Presented at MDBS Annual Review Workshop

Accra 17th May, 2011

Hon. Antwi-Boasiako SekyereDeputy Minister-MESW

Presentation outline1. Defining equitable development 2. Context - Achievements & Challenges3. Some Evidence and Issues4. Drivers of inequity, and5. Some possible Solutions.

Defining equitable development• Equal access to economic and social

opportunities for all Ghanaians irrespective of socio-economic, cultural and regional barriers.

- i.e. giving all economic and social groups equal opportunities to strive and improve their living conditions.

• Equal access to development opportunities irrespective of gender disparities.

• There is (1) horizontal equity (across regions) and

(2) vertical equity (across income/ wealth groups).

.

Defining equitable development Cont.Opportunity to contribute to development

according to ability and sharing fairly in national gains.

Why Equitable Development?The concept of equity in development is based

upon the philosophy of “everybody matters”promotes social harmony and sense of

belonging.prevents sectarian conflict. harnesses all the different talents for

development.ensures inter-generational solidarity. (national)reduces regional disparities.

Ghana is among the top ten performers in poverty reduction (Source: Ghana Poverty Assessment: Tackling Poverty in Northern Ghana, World Bank, Accra, 2011)

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Vietnam

Mali

Senegal

Ghana

Azerbaijan

Niger

Cambodia

Moldova

Lesotho

Philippines

Guinea-Bissau

Burundi

Egypt, Arab Rep.

Lithuania

Pakistan

Russian Federation

Malaysia

Turkey

Argentina

Mongolia

South Africa

Nigeria

Poverty Reduction (percentage points, annual change) Poverty increase (percentage points, annual change)

Context -Some Achievements & Challenges

Achievements• Poverty Reduction

Head counts poverty has fallen from 52% in 1991 to 28% in 2006 (GLSS5).

• Ghana is on track on many MDGs-malnutrition, primary school enrolment, and gender disparity.

But • Health MDGs- Maternal Mortality, U5 mortality

and sanitations are not on tareget.• Major Regional disparity in poverty and

extreme poverty eg. Health and Education.

Context -Some Achievements & ChallengesChallenges• significant regional disparities in poverty between

the northern Savanna regions (58%) and the rest of the country (19%) persist(the Savanna belt accounts for 51% of national poverty).

• In health, 94% of births by women from the richest quintile are attended by skilled service providers whereas the figure drops to 24% for the poorest quintile.

• In Education, a woman from the poorest quintile is likely to have less than one year of education whereas the woman from the highest quintile will have 9 years. Corresponding figures for males are 1.4 and 11 years respectively.

• Ghana is unlikely to attain the under-5 mortality and sanitation MDG targets.

Some Evidence and Issuespoverty reduction has a regional bias with the

Savanna region having the highest poverty and associated food insecurity and vulnerability.

similar regional inequity in access to Basic Services and Human Development outcomes (Health and Education)

The poor, irrespective of location, access fewer and lower quality service with respect to development outcomes.

Some Evidence and Issues cont.

on average, about 63% of students going to schools located in districts of the top quintile passed the BECE exams in 2008/09, whereas only 40 percent of students who resided in the districts of the poorest quintile passed.

Eg. Similar inequity patterns are likely to be found in Agric extension, water supply, Health etc

Students from the richest 20% represent two thirds of the students in highly subsidized public higher education and also the transition from secondary to higher education favors the richest

Regional bias in Poverty Reduction in Ghana(Source: Ghana Poverty Assessment: Tackling Poverty in Northern Ghana, World Bank, Accra, 2011)

Regional access to basic health services

Regional and Income discrepancies observed in education access and outcomes

Average Years of Schooling by Region, Wealth Quintile and Gender

Source: Education in Ghana- Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery, World Bank February 2011

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Drivers of inequity patterns in Ghana• inappropriate Economic activities (in poor regions) to

stimulate growth.• access to quality education and generational poverty of

poor households for human capital for growth and development.

• poorer regions have limited opportunities to improve human capital as means of reducing poverty.

• pupils from urban districts have greater proportion of funding per student than those in poorer and rural districts e.g Achimota School vrs Bunkpuguru Primary School.

• the ratio of pupils to trained teachers (rural vrs urban).• access to Primary and Secondary school is biased

towards to wealthier quintiles.• similar situations apply with regard to (access and

quality) for access to Health Services delivery in Ghana.

• many services designed to help the poor help themselves do not really reach them as shown in the next slide.

But despite the pro-poor policy statements- actual current budget allocations reveal an opposite bias

Comparing the actual budget to the targeting efficiency in the earlier slide shows the gap between policy and reality. The largest program in the list is school feeding which is biased towards the richer schools rather (see next slide). Excluding this and another large but poorly targeted program NYEP, there is almost a 2% decline in nominal terms and a 10% decline in real terms. These findings are jarring given the stated priorities of the Government. Even the best targeted program from the study above – LEAP – suffers with a constant nominal allocation and a decreased allocation in real terms.

