learnt much, but it is my firm belief that, if we are not careful, we shall introduce all the vices that she has been prey to owing to the disease of materialism … Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the irrevocable promise is that everything will be added unto us. These are real economics”
Dr. Anyimadu said what may be considered the three cardinal emphases of Gandhian thought, to rely on the reckoning of Hugh Tinker: “the cooperative society where intellectuals and manual workers find a common purpose”; “the attempt to give self-respect to those whom tradition had handicapped”; and “the philosophy and technique of non-violence” all resonate in the Ghanaian freedom struggle and our post-Independence march for democracy and development.
Dr. Anyimadu who is also a director of the African Next Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction said the personal electricity between Nkrumah and Nehru, which clearly shoots out of the dramatic photograph of the two icons unveiled in Ghana’s High Commission to India, carried these high principles into practical politics and was perhaps most successful in the International Relations precept of Positive Neutrality and organizationally in the Non Aligned Movement.
Erica Powell, Kwame Nkrumah’s long-serving private secretary, in her important book on Kwame Nkrumah captures in different ways the deep personal friendship and political engagement between Nkrumah and Nehru.
“Thus, we are told, as Nkrumah set off for a much colder part of India during his 1961 visit, his ever thoughtful friend and ally, Nehru, realizing that Nkrumah did not seem to carry adequate protection against the elements, fetched a comforting coat and gloves which he personally delivered to Nkrumah on a trot.” Dr. Anyimadu said.
The days of Nkrumah and Nehru according to him were charged with visionary politics. “Today, our challenges appear much more mundane,” he said adding, “It is clear that the distance between Ghana and Indian has widened.”
Recently the BBC World Service focused on India under the rubric “India Rising”. Today the same focus is on Ghana under the decidedly low-tempo, somewhat backward-looking rubric “Winds of Change”
India confidently embraces Globalisation. Ghana struggles to humanize Globalization for basic survival, Dr. Anyimadu said.
The Economist newspaper recently said the Indian economy was overheating with near ten per cent growth. “This, we are told, presents its own problems which the politics of your recent budget, I understand, seeks to address,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said that Ghana seek all growth without the luxury of fine qualification.
A thoughtful and balanced piece written by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press from Accra, and carried by many newspapers around the world on Ghana’s independence day notes that Ghana’s “Golden Jubilee on Tuesday is prompting some sober reflection on why Africa has failed to translate its dreams, and its bounty of mineral and agricultural resources, into wealth”.
The Economist newspaper’s online says that Ghana “is an example of much that has gone wrong, and then right, in Africa”.
Again on the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Dr. Anyimadu said while the statistics, may tell different stories it may be clear that from the perspective of an Asian tiger it would seem that the African lion is meek indeed.
He also explained that while the idea of the Developmental State has often implied authoritarian governance, India presents an interesting challenge of a Democratic Developmental State.
This is the agenda that the government of President Kufuor has set for us in Ghana as well under the grand promise “Development in Freedom”. What happens to the state in Development has arrested conceptual attention for centuries. The current history of India belies many of the general conclusions that have been assumed. Agrarian social structures were not supposed to yield democracy. Responsive politics in poor countries was not supposed to yield good economics. Here in India these received assumptions have been turned upside down, he said.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, it is refreshing that the evolution of Ghana—India relations clearly points to a practical approach to the challenge of the Democratic Development State. India’s support to Ghanaian development today is distinguished not only by its surprising large size but also its strategic quality of having a clear potential to fundamentally uplift our march to democracy and development.
He said for Africa as a whole, India has extended more than one billion dollars worth of technical assistance. I am particularly taken by the promising Pan-African e-Network Project recently begun by India for Africa. The Project envisages connecting the 53 African Union countries by satellite and fibre optic network, and once completed, it would provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities from India to regional centres in Africa and also individually to each of the member countries.
It would also provide effective communication and connectivity to all the AU countries including voice and video conferencing facilities among the Heads of States. This is an excellent example of South-South cooperation for meeting the challenges of the new Knowledge Economy in our shrinking world.
Ghana he said is also a member of India’s Team-9 initiative. It is under this arrangement that Ghana has received concessional credit for the Presidential Complex. Near the State House in Accra one finds a gleaming temple to the future. The India-Ghana Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology was established with $2 million dollars assistance from India.
] This facility has fast become a crucial component of our digital future in Ghana. India’s fascinating emergence as a telematics giant is powerful instruction to us in Ghana. I am even happier that our relationship in this area is beginning to more fully cover the content side of this equation.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, the most important point that the took away from the BBC’s India Rising season was the well-based transformation of the Indian public sphere through application of new as well as old communication technologies.
“I note the importance of your local language, including its press, in public life. The force of Indian television and film is truly remarkable. I understand India is one of the few places on our planet where the press is truly deepening.”
According to him, all these factors have significant pecuniary implications. They also have implication for mind and thought.
“They must be good for the quality of democracy in India. It is not difficult to see that these factors form a crucial component of the seminal observation of Amartya Sen, the great Indian intellectual, that famine does not occur in democracies. “
“It is for all these reasons that, even as I conclude my exploration, I am happy to report that we had the first official Indian Film Festival in Accra this year. I look forward to similar, mind-led conclaves linking our two countries in the near future.”
Ghana celebrated its golden Jubilee on March 6, 2007 with a big ceremony which was attended by several heads of states across Africa and dignitaries all over the world.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
A Lecturer at Department of Political Science Dr. Amos Anyimadu has said the independence of India in 1947 directly shaped the Ghanaian independence of 1957.
