The Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo engaged with the Council of State members on Thursday, May 30, 2019, where he briefed them on the Ghana Beyond Aid Charter and Strategy document at the conference hall of the Council of State office in Accra.

Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo in a presentation to members of the Council of State clearly indicated that the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is a vision by His Excellency the President of the Republic. He highlighted and explained the key points in the document to the members.

He explained that “Ghana Beyond Aid is a prosperous and self-confident Ghana that is in charge of her economic destiny; transformed Ghana that is prosperous enough to be beyond needing aid, and that engages competitively with the rest of the world through trade and investment”.

He added that it is not a development plan but rather a call for a paradigm shift through attitudinal and mindset change by all citizens in the country to achieve Ghana Beyond Aid. According to the Senior Minister, Ghana is not rejecting aid or support, but rather we should determine what the aid should be used for in order to benefit our people.

He said, “To get to a Ghana Beyond Aid, we will have to harness effectively our own resources and deploy them creatively and efficiently for rapid economic and social transformation. This will require hard work, enterprise, creativity, and a consistent fight against corruption in public life. It will also require that we break from a mentality of dependency and adopt a confident can-do spirit, fueled by a love for our dear country, Ghana. We cannot subordinate the common good to build a prosperous nation to the selfish interest of a few”.

Senior Minister made it clear that there was a multi-stakeholder committee that consisted of representatives from Trade Union Congress (TUC), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GNCCI), National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and selected Ministries.

The Ghana Beyond Aid Committee created the following sub-committees which are; agriculture modernization, finance and economy private sector development, values and attitudinal change, labour and employment, infrastructure, human development, publicity and public engagement. These sub-committees were mandated to develop ideas and structures that will help build the strategy document. Position papers and contributions were solicited from the public.

Hon. Osafo-Maafo indicated that thirty (30) institutions were invited to present position papers and twenty-two (22) responded which include academic and research institutions, Civil Society Organizations and professional bodies among others. Again, each Ministry also submitted input to outline what can be done to support the vision of Ghana Beyond Aid. Additionally, voluntary contributions of papers and inputs from Ghanaians both home and abroad were received.

In the presentation, the Senior Minister was emphatic that Ghana Beyond Aid will require – embracing a new mindset by all Ghanaians; building and deepening social partnerships involving all key stakeholders such as labour, traditional authorities, industries among others; non-partisan approach to our national development; and a national consensus on the direction of our national development.

The strategy will hinge on a ten (10) point reform agenda and will comprise of macroeconomic stability; higher public resource mobilization particularly revenues; greater efficiency in the use of all public resources – anti-corruption and a more professional and transparent approach; improved public infrastructure and easier and more secure access to land; a robust financial sector for higher domestic private savings and foreign private portfolio investment; a more supportive private sector environment and support for Ghanaian participation and ownership in key businesses; export promotion and import substitution; building technological capabilities; creating a strong social partnership among Government business and labour for social and economic development; and a more strategic mobilization and use of aid taking into account type, terms and Ghana’s development priorities.

The Senior Minister was quick to add that the Ghana Beyond Aid came out with the W.I.S.E.R. Ghana acronym which is interpreted as W – Wealthy Ghana, I – Inclusive Ghana, S – Sustainable Ghana, E – Empowered Ghana and R – Resilient Ghana. This according to him will work collectively to achieve a “W.I.S.E.R. Ghana”.

Concluding his presentation, Hon. Osafo-Maafo indicated that Ghana Beyond Aid is non-partisan and the vision should be owned by all Ghanaians so that every government will remain committed to the vision. He believes that to achieve this there will be a Ghana Beyond Aid Council which will oversee the implementation arrangement of the vision.

The Chairman of the Council of State, Hon. Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Juabehene was elated with the wonderful delivery of the Ghana Beyond Aid Charter and Strategy document by the Senior Minister. Majority of the members asked various questions and made positive contributions to the document by calling on government and the Secretariat to enforce the law and also push for the successful implementation of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.

Some suggestions made by members of the Council of State include; fighting indiscipline in relation to sanitation issues, educating the citizens on their civic responsibilities, working effectively on the financial system of our economy, reforming the technical education system, increasing rice production, tackling general agriculture production among others in the country. They embraced the fact that Ghana can cut down on large importation of rice and other agricultural produce if the government work towards that direction. The members of the Council of State were happy that the Ghana Beyond Aid was a non-partisan approach and called on the people of Ghana to support the agenda to achieve results.