The new budget for the remainder of 2017 is upon us. It’s often difficult for anyone to see the full picture – has spending gone up in some areas, down in others? How can we tell? Are large costly programmes quietly expanding while smaller ones are being sacrificed? How would we know? As in many countries, Ghana is good at making budget reports public but it may mean little to most people.
What is clear is that this year’s budget is going to be a difficult one. We are to expect cuts in expenditure. The International Monetary Fund has told us that the deficit has deteriorated, which will require “strong efforts of fiscal consolidation” – that means cutting spending. But what do we cut and what do we keep?
Development in Ghana is now marked by the emergence of a new paradigm – the Inclusive Development Agenda with accompanying specific policy actions on how best to promote and achieve it.
Inclusive development means promoting growth and change for Ghana. And it means doing so in a way which involves everyone – empowering families to develop their own livelihoods and contribute to national development. It means ensuring that even the poorest children can go to school and develop fully, find decent jobs, and be protected from the worst kinds of deprivation. Ghana cannot remain a middle-income country if one in four people are in poverty.Neither can we transform the nation if the gap between rich and poor – now at its highest level ever – is not tackled. This is why including everyone is crucial. Every person, every family, must be able to be part of Ghana’s development.
So will the new budget be able to reflect such priorities which are also critical for children? Will it prioritise programmes that are proven to boost jobs, livelihoods and growth? Will the new budget be able to sustain the necessary investments needed to ensure Basic Education for all children though itstill comes with enormous costs for parents? Will it be able to allocate the 80 million GHS needed to continue funding the LEAP programme for the very poorest families, and the more than 40 million GHS needed to fund life-saving child vaccinations? And will the budget for the new Ministry of Water and Sanitation be able toprovide funds to finance the household toilet programme at District level?
Programmes with big impact do not have to be big budget.I think we can all agree that overlooking such priorities results in overlooking the poorest people of the country and missing out on their enormous potential to contribute to Ghana’s development.
By Sarah Hague, Chief of Policy, UNICEF