Speaking at New Delhi, India on the theme, “Ghana at Fifty, India at Sixty: The Challenge of the Democratic Developmental State” on March 7, 2007, Dr. Anyimadu said “It is fair to say that we shall not be celebrating Ghana at fifty today had India at sixty not been sown.”
It was organised by the Ghana’s High Commission in India in collaboration with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on Ghana’s Golden Jubilee.
He said the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was clear about the importance of the Indian experience to the struggle for freedom in Ghana.
Thus in his autobiography he wrote: “After months of studying Gandhi’s policies and watching the effect it had, I began to see that, when backed by a strong political organisation, it could be the solution to the colonial problem”.
According to him, the Nkrumah-Gandhi axis was driven much more deeply.
“I would suggest that it is not simply incidental that Gandhi’s favourite hymn was “Lead Kindly Light” and that this also became Nkrumah’s, and his party’s, favourite.”
He also said that it is not simply coincidental that Kwame Nkrumah’s most famous aphorism “Seek ye first the Political Kingdom and all things shall be added unto you”, is attributable not simply directly to the Christian scripture but, perhaps more directly, to Gandhi’s fundamental position that:
“You cannot serve God and Mammon is an economic truth of the highest value. We have to make our choice. Western nations are groaning under the monster-god of materialism. Their moral growth has become stunted … Under the British aegis we have learnt much, but it is my firm belief that, if we are not careful, we shall introduce all the vices that she has been prey to owing to the disease of materialism … Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the irrevocable promise is that everything will be added unto us. These are real economics”
Dr. Anyimadu said what may be considered the three cardinal emphases of Gandhian thought, to rely on the reckoning of Hugh Tinker: “the cooperative society where intellectuals and manual workers find a common purpose”; “the attempt to give self-respect to those whom tradition had handicapped”; and “the philosophy and technique of non-violence” all resonate in the Ghanaian freedom struggle and our post-Independence march for democracy and development.
Dr. Anyimadu who is also a director of the African Next Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction said the personal electricity between Nkrumah and Nehru, which clearly shoots out of the dramatic photograph of the two icons unveiled in Ghana’s High Commission to India, carried these high principles into practical politics and was perhaps most successful in the International Relations precept of Positive Neutrality and organizationally in the Non Aligned Movement.
Erica Powell, Kwame Nkrumah’s long-serving private secretary, in her important book on Kwame Nkrumah captures in different ways the deep personal friendship and political engagement between Nkrumah and Nehru.
“Thus, we are told, as Nkrumah set off for a much colder part of India during his 1961 visit, his ever thoughtful friend and ally, Nehru, realizing that Nkrumah did not seem to carry adequate protection against the elements, fetched a comforting coat and gloves which he personally delivered to Nkrumah on a trot.” Dr. Anyimadu said.
The days of Nkrumah and Nehru according to him were charged with visionary politics. “Today, our challenges appear much more mundane,” he said adding, “It is clear that the distance between Ghana and Indian has widened.”
Recently the BBC World Service focused on India under the rubric “India Rising”. Today the same focus is on Ghana under the decidedly low-tempo, somewhat backward-looking rubric “Winds of Change”
India confidently embraces Globalisation. Ghana struggles to humanize Globalization for basic survival, Dr. Anyimadu said.
The Economist newspaper recently said the Indian economy was overheating with near ten per cent growth. “This, we are told, presents its own problems which the politics of your recent budget, I understand, seeks to address,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said that Ghana seek all growth without the luxury of fine qualification.
A thoughtful and balanced piece written by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press from Accra, and carried by many newspapers around the world on Ghana’s independence day notes that Ghana’s “Golden Jubilee on Tuesday is prompting some sober reflection on why Africa has failed to translate its dreams, and its bounty of mineral and agricultural resources, into wealth”.
The Economist newspaper’s online says that Ghana “is an example of much that has gone wrong, and then right, in Africa”.
Again on the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Dr. Anyimadu said while the statistics, may tell different stories it may be clear that from the perspective of an Asian tiger it would seem that the African lion is meek indeed.
He also explained that while the idea of the Developmental State has often implied authoritarian governance, India presents an interesting challenge of a Democratic Developmental State.
This is the agenda that the government of President Kufuor has set for us in Ghana as well under the grand promise “Development in Freedom”. What happens to the state in Development has arrested conceptual attention for centuries. The current history of India belies many of the general conclusions that have been assumed. Agrarian social structures were not supposed to yield democracy. Responsive politics in poor countries was not supposed to yield good economics. Here in India these received assumptions have been turned upside down, he said.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, it is refreshing that the evolution of Ghana—India relations clearly points to a practical approach to the challenge of the Democratic Development State. India’s support to Ghanaian development today is distinguished not only by its surprising large size but also its strategic quality of having a clear potential to fundamentally uplift our march to democracy and development.
He said for Africa as a whole, India has extended more than one billion dollars worth of technical assistance. I am particularly taken by the promising Pan-African e-Network Project recently begun by India for Africa. The Project envisages connecting the 53 African Union countries by satellite and fibre optic network, and once completed, it would provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities from India to regional centres in Africa and also individually to each of the member countries.
It would also provide effective communication and connectivity to all the AU countries including voice and video conferencing facilities among the Heads of States. This is an excellent example of South-South cooperation for meeting the challenges of the new Knowledge Economy in our shrinking world.
