Presented at MDBS Annual Review
Workshop
Accra
17th May, 2011
Hon. Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere
Deputy Minister-MESW
Presentation outline
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4.
5.
Defining equitable development
Context - Achievements & Challenges
Some Evidence and Issues
Drivers of inequity, and
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)
Nigeria
South Africa
Mongolia
Argentina
Turkey
Malaysia
Russian Federation
Pakistan
Lithuania
Egypt, Arab Rep.
Burundi
Guinea-Bissau
Philippines
Poverty Reduction (percentage points, annual change)
Lesotho
Poverty increase (percentage points, annual change)
Moldova
Cambodia
Niger
Azerbaijan
Ghana
Senegal
Mali
Vietnam
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
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 & Challenges
Challenges
• 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 Issues
 poverty 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
Enrollment in Public Higher
Education Institutions by
Quintile(2005/06)
2nd
quintile
8%
Poorest
quintile
2%
Middle
quintile
9%
Enrollment in Secondary Public
Schools by Quintile (2005/06)
Richest
quintile
24%
Poorest
quintile
12%
2nd quintile
17%
4th quintile
14%
Richest
quintile
67%
4th quintile
23%
Middle
quintile
24%
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 Equity in access to Basic Health Services
70
66.3
60
Percentage
50
45.5
40
33.6
30
30.3
28.5
21.8
21.9
18.4
20
17.2
11.7
10
0
Sick women unable to access
health facility due to distance
Women delivered at home
Children(1-2yrs) received all basic
vaccination [1]
Northern Regions[2]
Children U5 underweight
Children U5 with diarrhoea
Other Regions[3]
Notes: [1] BCG, measles, and three doses of DPT and polio vaccine (excluding polio vaccine given at birth). [2] Northern Regions comprises of Upper East, Upper West and Northern
Region. [3] Other Regions comprise of Greater Accra, Western, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Central and Volta Regions.
Source: Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2008.
Regional and Income discrepancies observed in
education access and outcomes
Average Years of Schooling by Region, Wealth Quintile and Gender
12
10
Female
Male
8
6
4
2
Age
Residence
Region
Wealth Quintile
To
ta
l
Lo
w
Se est
co
M nd
id
d
Fo le
H urth
ig
he
st
W
es
te
G Ce rn
re n
at tra
.A l
cc
r
Vo a
Ea lt a
st
e
Br As rn
on ha
g nt
A i
N haf
U ort o
pp he
U er rn
pp Ea
er st
W
es
t
rb
a
R n
ur
al
U
15
-2
15 4
-1
20 9
-2
25 4
-2
30 9
-3
35 4
-3
40 9
-4
45 4
-4
9
0
Total
Source: Education in Ghana- Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery, World Bank
February 2011
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
Percent
Programme
2010
2011 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
Source: V&E Group Estimates
81,460,000
73,529,412
-9.74%
Poverty Targeting Effectiveness of Ghana’s Pro-Poor Programs – only one
of them(LEAP) has more than 50% of beneficiaries from among the poor
Institution
Share of outlays
benefiting
the poor
Principal
targeting
mechanism
Benefits for
Households
Conditions
Attached
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
Individuals
ill or injured
Subsidized
health 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
GSFP school lunches
21.3
Public Primary schools
One hot meal per child- school day
Attendance in pub. primary school
Kerosene
Subsidies
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)
(Source: Ghana Improving Targeting of Social programs, Report, World Bank, 2010 )
Visit to publicly funded center
Some Possible Solutions
 Ghana needs to move towards more effective targeting of the


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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 costeffectiveness.
 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.
Conclusion
 How 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 gains
 I believe proposal to resolve these issues are contained
in the GSGDA.
Thank You