Ghana has enjoyed and continues to make progress in strengthening constitutional and multi-party democratic governance under the Fourth Republic. This is evidenced by the relatively seamless transfer of power through successive national elections since 1992. The liberalized political landscape has contributed to improvement in the quality of public discourse, civic engagement and the demand for accountability from duty bearers. In recent years, Ghana has also enjoyed economic growth that saw the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) bump Ghana’s status up to a lower middle-income economy. Ghana has also seen an increase in vibrant civic and civil society engagement over the years.
Presently however, notwithstanding the positive contexts, challenges persist. There is an increase in citizens’ apathy fuelled by toxic partisan political discourse, and limited spaces for state-citizen dialogue within weak state governance structures. National integrity and societal morals appear to be declining due to widespread corruption. Corruption continues to be a brake on economic development, as it wastes and misallocates valuable and limited resources, while burdening the poor, and exacerbating inequality. According to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI 2020) Ghana scored 43, against a clean score of 100, and ranks 75th out of 180 countries.
This blog is part of CDA’s From Where I Stand series, designed to listen to people most affected by aid as they explore and amplify their leadership experiences, stories, and lessons for the aid sector.
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