Ghana he said is also a member of India’s Team-9 initiative. It is under this arrangement that Ghana has received concessional credit for the Presidential Complex. Near the State House in Accra one finds a gleaming temple to the future. The India-Ghana Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology was established with $2 million dollars assistance from India.
] This facility has fast become a crucial component of our digital future in Ghana. India’s fascinating emergence as a telematics giant is powerful instruction to us in Ghana. I am even happier that our relationship in this area is beginning to more fully cover the content side of this equation.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, the most important point that the took away from the BBC’s India Rising season was the well-based transformation of the Indian public sphere through application of new as well as old communication technologies.
“I note the importance of your local language, including its press, in public life. The force of Indian television and film is truly remarkable. I understand India is one of the few places on our planet where the press is truly deepening.”
According to him, all these factors have significant pecuniary implications. They also have implication for mind and thought.
“They must be good for the quality of democracy in India. It is not difficult to see that these factors form a crucial component of the seminal observation of Amartya Sen, the great Indian intellectual, that famine does not occur in democracies. “
“It is for all these reasons that, even as I conclude my exploration, I am happy to report that we had the first official Indian Film Festival in Accra this year. I look forward to similar, mind-led conclaves linking our two countries in the near future.”
Ghana celebrated its golden Jubilee on March 6, 2007 with a big ceremony which was attended by several heads of states across Africa and dignitaries all over the world.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
Catholic Priests denounce the situation in Zimbabwe
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Leaders of the Catholic Church in Africa and Madagascar meeting in Accra after a five day conference had decried the state of affairs in Zimbabwe calling for a halt to hostilities in that country.
They also described the problem as “a crisis of moral leadership and bad governance” which is largely “self inflicted” and not as a result of natural disaster or only of adverse international conditions.
“Zimbabwe today is characterized by a political situation where freedom of expression and movement no longer exists,” said the Arch Bishop of Dares salaam His Eminence Cardinal Polycarp Pengo adding, “Members of civil society, political opponents and even ordinary citizens have become victims of violent acts meted out on them for no legitimate reason.”
Appealing to President Robert Mugabe and his government to reconsider their actions, the African Catholic leaders’ said, “We strongly appeal to the government of Zimbabwe in the name of Jesus, to immediately stop the violence.”
They also called on the Chairman of the African Union President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, the Chairman of the Organ of Politics, Defense and Security of the Southern African Development Cooperation President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete as well as all leaders in that region to intervene in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Peer Review Mechanism.
The Accra meeting was attended by members of the Standing Committee of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) from 26 to 30th March.
“We are saddened and concerned about the suffering of our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe,” Cardinal Pengo said at the Press Conference.
He explained that a fact finding mission sent to Zimbabwe by SECAM reports that the situation there has reached a state where uncontrolled outbreak of violence, chaos and anarchy are more and more becoming a danger.
Cardinal Pengo also said the fact finding mission confirmed the observations which the Catholic Bishops Conference of Zimbabwe wrote in a pastoral letter.
According to Cardinal Pengo, the situation in Zimbabwe is a social one where basic needs are hardly met. Food he said has become unaffordable for the vast majority of the population while drugs and medical services are far beyond the reach of the ordinary citizen.
In addition to these, the Cardinal said the education system of the country is fast collapsing while the people have become disillusioned.
Almost four million people have gone into exile since the beginning of the hardships while Zimbabweans fleeing the country are becoming a burden to neighbouring countries.
The situation in Zimbabwe is also an economic one which makes the production and distribution of goods and services impossible. This has led to continuous deterioration of the public and common goods.
Cardinal Pengo asked African political leaders to insist that the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights as enshrined in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory be reinstated.
News reports indicate that on March 22, 2007 Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, asked his followers to take the streets in protest against the human-rights abuses of the country’s government, and use passive resistance to bring down the government.
The archbishop, a frequent critic of the government, told a news conference in Harare that he was prepared to risk his life in the effort to oust President Robert Mugabe.
“I am ready to stand in front,” Archbishop Ncube said. “We must be ready to stand, even in front of blazing guns.’
The archbishop has often called upon citizens to oppose the authoritarian tactics of the Mugabe regime and demand effective government leadership to ease the nation’s severe poverty. But he spoke with unprecedented urgency on March 22, after a series of incidents in which government supporters have arrested, beaten, and killed leading political opponents.
“The biggest problem in Zimbabwe is cowards, myself included,” the archbishop said. “We must get off our comfortable seats and suffer with the people.”
African Union Chairman John Kufuor said African leaders were embarrassed by the situation in Zimbabwe and perhaps could do more to help, but have met stiff resistance from Harare."The African Union is very uncomfortable. The situation in your country is very embarrassing," Ghana's president Kufuor said in response to a question from a Zimbabwean at the Chatham House think-tank during a state visit in London.
"I know personally that presidents like Olusegun Obasanjo, from Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki from South Africa and others have tried desperately to exercise some influence for the better. But they came against stiff resistance," said Kufuor. Kufuor was heckled during his speech at Chatham House on four separate occasions by Zimbabweans calling on African leaders to take a stand against Robert Mugabe.."I think we should all assume that all these institutions, the African Union, mean well. Perhaps we have not exhausted the means to give us a handle on the situation so we can help Zimbabwe return to normality," he said. Kufuor stressed that African leaders were serious about tackling the situation in Zimbabwe, but said individual presidents and nations were limited by what unilateral action they could take. "What can Mbeki as a man, alone, do against Zimbabwe?" said Kufuor."In our own various ways we are trying very hard to exercise some influence. I tell you, we are serious," he said. Kufuor was in Britain on a state visit to celebrate Ghana's 50 years of independence from its former colonial ruler.
