Government Dealing With IMF,World Bank Cautiously

Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, has given the assurance that the government is cautious in its dealings with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilise the economy.

He said the engagement with those institutions had been necessitated by the fact that the government wanted access to much-needed funds to pursue programmes such as the school feeding and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) meant to cushion the vulnerable in society.

Speaking at the fourth General Assembly of Social Watch, an international group of civil society organisations championing poverty reduction initiatives, Mr Dramani said although some people might not like the the government’s involvement with the Bretton Woods multilateral organisations as a result of some of the socially-unfriendly policies of those institutions, the relationship was to take advantage of some opportunities available to the country.

The Vice-President admitted that the National Democratic Congress’s pledge of delivering “a better Ghana” to the people had become much more daunting and onerous as a result of the recent global economic meltdown.

He said the global economy had, since the last quarter of 2007, seen hiccups resulting from food and energy price hikes and the subsequent credit crunch.

However, like all other countries in the throes of the world economic challenges, the government had the duty of ensuring opportunities for its people.

“As a responsible government, we will not shirk our social pact with the people of Ghana,” he promised. Mr Dramani challenged participants to highlight the price fluctuation of products from developing countries on the world market, as women and the most vulnerable in society were the people most often engaged in producing those products.

Giving an example, he said the prices of shea nut, the production of which is mostly engaged in by women and the poor, had slumped on the world market, meaning livelihoods would be affected.

He also charged the General Assembly to highlight equitable trade issues for developing countries to develop their competitive advantage in food production.

An official of the Social Watch Secretariat in Uruguay, Mr Roberto Bissio, said the General Assembly was a time for all partners and stakeholders to be accountable in all that they had engaged in and chart new paths for the future.

The Convener of Social Watch, Ghana, Dr Rose Mensah Kutin, emphasised the fact that the only way for developing countries out of the current economic crisis was for resources to be devoted to the development of the well-being of people.

She expressed the hope that the meeting would generate transformative and alternative economic policies for the future.

The Chairperson for the function, Ms Dorcas Coker-Appiah, said all countries, governments, civil society organisations, governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as actors in the international arena, had duties to perform in the current economic challenges.

For civil society organisations, she said, the challenge was for them to ensure that governments, in all their efforts, “put people first”.

The Social Watch General Assembly meeting is being hosted in Ghana by the Third World Network, Africa (TWN-A) and it is the first time that the highest decision-making body of the group is meeting in the country.

The assembly will discuss current challenges in the global economy and institute plans for its advocacy work for the next two years.