Opening Remarks by the Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Hon. Dr. A. Akoto Osei at the first
Multi- Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Wider Stakeholder Dissemination Workshop.
on Wednesday 25th April 07
Chair and Co-Chair,
Colleague Ministers and Members of Parliament,
Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corp,
Civil Society Organisations
Our Pressmen and Women
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the first Multi- Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Wider Stakeholder Dissemination Workshop.
2007 marks the fourth year into the implementation of the MDBS process and am sure most of you would have already heard the acronym MDBS. I feel very privileged as the Deputy Minister with Oversight responsibility of MDBS in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) to be here to share information and views on MDBS. In that capacity I have had the opportunity to witness the inception and participated in the process of MDBS since 2003.
The MDBS was started in 2003 through a concerted effort of the Government of Ghana with nine of its Development Partners with the common objective of finding an efficient alternative to Development Assistance in Ghana.
We made the decision to work towards the achievement of timely, predictable aid assistance, aligned most importantly to government’s priorities. To make this a reality, these partners agreed to provide budget support to assist Government fund priority activities as contained in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy and in consonance with the objectives of the MDGs ( Millennium Development Goals) , and NEPAD. This was all in an effort to enable Ghana realise the vision of attaining middle income status by the year 2015.
Currently the MDBS has ten (10) Development Partners of which seven (7) are bilateral (Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands Switzerland and UK) and three (3) multi-laterals (ADB EU WB,) Japan, US and UNDP participate as observers.
The MDBS process is anchored along a Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) Matrix. This matrix evolves after several discussions with various MDAs. It is important to note that the input from MDAs into the matrix emanates from the GPRS document and their respective sector strategy documents.
Dialogue between government and DP at the sectoral level is fairly routine in the way we do business. Overarching policy concerns and cross cutting issues are carried up by the sectors for consideration of the MDBS dialogue with Ministry Of Finance and Economic Planning. The MDBS has one of the effective tools in achieving some of the indicators signed onto in the Paris Declaration on Harmonization and Aid Effectiveness. The MDBS calendar is closely linked to Government’s fiscal calendar. Issues that are not readily resolved through the MDBS process are elevated to the CG/APM (Consultative Group/ Annual Partnership Meeting) which comes off this year on the 18 and 19 June.
Over the four (4) year period DPs have shown their commitment to Government’s agenda by contributing approximately $1148.93 billion ($245.9 million in 2003, $309.03 million in 2004, $281.88 million in 2005, and $312.12 million in 2006). This year an amount of US$112million has already been disbursed with the expectation that all pledges will be disbursed by the end of August 2007.
Today we are here to share with you the findings of the first evaluation of MDBS in Ghana. This evaluation was conducted by an independent body, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) of the UK in collaboration with their Ghanaian counterparts Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).
We are convinced that the decision by DPs to use an alternative but efficient package of Development Assistant was in the right direction and hope that many more Development Partners will sign onto the MDBS soon.
I thank you all for your interest demonstrated by attendance and trust that you will participate fully in the discussions of the day.