The latest crackdown comes as Zimbabwe faces a deepening economic crisis with inflation at more than 1,700 percent, unemployment of 80 percent and shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.Mugabe originally proposed adjusting election dates to extend his current term by two years to 2010, and then said that if necessary he would be willing to stand in elections in 2008 -- meaning he could remain in office through 2014.The Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai lost a 2002 presidential election to Mugabe, a poll widely believed to have been rigged by the government.
Events in Zimbabwe got to a head when on March 11, Tsvangirai and some of his leaders in the Movement for Democratic Change were arrested and brutalized by Police resulting in a suspected fractured skull and his hospitalisation in intensive care.
Some of them were not allowed to travel out of the country and Tsvangirai was again rearrested last week and is still in Police custody.
“The major motivation for the church’s involvement in the development of people has been the promotion of dignity of human person, made in he image of God,” said Cardinal Pengo.
“As a church we are aware of challenges ahead and will do all in our means to play our prophetic role .We shall continue to speak out for the voiceless and marginalized in society.”
Source Public Agenda Ghana
Leaders of the Catholic Church in Africa and Madagascar meeting in Accra after a five day conference had decried the state of affairs in Zimbabwe calling for a halt to hostilities in that country.
They also described the problem as “a crisis of moral leadership and bad governance” which is largely “self inflicted” and not as a result of natural disaster or only of adverse international conditions.
“Zimbabwe today is characterized by a political situation where freedom of expression and movement no longer exists,” said the Arch Bishop of Dares salaam His Eminence Cardinal Polycarp Pengo adding, “Members of civil society, political opponents and even ordinary citizens have become victims of violent acts meted out on them for no legitimate reason.”
Appealing to President Robert Mugabe and his government to reconsider their actions, the African Catholic leaders’ said, “We strongly appeal to the government of Zimbabwe in the name of Jesus, to immediately stop the violence.”
They also called on the Chairman of the African Union President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, the Chairman of the Organ of Politics, Defense and Security of the Southern African Development Cooperation President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete as well as all leaders in that region to intervene in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Peer Review Mechanism.
The Accra meeting was attended by members of the Standing Committee of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) from 26 to 30th March.
“We are saddened and concerned about the suffering of our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe,” Cardinal Pengo said at the Press Conference.
He explained that a fact finding mission sent to Zimbabwe by SECAM reports that the situation there has reached a state where uncontrolled outbreak of violence, chaos and anarchy are more and more becoming a danger.
Cardinal Pengo also said the fact finding mission confirmed the observations which the Catholic Bishops Conference of Zimbabwe wrote in a pastoral letter.
According to Cardinal Pengo, the situation in Zimbabwe is a social one where basic needs are hardly met. Food he said has become unaffordable for the vast majority of the population while drugs and medical services are far beyond the reach of the ordinary citizen.
In addition to these, the Cardinal said the education system of the country is fast collapsing while the people have become disillusioned.
Almost four million people have gone into exile since the beginning of the hardships while Zimbabweans fleeing the country are becoming a burden to neighbouring countries.
The situation in Zimbabwe is also an economic one which makes the production and distribution of goods and services impossible. This has led to continuous deterioration of the public and common goods.
Cardinal Pengo asked African political leaders to insist that the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights as enshrined in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory be reinstated.
News reports indicate that on March 22, 2007 Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, asked his followers to take the streets in protest against the human-rights abuses of the country’s government, and use passive resistance to bring down the government.
The archbishop, a frequent critic of the government, told a news conference in Harare that he was prepared to risk his life in the effort to oust President Robert Mugabe.
“I am ready to stand in front,” Archbishop Ncube said. “We must be ready to stand, even in front of blazing guns.’
The archbishop has often called upon citizens to oppose the authoritarian tactics of the Mugabe regime and demand effective government leadership to ease the nation’s severe poverty. But he spoke with unprecedented urgency on March 22, after a series of incidents in which government supporters have arrested, beaten, and killed leading political opponents.
“The biggest problem in Zimbabwe is cowards, myself included,” the archbishop said. “We must get off our comfortable seats and suffer with the people.”
African Union Chairman John Kufuor said African leaders were embarrassed by the situation in Zimbabwe and perhaps could do more to help, but have met stiff resistance from Harare."The African Union is very uncomfortable. The situation in your country is very embarrassing," Ghana's president Kufuor said in response to a question from a Zimbabwean at the Chatham House think-tank during a state visit in London.
"I know personally that presidents like Olusegun Obasanjo, from Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki from South Africa and others have tried desperately to exercise some influence for the better. But they came against stiff resistance," said Kufuor. Kufuor was heckled during his speech at Chatham House on four separate occasions by Zimbabweans calling on African leaders to take a stand against Robert Mugabe.."I think we should all assume that all these institutions, the African Union, mean well. Perhaps we have not exhausted the means to give us a handle on the situation so we can help Zimbabwe return to normality," he said. Kufuor stressed that African leaders were serious about tackling the situation in Zimbabwe, but said individual presidents and nations were limited by what unilateral action they could take. "What can Mbeki as a man, alone, do against Zimbabwe?" said Kufuor."In our own various ways we are trying very hard to exercise some influence. I tell you, we are serious," he said. Kufuor was in Britain on a state visit to celebrate Ghana's 50 years of independence from its former colonial ruler.
