DFID urges dev't partners to trust govt systems

Accra, May 16, GNA - Mr Mike Hammond, Country Director of United Kingdom-based Department For International Development (DFID) on Tuesday stressed the need for development partners to trust government systems and assist to develop and improve on them.

He said in addition, they should remove conditionality and bureaucracy that caused resentment and tension in relationship that would only work through mutual respect and understanding. "However, the development partners should be reassured that monies they invested in Ghana were being used properly and not wasted either by inefficiencies or corruption," Mr Hammond added. Mr Hammond made the observation at an exhibition to mark the 10th anniversary celebration of DFID, a major development partner to Ghana in Accra.

The exhibition showcased a selection of photographs and video clips of some projects undertaken by DFID in Ghana over the years. Mr Hammond said UK's aid programme would gradually be phased out when Ghana attained a middle-income status and no longer needed the support of aid programmes for socio-economic development. "The UK aid programme is not here to stay. There are some problems to overcome before that is achieved. We would be around for a while, let us hope that it would not be too long," he added.

Mr Hammond noted that the success of any nation; required a government and people who were prepared to develop, uphold the values of good governance, human rights and civil liberties.

"Success requires a government to exercise fiscal responsibility to demonstrate sound budgetary management and spend its resources judiciously and efforts to reduce poverty," he said.

Mr Hammond said statistics available indicated that Ghana had been a beneficiary of about one billion pounds sterling of UK development assistance over the last 50 years and that had given UK a unique role in Ghana's development.

He said within the past years there had been a dramatic shift in the manner DFID organized itself in Ghana.

Mr Hammond said DFID had released a joint assistance strategy paper as its response to Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and all development partners in the country had signed up to the concept. The DFID Country Director said the Multi Donor Budget Support mechanism had changed from an imposition to a more holistic and country led process.

He noted that development partners had reviewed their activities and were more behind country-led approach to improve the efficiency and delivery of aid.

Mr Hammond announced that in future, development partners would develop a system of mutual accountability where assisted countries would ask them to account for their promises and ensure governments fulfilled their promises.

He was optimistic that next year's conference on global harmonization debate in Accra, would showcase the Ghanaian example as a model for other countries to emulate.

Mr Hammond reiterated that in line with DFID's primary purpose globally, its role in Ghana was to assist Ghanaians reduce poverty. He said the equitable delivery of growth and services was DFID's key objective for the world where new issues such as climatic change would become more important than national flags. Mrs Mary Chinnery-Hesse, Special Adviser to President John Ageykum Kufuor acknowledged the significant improvements in quality of life of people in developing countries due to the assistance offered by development partners.

However, she stressed that any assistance by development partners should respect the concepts of ownership by recipient countries, who should lead the process of establishing the agenda for development cooperation.

This, she said, required that leadership of the process of aid coordination should be left solely in the hands of developing countries. Mrs Chinnery-Hesse noted that the challenge facing development partners was to live up to their commitments and increase assistance to developing countries. She commended DFID for its achievements in Ghana, saying, "These successes are extremely commendable". 16 May 07