Successful African Experiences: Country-Led Coordination of Aid in Ghana
Countries in Africa are hard pressed to provide basic educational services given the many demands and the scarce ressources. External funding is thus critically important for African educational development. However, a major criticism of foreign aid is that it is predominantly donor-driven and controlled. In the early 1990s, Ghana initiated a process to gradually reform its relationship with funding agencies. This process is documented in a just published ADEA successful experience paper(1) written by Hon.Harry Sawyerr, former Minister of Education of Ghana.
In Ghana, events leading to the need for donor coordination emerged within the context of three major education reforms, the first beginning in 1974, the second in 1987, and the most recent in 1993.
The first reforms were halted by political instability and economic decline. This resulted in a decline of the portion of GDP spent on education to a little over one percent. By the mid-eighties, the education system was destitute at every level. The quality of education, as well as the infrastructure had deteriorated drastically. In October 1986, the World Bank and UNICEF helped organize a conference of funding agencies in Vienna for the education and health sectors. At this conference, the government presented an ambitious education reform program. Commitments to support the first phase of the program came from the British Overseas Development Agency, Norway, OPEC Fund, Switzerland, the African Development Bank and the World Bank. In 1990, USAID came in with support for the development of the first Primary Education Program.
Improving the management of donor projects
With the large scale reforms and the myriad of funding agencies willing to support them, it became evident that major changes were required in how the ministry managed activities supported by external funding agencies and how it included donor participation in its policy-making process.
Prior to 1993, each funding agency had a bilateral relationship with the Ministry. The various projects were managed by different project units which required separate and distinct administrative facilities and staff. This resulted in a dearth of project management units, under-utilization of staff, duplication of efforts, and poor capacity building.
This problem was solved in 1993 when the minister of education merged all the different project management units into a single Projects Management Unit (PMU). The PMU was specifically in charge of ensuring proper management procedures. Specialized divisions were created for the disbursement and procurement of funds. A hierarchy of authority was established from the director general who reported directly to the minister of education right down to project managers for each level of education. The unit was made operative, and a secretariat for donor funded projects was established within the ministry. A major stride had been taken in shifting the authority of aid management from the funding agencies to the ministry.
Taking the lead in the coordination of the policy-making process
The third major set of reforms —which occurred following the worldwide Conference on Education For All held in Jomtien in 1990—formed the context within which the ministry established control of the more complex function of coordinating aid in the policy-making process. The genesis of this process was the productive collaboration of government and funding agencies, led by the minister, in writing a strategy paper and national plan for basic education reforms in 1993.
During this process, the need for the ministry to coordinate agency participation in policy dialogue and implementation became apparent to both sides. This coordination would enable the ministry to: define its own priorities and strategies for national development; utilize agency contributions to the sector program in an effective way; and, put an end to low priority projects that reflected exclusively the directives and priority areas of their own agencies.
-- The joint forum for Free, Compulsory and Universal Basic Education (FCUBE)
Subsequently, a joint Ministry of Education and Funding Agency Forum was held in July 1994. This seminal event began the process of developing Ghana’s basic education reform, called Free Compulsory and Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). The meeting was a turning point in the ministry’s relationship with funding agencies. The shift in authority from the agency community to the Ministry of Education in defining funding priorities became the driving force for education sector reforms in the country.
The forum succeeded in helping ministry officials and funding agency representatives lay the foundation for collaboration in developing FCUBE. The partnership formed was characterized by openness and frankness. This was the keystone of a long-term success story in ministry-agency collaboration.
The FCUBE program was planned for implementation within a ten-year period, beginning in 1996 and running through 2005.
An implementation framework was then developed for FCUBE. Responsibilities for implementation involved the creation of oversight and top management groups, units for the implementation of operations, as well as the decentralization of functions. Together these groups facilitate a sense of ownership and commitment on the part of all stakeholders, systematic consultation and consensus building.
-- The Government and Funding Agency Consultative Panel
In February 1997, soon after the FCUBE program was approved by Parliament, the minister launched the first meeting of the Government of Ghana and Funding Agency Consultative Panel. Participants reviewed the status of the implementation of the program, the operational plan for 1997, future implementation arrangements, and the cost and financing of the program. It was emphasized that FCUBE would be the only basic education program for Ghana in the coming decade and that all domestic and external sources of technical and financial support for basic education would be applied through it. This meeting marked the institutionalizing of the aid coordination to basic education in Ghana. A primary purpose of these meetings is to promote collaboration among funding agencies and government and coordinate their activities. The panel meets on a regular basis. Meetings are chaired by the Minister.
Results and lessons learned
In the past few years, the ministry has set up a formidable structure for the management, planning, oversight, and implementation of aid in which funding agencies are successfully integrated. Central to this process are two loci: the Consultative Panel meetings and the Projects Management Unit. The Consultative panel meetings provide a sector forum as well as a role for funding agencies in policy implementation. The Projects Management Unit provides an efficient system for managing funding agency resources that flow into the country.
Coordination of external assistance has indeed led to a reduction of low priority programs, better planning of aid and less duplication of effort. Because the government has made it clear that FCUBE is the only program for basic education over the next ten years, all external funding support is now being hannelled to support that program. This has led to the various external funding agencies working in a cooperative and complementary manner. Ghana’s successful experience is trendsetting because it is an effective participatory development model that clearly shows how African governments can take a leadership role in coordinating the assistance of funding agencies. Country-led rather than agency-driven aid is more likely to lead to a more equitable and efficient distribution of funds.
In the long process of creating institutional channels to facilitate the participation of funding agencies in FCUBE, the ministry and funding agencies learned several lessons.
Strong leadership is essential. Political will must be clearly demonstrated in the formulation of goals, plans, and implementation strategies. Leadership from the highest levels must be evident at every stage.
Funding agencies want to support a ministry and a program that show strong leadership. Clear guidance from government facilitates funding agencies in getting approval from their own agencies for loans and grants. These agencies also appreciate organized, structured means of communicating with each other.
The establishment of a single unit to procure and disburse funds that flow between funding agencies and the government budget is a more efficient use of local human resources than is an arrangement in which each funding agency has its own project implementation unit. The Projects Management Unit allows ministry staff to specialize and to maximize consistency in administering funding agency activities.
A review of
"Country-Led Aid Coordination in Ghana"by Hon. Harry Sawyerr former Minister of Basic Education of GhanaADEA, 1997
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