The latest crackdown comes as Zimbabwe faces a deepening economic crisis with inflation at more than 1,700 percent, unemployment of 80 percent and shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.Mugabe originally proposed adjusting election dates to extend his current term by two years to 2010, and then said that if necessary he would be willing to stand in elections in 2008 -- meaning he could remain in office through 2014.The Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai lost a 2002 presidential election to Mugabe, a poll widely believed to have been rigged by the government.
Events in Zimbabwe got to a head when on March 11, Tsvangirai and some of his leaders in the Movement for Democratic Change were arrested and brutalized by Police resulting in a suspected fractured skull and his hospitalisation in intensive care.
Some of them were not allowed to travel out of the country and Tsvangirai was again rearrested last week and is still in Police custody.
“The major motivation for the church’s involvement in the development of people has been the promotion of dignity of human person, made in he image of God,” said Cardinal Pengo.
“As a church we are aware of challenges ahead and will do all in our means to play our prophetic role .We shall continue to speak out for the voiceless and marginalized in society.”
Source Public Agenda Ghana
Relegation of higehr education in favour of basic education affected Africa
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Ghana’s current academic year kicked off with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past.
However, the same cannot be said of students who wanted to enter the universities.
According to the Ministry of Education, basic school enrolment increased by 16 percent as a result of the Capitation grant and the School feeding programmes.
The University of Ghana however has been cutting down on its admissions due to a number of problems.
Speaking at the March 10, 2007, Congregation, The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, said the major difficulty the University continues to face was attracting young academics to the faculties to replace those retiring.
Inadequate accommodation, for students and lecturers are rife in Ghanaian universities in spite of recent efforts by government to solve the problems.
Experts say the relegation of higher education to the background in favour of basic education in the 1980s and 1990s in Ghana and other African countries has impacted negatively on the development of the continent.
Though Ghana has experienced the influx of private tertiary education, many people are denied access due to he cost.
This state of affairs which is partly as a result of a campaign to push “Education For All” was promoted by key International Institutions including the World Bank and some African governments.
“For most of the last two decades, policy in Africa was influenced by a perception, at the level of government and among international donors that priority should be given to basic education at the expense of higher education,” says Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities (AAU).
However in a paper published in 2002, the World Bank noted that tertiary education institutions supported knowledge driven economic growth strategies and poverty reduction by training qualified and adaptable labour force including high level scientists, professionals, technicians, teachers in basic and secondary schools and future government, civil service and business leaders among others.
The Minister of Education Sports and Science, Papa Owusu Ankomah says the rich history of higher education in Africa dates back to the flowering of the Nubian civilization through the great temples of knowledge in ancient Egypt to the era of the great centres of learning in Timbuktu in the middle of hate second millennium.
“Those who understood the role of a university in the greater human setting correctly referred to the scholars of Timbuktu as “ambassadors of peace.’
“Timbuktu was not only a great intellectual centre of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also one of the most splendid scientific centres and contributors to the period described as the European Medieval Renaissance eras.
Speaking at the Second Regional Research Seminar for Africa organized by the AAU and UNESCO on the theme: “The Contribution of Higher Education in National Education Systems: Current Challenges for Africa,” the
Minister said the African higher education system now cannot but be an important and critical part of the overall continent’s renaissance
The Minister explained that during the 1980s and the 1990s, the significance of higher education institutions was played down in favour of basic education and this policy bias, combined with economic difficulties of most African countries at the time led to a weakening of public support for higher education.
This he said happened at a time when demographic pressure was leading to an enrolment explosion in Africa’s higher education institutions.
Some continental bodies including the AAU and a few African bodies resisted the relegation.”
The Minister however said that in the mid 1990s African Ministers of Finance started making a case for higher education.
“We need to remind ourselves that the current situation of the African higher education system is part of a change process, with a past shaped by many factors, a complex and evolving present and a future that can go a number of different ways, depending on factors some of which are within our control,” he said.
In a continent where 43 percent of the population is under 15 years and another 28 percent is between 15 and 30 years of age, the Minister said African leaders are today asserting the right to an independent place of the world and are engaged in efforts to rebuild the continent.
The Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring report, 2006, a study of national education plans from 32 countries show that those in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa placed top priority on achieving universal primary education.
The report also notes that public spending on education as a share of national income increased between 1998 and 2002, and in some cases almost doubling.
The Minister said the desire for a literate society is to improve capabilities of individuals, families and communities to take advantage of health, educational, political, economic and cultural opportunities.
The Minister noted that more than 80 percent of global population over age 15 posses some amount of minimal reading skills. This is against the mid 19th century when only about 10 percent of the world adults could read or write.
It remains the task of intellectuals and continental organizations, such as the African Union, the AAU, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and others in collaboration with development partners such as the UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank, etc to offer solutions to Africa’s problems as well as make a contribution to the renaissance of an African continent that is untied, peaceful, democratic, fully developed, prosperous and a respected member of the world community of nations.
Papa Owusu Ankomah further believes there is the need for Africa’s higher education system to be assisted to link more fully into the global knowledge networks. This would involve easier access of African researchers to global knowledge and greater access of African, scholars to laboratories and experimental sites of best institutions of the world.
