The changing nature of UK aid in Ghana
UK aid has been “mostly effective” at helping some of the poorest and most vulnerable in Ghana – but as the country works to become less reliant on aid, the UK should take care not to scale back its financial support too quickly.
Read the approach paper
- HTML document
- PDF download (137 KB)
- Published: 20 May 2019
Our approach
This is the first country portfolio review by ICAI, representing a new way of analysing the impact of UK aid at a country level. It is a qualitative review that assesses the relevance, effectiveness and sustainability of all UK official development assistance (ODA) flows to Ghana relative to the UK’s objectives, with an emphasis on:
- Transforming the Ghana economy: Contribution of UK aid to inclusive growth in Ghana.
- Leaving no one behind: Contribution of UK aid to tackling extreme poverty and vulnerability in Ghana, including through addressing gender disparities.
- Building Ghanaian Institutions: Contribution of UK aid to the development of competent and sustainable Ghanaian institutions.
- Transition in the UK/Ghana partnership: The management of transition in the UK/Ghana partnership and safeguarding of past development gains.
This review covers all UK ODA to Ghana from 2011 to the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year. This encompasses the shift in the programmatic focus of UK aid as articulated through the DFID Ghana Operational Plan 2011-15, and accelerated in the DFID Ghana Business Plan 2016-17 to 2019-20. The review covers all bilateral UK aid to Ghana from all UK government departments and the UK attributed share of multilateral aid.
We conducted a literature review (see below) and a review of UK aid’s strategy and policies at the global, regional, country and thematic/sector level. We then reviewed existing ODA data and collected and analysed secondary evidence of the relevance, performance and sustainability of UK aid-supported programmes in Ghana and of progress against UK aid objectives for the portfolio. We also conducted a stakeholder consultation to solicit feedback from key institutional informants and Ghanaian citizens across the themes of interest for the review.
Review questions
We sought to answer the following questions:
- How well has the UK aid portfolio responded to Ghana’s development needs and UK strategic objectives?
- How effective has UK aid been in achieving its strategic objectives in Ghana?
- How likely are the results of UK aid to be sustained in the future?