Comparison of Budget 2011 Allocations in Nominal and Real Terms for Social Intervention Programs

Programme 2010 2011 Percent Change

LEAP 12,000,000 12,000,000 0.00% NYEP 15,000,000 16,785,500 11.90% Scholarships 21,800,000 22,000,000 0.92% School feeding 50,000,000 50,000,000 0.00% Capitation; BECE subsidy 35,500,000 36,000,000 1.41% Uniforms, textbooks 12,160,000 10,000,000 -17.76% Total 146,460,000 146,785,500 0.22% Total without School Feeding and NYEP 81,460,000 80,000,000 -1.79%

Inflation Adjusted Figures in 2010 prices LEAP 12,000,000 11,029,412 -8.09% NYEP 15,000,000 15,427,849 2.85% Scholarships 21,800,000 20,220,588 -7.25% School feeding 50,000,000 45,955,882 -8.09% Capitation; BECE subsidy 35,500,000 33,088,235 -6.79% Uniforms, textbooks 12,160,000 9,191,176 -24.41% Total 146,460,000 134,913,143 -7.88% Total without School Feeding and NYEP 81,460,000 73,529,412 -9.74%

Source: V&E Group Estimates

Poverty Targeting Effectiveness of Ghana’s Pro-Poor Programs – only one of them(LEAP) has more than 50% of beneficiaries from among the poor (Source: Ghana Improving Targeting of Social programs, Report, World Bank, 2010 )

Institution Share of outlaysbenefitingthe poor

Principaltargeting

mechanism

Benefits forHouseholds

ConditionsAttached

LEAP 57.5 Community based, and PMT GH¢8.00 -12.00, per household School enrolment, health visits

NHIS Indigents >38.5 District-level identification Free coverage under NHIS None

MoE Primary Education 32.2 Children in public primary schools Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

CHAG service delivery 30.8 Individualsill or injured

Subsidizedhealth care

Use of CHAG health centers

MoH antenatal and child care 29.1 Antenatal and post natal care, maternal and child health Impregnated bed nets Pregnant women and children aged below 5 years

MoE Kinderg. Education 27.2 Children in public kindergarten schools Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

MoE Junior High. Education 24.0 Children in public JHS schools Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

MoH funding for health care 22.4 Visit to publicly funded center

GSFP school lunches 21.3 Public Primary schools One hot meal per child- school day Attendance in pub. primary school

KeroseneSubsidies

20.7 Self-targeting through use of good Lower cost of kerosene Purchase of kerosene

MoE Vocational Education 19.0 Children in public SHS schools Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

MoFA Fertilizer Subsidies 15.8 Vouchers for fertilizers Lower cost of fertilizer Use of fertilizers for food crops

MoE Senior High Education 15.1 Children in public SHS schools Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

PURC access to potable water 13.1 Indirect access to potable water Supply of water in tankers in Accra Areas w/o access to piped water

NYEP 12.7 Unemployed youths (18-35 year old) Training and monthly allowances Participation in training program

NHIS General Subsidies 12.4 Social security and district schemes Coverage of most health care costs Registration and premiums

PURC Electricity Subsidies 8.0 Inverted block tariff and lifeline Cheaper electricity for low consumers Residential elec. consumers

Tax Cut on Imported Rice 8.3 Self-targeting through use of good Lower cost of rice (imported/domestic) Purchase of rice (imported/domestic)

MOE Tertiary Education 6.9 Youth in higher degree institutions Subsidized education School enrolment and attendance

Petrol and Diesel Subsidies >2.3 Self-targeting through use of good Lower cost of fuel (imported/domestic) Purchase of fuel (imported/domestic)

Some Possible SolutionsGhana needs to move towards more effective targeting

of the poor rather than generalized programs (i.e rationalization of social protection expenditure as proposed by MOFEP & MESW under the GSOP).

smproving equity in Health and Educational resource allocation vertically &horizontally

supporting and mainstreaming the newly developed Common Targeting Approach (CTA) for pro-poor programmes initiated by MESW, MOE,MOH,MOFA & MLG&RD.

combine Social Safety nets with self-help human development opportunities.

Adequate Human Resource Capacity to implement Pro-Poor Programmes

Some Possible Solutions Cont.support the rationalization of pro-poor spending

by increasing share of public expenditures going to well targeted programs such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and Ghana Health Insurance subsidies for the poor.

support self-help programs such as livelihoods, Micro enterprises, Youth training programs. ( e.g the Indian model)

provide strong incentives (financial etc) for trained teachers to locate to deprived schools.

provide school financing based on numbers of students in a school rather than from central allocation to assure that deprived schools are not treated unfairly.

Some Possible Solutions Cont.tackling poverty in Northern Ghana requires well

targeted interventions that support livelihood opportunities and reducing vulnerability to the various climatic, & economic shocks that plague these regions.

human development in the North would also increase the potential for local development.

Given the high poverty in Northern Ghana, geographical targeting mechanisms can be used much more widely, given their high returns in terms of coverage and cost-effectiveness.

New programs such as Labor Intensive Public works programs, could provide income opportunities during the off-season whilst creating public social infrastructure.

Some Possible Solutions Cont.The Savannah Accelerated Development

Authority (SADA), as well as the renewed focus Government of Ghana towards decentralized governance, provide an opportunity for a more comprehensive spatial approach to development.

SADA can play a key role in attracting investment to growth to the , on the one hand, while ensuring that public and private investments are well targeted within Northern Ghana to achieve specific results.

ConclusionHow do we prevent continuity of inequity in

Ghana?.How do we transform the economy so that all

social groups have equal access to development resources and contribute to national development?

How do we share fairly in the national gainsI believe proposal to resolve these issues are

contained in the GSGDA.

Thank You