This will also involve more North- South collaborative teaching and research projects involving African scholars, in true partnership mode and targeted support aimed at helping renew the African faculty.
“Having fought so hard and so long for it, the AAU considers the elaboration of system-wide approaches to education and national development as one of its abiding concerns as it joins with others in the revitalisation of African higher education,” Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr said.
“In deed we are convinced that higher education can make a significant contribution in achieving the UN millennium Development Goals as well as the EFA targets,” said the Chair of Africa Regional Scientific Committee, Prof. Golam Mohamedbhai.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
Ghana’s current academic year kicked off with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past.
However, the same cannot be said of students who wanted to enter the universities.
According to the Ministry of Education, basic school enrolment increased by 16 percent as a result of the Capitation grant and the School feeding programmes.
The University of Ghana however has been cutting down on its admissions due to a number of problems.
Speaking at the March 10, 2007, Congregation, The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, said the major difficulty the University continues to face was attracting young academics to the faculties to replace those retiring.
Inadequate accommodation, for students and lecturers are rife in Ghanaian universities in spite of recent efforts by government to solve the problems.
Experts say the relegation of higher education to the background in favour of basic education in the 1980s and 1990s in Ghana and other African countries has impacted negatively on the development of the continent.
Though Ghana has experienced the influx of private tertiary education, many people are denied access due to he cost.
This state of affairs which is partly as a result of a campaign to push “Education For All” was promoted by key International Institutions including the World Bank and some African governments.
“For most of the last two decades, policy in Africa was influenced by a perception, at the level of government and among international donors that priority should be given to basic education at the expense of higher education,” says Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities (AAU).
However in a paper published in 2002, the World Bank noted that tertiary education institutions supported knowledge driven economic growth strategies and poverty reduction by training qualified and adaptable labour force including high level scientists, professionals, technicians, teachers in basic and secondary schools and future government, civil service and business leaders among others.
The Minister of Education Sports and Science, Papa Owusu Ankomah says the rich history of higher education in Africa dates back to the flowering of the Nubian civilization through the great temples of knowledge in ancient Egypt to the era of the great centres of learning in Timbuktu in the middle of hate second millennium.
“Those who understood the role of a university in the greater human setting correctly referred to the scholars of Timbuktu as “ambassadors of peace.’
“Timbuktu was not only a great intellectual centre of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also one of the most splendid scientific centres and contributors to the period described as the European Medieval Renaissance eras.
Speaking at the Second Regional Research Seminar for Africa organized by the AAU and UNESCO on the theme: “The Contribution of Higher Education in National Education Systems: Current Challenges for Africa,” the
Minister said the African higher education system now cannot but be an important and critical part of the overall continent’s renaissance
The Minister explained that during the 1980s and the 1990s, the significance of higher education institutions was played down in favour of basic education and this policy bias, combined with economic difficulties of most African countries at the time led to a weakening of public support for higher education.
This he said happened at a time when demographic pressure was leading to an enrolment explosion in Africa’s higher education institutions.
Some continental bodies including the AAU and a few African bodies resisted the relegation.”
The Minister however said that in the mid 1990s African Ministers of Finance started making a case for higher education.
“We need to remind ourselves that the current situation of the African higher education system is part of a change process, with a past shaped by many factors, a complex and evolving present and a future that can go a number of different ways, depending on factors some of which are within our control,” he said.
In a continent where 43 percent of the population is under 15 years and another 28 percent is between 15 and 30 years of age, the Minister said African leaders are today asserting the right to an independent place of the world and are engaged in efforts to rebuild the continent.
The Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring report, 2006, a study of national education plans from 32 countries show that those in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa placed top priority on achieving universal primary education.
The report also notes that public spending on education as a share of national income increased between 1998 and 2002, and in some cases almost doubling.
The Minister said the desire for a literate society is to improve capabilities of individuals, families and communities to take advantage of health, educational, political, economic and cultural opportunities.
The Minister noted that more than 80 percent of global population over age 15 posses some amount of minimal reading skills. This is against the mid 19th century when only about 10 percent of the world adults could read or write.
It remains the task of intellectuals and continental organizations, such as the African Union, the AAU, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and others in collaboration with development partners such as the UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank, etc to offer solutions to Africa’s problems as well as make a contribution to the renaissance of an African continent that is untied, peaceful, democratic, fully developed, prosperous and a respected member of the world community of nations.
Papa Owusu Ankomah further believes there is the need for Africa’s higher education system to be assisted to link more fully into the global knowledge networks. This would involve easier access of African researchers to global knowledge and greater access of African, scholars to laboratories and experimental sites of best institutions of the world.
This will also involve more North- South collaborative teaching and research projects involving African scholars, in true partnership mode and targeted support aimed at helping renew the African faculty.
“Having fought so hard and so long for it, the AAU considers the elaboration of system-wide approaches to education and national development as one of its abiding concerns as it joins with others in the revitalisation of African higher education,” Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr said.
“In deed we are convinced that higher education can make a significant contribution in achieving the UN millennium Development Goals as well as the EFA targets,” said the Chair of Africa Regional Scientific Committee, Prof. Golam Mohamedbhai.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
World Social Forum:World Bank and govts asked to ensure human rights in extractive sector
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Civil Society groups, CIDSE and Partner organizations across the globe that participated in the just ended World Social Forum in Nairobi Kenya have asked the World Bank to implement the original recommendations of the Extractive Industries Review report which includes the need to secure the free, prior and informed consent of local people.
