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GHANA
BACKGROUND OF THE RETREAT

The fact that the President of Ghana participated in the launch of UNSIA, and that this launch came at a moment when Ghana - vision 2020 was going on, contributed to its early support and endorsement by the Government, which had already established clear leadership in the preparation of the Country Cooperation Framework (CCF).

The UN country team, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, have undertaken intensive consultations among themselves and with the Government, and have progressively moved towards a basic strategy for the implementation of UNSIA comprising three elements. First, at the macro level, the CSN would be utilized to review and reorient UN system support to Ghana. Second, focus will be put on helping implement sector strategies and programmes for education and health. Third, a CSN Technical Working Group (with 3 sub working groups) was formed to prepare concrete recommendations on the implementation of UNSIA in those areas of focus.

Government/Donors sectoral consultation mechanisms included a donors group on education, led by the World Bank and UNESCO, a donors group called "Health Partners" chaired by the Minister of Health, and a donor agency meeting on environment chaired by the Ministry of the Environment.

The status of the main activities at the moment of the Ghana country retreat can be summarized as follows:

• Government ownership and leadership of its policy and programmes, and full support for UNSIA including formal endorsement;
• Government leadership of the preparation of the CCR and the CSN;
• Intense consultations between the UN agencies;
• Preparation of a first draft strategy for the implementation of UNSIA;
• Donor sectoral consultation mechanisms for education, health and environment;
• The CSN has been approved.

The Ghana Country retreat had three objectives:

• To build a stronger coalition between the Government, the UN system and the other partners in support of UNSIA;
• To explore better ways of collaborating within the framework of UNSIA and in support of the CSN process;
• To enhance collaboration within the UN family;

CONTENT AND APPROACH

Discussions during the retreat centered on the following points: UNSIA, CSN, Sector investment and thematic programmes (education, health, poverty reduction, governance, food security), OECD/DAC's new development strategy for the 21st century and coordination mechanisms. The meeting was co-chaired by the Resident Coordinator and a Representative of the Government (Deputy Minister of Finance). After various discussions at the plenary, participants broke into thematic working groups to deliberate on the various issues and make recommendations. Government representatives participated all along. These recommendations were then discussed and adopted by participants during plenary sessions.

PARTICIPATION

The retreat was attended by representatives of Government Ministries, 10 UN organizations and agencies, 1 donor and 2 NGOs.

ISSUES DISCUSSED

The following issues were discussed during the retreat:

UN agency cooperation and operationalization of UNSIA

• Strengthening of coordination among donors for maximum impact;
• Need to formalize consultation between Government and Donors on sectoral support (education, health and agriculture);
• Synchronization of programming cycles and implementation modalities of various agencies;
• Harmonization of programmes instrumentalities and cycles, merging of activities;
• Need for UN agencies to work together for the implementation of UNSIA;
• UNSIA country level implementation issues;
• Pooling of resources together for the implementation of UNSIA;
• Link between UNSIA, the CSN and SPA;
• Government ownership of the CSN and UN agencies role in its implementation;
• Value added for the CSN/UNSIA process;
• Criteria for SIP;
• Flow of information;
• Role of NGOs;

UN Agency cooperation and national development issues

• Ghana vision 2020;
• Strengthening Government ownership and leadership;
• Strengthening ownership of programmes at local and regional level;
• Decentralization;
• Poverty reduction;
• Impact of multilateral debt on the country's effort to reduce poverty;
• OECD/DAC 21st century vision and partnership;
• Joint responsibility of the Government and Donors in mobilizing enough resources to meet the objectives;
• Linkages between good governance, peace and stability;
• Government's capacity for internal coordination.

OUTCOME OF THE RETREAT

The retreat contributed substantially to deepening dialogue between UN agencies, the Government, NGO and donors, on the issues that were discussed. Donor participation enhanced their support for UNSIA. A better understanding between the participants led to the following concrete recommendations and decisions:

Country Strategy Note (CSN)

• The UN system cooperation programme should be in line with the CSN;
• There is a need to strengthen Government's capacity to record and monitor incoming resources and how they are managed.

Sector Investment Programmes (SIPs)

• Donors should support the SIP approach, which should be extended to nutrition, food security;
• All donors programmes documents within a particular sector should fall within the framework of a single Government document signed by all;
• There is a need to involve a wider circle of donors and to include other sectors in SIPs discussions, to encourage replication;
• To enhance Government coordination, the Aid Coordination Office in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) should be given the capacity to monitor resources allocated to projects, their utilization, and a senior representative of the MOF should participate to health/education donors meeting;

Good Governance

• Establishing and strengthening links between poverty reduction and good governance practices;
• Strengthening of NGO's and CSO's capacity to contribute good governance;
• There is a need to examine how traditional values and customs can become a focus of UNSIA for purpose of peace building, conflict mediation and conflict resolutions;
• Parliament should constitute a screening group on good governance at the national level;
• Poverty Reduction and Food Security
• Strengthening donor coordination in food security and nutrition to ensure and integrated approach;
• Intensification of support to the Agriculture sector (including increased share of budgetary allocation) and formulation of a SIP;
• Increase resource allocation to the conservation of natural resources;
• Support Ghana in stimulating exports earnings;

Education and health

• Strengthening of the Government's existing capacity in the area of nutrition, gender/poverty concerns; water/sanitation; environment, female educations, population;
• To ensure coherent development of sector development programmes, new donors coordination mechanisms must have wide dissemination and consensus within central Government;
• All UN agencies to review their policies, systems and regulations in order to fit in line with GOC new plans/arrangements;

• NGOs should be involved actively in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes.

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