They have also asked Trans-national Corporations to respect their contracts with host governments, which must be in line with national laws and international human rights and environmental standards while asking governments to allow for renegotiation of contracts which are not in the best interests of affected communities.
They are also to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people and local communities before operations commence and to respect the right of such communities to say “No” to projects that are not in their best interests. Such free, prior and informed consent must be a condition of any contract signed with the host government.
In a paper titled “PROSPECTING FOR SOLUTIONS” issued on January 23 which carried recommendations on the impact of oil, mining and logging on development, to companies, governments International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the United Nations, the group expressed their disgust for the current spate of pollution and underdevelopment going on in mining communities among others.
“We are deeply concerned that rather than benefit from their natural resources, local people in areas of natural resource exploitation, such as oil, gas, mining and logging, experience increased poverty,” adding “We believe that a country’s natural resources belong to its citizens and should be used in the best interests of the people.”
According to the statement, these natural resources are God given and should serve all mankind and future generations.
They also asked the Trans National Corporations to sign on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and ensure publication of all payments and contracts made to governments.
They also asked them to ensure that their operations do not cause or exacerbate conflict. However, where it does, they should suspend operations until the conflict has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
“The Bank World Bank and other Regional Development Banks should consider the particular circumstances of each country and the right of its population to determine their own development,” the groups said.
The Bank according to the group should observe a moratorium on the funding of extractive projects to evaluate the costs and benefits of extractive industries, taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental impacts, including loss of bio-diversity and climate change.
They also asked the Bank and other international financial institutions to end their policies of wholesale liberalisation and privatisation of the extractives sector.
The group also asked the IFIs to insist on mandatory independent monitoring of projects which recognize the full participation of civil society.
The groups were also interested in the activities of governments in the developing world.
They therefore called on governments to develop and ensure compliance with clear policies and legal frameworks to control extractive industries effectively. Such policies and legislation should be in line with international human rights and environmental standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination against Women, indigenous peoples’ human rights safeguards and the ILO Core Labour Standards.
“Governments should hold companies accountable for their extractive activities, wherever they operate,” the groups said adding, “require independent environmental, social and human rights impact assessments and publish the results at an early stage and in a form that is accessible and comprehensive to the population affected.”
Such impact assessments they said should form the basis of an informed decision by all stakeholders as to whether extractive projects are in the best interests of the people.”
The groups particularly called on governments of the South to include in their legal frameworks as a guarantee for the genuine participation of local communities at all stages of extractive projects;
Governments they said should only grant licences for extractive industries’ operations with the free, prior and informed consent of the local community and improve transparency with regard to revenue management by signing up to the EITI and to guarantee a fair and equitable distribution of such revenues, in order to serve poverty reduction;
Governments should “immediately end all harassment and intimidation of individuals advocating against corruption, human rights violations and environmental destruction associated with natural resource exploitation.”
Governments in the Northern Hemisphere were asked by the groups to implement mechanisms necessary to change patterns of consumptions of their populations and promote the sustainable use of energy and other natural resources;
They should “deny export credits and investment guarantees to those companies that do not meet the highest internationally accepted standards including the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises, the ILO Core Labour Standards and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reporting criteria,” the groups said.
The United Nations was not left out of the groups concerns. According to the group, the UN should guarantees the rights of people in extractive areas. They therefore called on the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Business and Human Rights to develop an effective mandatory regulatory human rights framework for Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises that allows for sanctions in severe cases of non-compliance.
“We call on the General Assembly and on all UN member states to support the approval of the Draft Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, including their right to free, prior and informed consent, and to extend this right to all affected local communities.”
In another development, the World Bank has announced its decision to protect human rights more and more than previously. Its new Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Bank Ana Palacio who joined the Bank Last September describe the move as a paradigm shift.
Speaking via Video Conference from Washington DC, in Accra last week Palacio said it is now widely recognized that human rights have relevance for several other international goals including development.
“It is now clear that the Bank can and sometimes should take human rights into considerations as part of its decision-making process,” Palacio said.
However, Palacio also says that Human rights have an unavoidable political content and embody value commitments which are not uniformly interpreted. Yet she said the World Bank has limitations on strictly political activities.
In Ghana, President John Agyekum Kufuor who is now the newly elected African Union Chairman has asked Ghanaians studying in the areas of mining engineering and geology to take their studies seriously so they can take over control of mining activities in the country.
Speaking at the annual People’s assembly in Sunyani recently, the President said as a result of lack of expertise and financial resources, Ghana has no choice but to allow foreign mining firms to do prospecting and invest in capital and equipment for mining as well.
President Kufuor said these when he responded to a question posed by a participant at this year’s annual People’s Assembly held in Sunyani last Tuesday.
The Participant wanted to know why Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, (NGGL) a multinational mining company operating in the Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions of the country gets 90 percent of proceeds from mining Ghana’s gold while the nation only gets 10 percent.
The President explained that, it is as a result of mining laws and earlier agreements which are renewable every 15 years.
He also said efforts are being put in place to ensure that Ghana gets a fair share of proceeds from its minerals just as in its agreements with Anglogold Ashanti.
“Students of geology and mining engineering should endeavour to learn hard,” the president said, adding, “With time when Ghana has developed the skill of the white men in terms of mining, the nation will be able to take over its mining activities.”
Source: Public Agenda
Civil Society groups, CIDSE and Partner organizations across the globe that participated in the just ended World Social Forum in Nairobi Kenya have asked the World Bank to implement the original recommendations of the Extractive Industries Review report which includes the need to secure the free, prior and informed consent of local people.
They have also asked Trans-national Corporations to respect their contracts with host governments, which must be in line with national laws and international human rights and environmental standards while asking governments to allow for renegotiation of contracts which are not in the best interests of affected communities.
They are also to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people and local communities before operations commence and to respect the right of such communities to say “No” to projects that are not in their best interests. Such free, prior and informed consent must be a condition of any contract signed with the host government.
In a paper titled “PROSPECTING FOR SOLUTIONS” issued on January 23 which carried recommendations on the impact of oil, mining and logging on development, to companies, governments International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the United Nations, the group expressed their disgust for the current spate of pollution and underdevelopment going on in mining communities among others.
“We are deeply concerned that rather than benefit from their natural resources, local people in areas of natural resource exploitation, such as oil, gas, mining and logging, experience increased poverty,” adding “We believe that a country’s natural resources belong to its citizens and should be used in the best interests of the people.”
According to the statement, these natural resources are God given and should serve all mankind and future generations.
They also asked the Trans National Corporations to sign on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and ensure publication of all payments and contracts made to governments.
They also asked them to ensure that their operations do not cause or exacerbate conflict. However, where it does, they should suspend operations until the conflict has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
“The Bank World Bank and other Regional Development Banks should consider the particular circumstances of each country and the right of its population to determine their own development,” the groups said.
The Bank according to the group should observe a moratorium on the funding of extractive projects to evaluate the costs and benefits of extractive industries, taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental impacts, including loss of bio-diversity and climate change.
They also asked the Bank and other international financial institutions to end their policies of wholesale liberalisation and privatisation of the extractives sector.
The group also asked the IFIs to insist on mandatory independent monitoring of projects which recognize the full participation of civil society.
The groups were also interested in the activities of governments in the developing world.
They therefore called on governments to develop and ensure compliance with clear policies and legal frameworks to control extractive industries effectively. Such policies and legislation should be in line with international human rights and environmental standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination against Women, indigenous peoples’ human rights safeguards and the ILO Core Labour Standards.
“Governments should hold companies accountable for their extractive activities, wherever they operate,” the groups said adding, “require independent environmental, social and human rights impact assessments and publish the results at an early stage and in a form that is accessible and comprehensive to the population affected.”
Such impact assessments they said should form the basis of an informed decision by all stakeholders as to whether extractive projects are in the best interests of the people.”
The groups particularly called on governments of the South to include in their legal frameworks as a guarantee for the genuine participation of local communities at all stages of extractive projects;
Governments they said should only grant licences for extractive industries’ operations with the free, prior and informed consent of the local community and improve transparency with regard to revenue management by signing up to the EITI and to guarantee a fair and equitable distribution of such revenues, in order to serve poverty reduction;
Governments should “immediately end all harassment and intimidation of individuals advocating against corruption, human rights violations and environmental destruction associated with natural resource exploitation.”
Governments in the Northern Hemisphere were asked by the groups to implement mechanisms necessary to change patterns of consumptions of their populations and promote the sustainable use of energy and other natural resources;
They should “deny export credits and investment guarantees to those companies that do not meet the highest internationally accepted standards including the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises, the ILO Core Labour Standards and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reporting criteria,” the groups said.
The United Nations was not left out of the groups concerns. According to the group, the UN should guarantees the rights of people in extractive areas. They therefore called on the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Business and Human Rights to develop an effective mandatory regulatory human rights framework for Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises that allows for sanctions in severe cases of non-compliance.
“We call on the General Assembly and on all UN member states to support the approval of the Draft Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, including their right to free, prior and informed consent, and to extend this right to all affected local communities.”
In another development, the World Bank has announced its decision to protect human rights more and more than previously. Its new Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Bank Ana Palacio who joined the Bank Last September describe the move as a paradigm shift.
Speaking via Video Conference from Washington DC, in Accra last week Palacio said it is now widely recognized that human rights have relevance for several other international goals including development.
“It is now clear that the Bank can and sometimes should take human rights into considerations as part of its decision-making process,” Palacio said.
However, Palacio also says that Human rights have an unavoidable political content and embody value commitments which are not uniformly interpreted. Yet she said the World Bank has limitations on strictly political activities.
In Ghana, President John Agyekum Kufuor who is now the newly elected African Union Chairman has asked Ghanaians studying in the areas of mining engineering and geology to take their studies seriously so they can take over control of mining activities in the country.
Speaking at the annual People’s assembly in Sunyani recently, the President said as a result of lack of expertise and financial resources, Ghana has no choice but to allow foreign mining firms to do prospecting and invest in capital and equipment for mining as well.
President Kufuor said these when he responded to a question posed by a participant at this year’s annual People’s Assembly held in Sunyani last Tuesday.
The Participant wanted to know why Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, (NGGL) a multinational mining company operating in the Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions of the country gets 90 percent of proceeds from mining Ghana’s gold while the nation only gets 10 percent.
The President explained that, it is as a result of mining laws and earlier agreements which are renewable every 15 years.
He also said efforts are being put in place to ensure that Ghana gets a fair share of proceeds from its minerals just as in its agreements with Anglogold Ashanti.
“Students of geology and mining engineering should endeavour to learn hard,” the president said, adding, “With time when Ghana has developed the skill of the white men in terms of mining, the nation will be able to take over its mining activities.”
Source: Public Agenda
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