New Year’s Message From IMANI Africa’s President - A Look Back At 2017

Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI

On behalf of IMANI's board, management and staff, I thank you all for support and interest in our work.

2017 has been one of the best years for IMANI. Our national and international influence has been unmatched in our thirteen years of existence. We hosted the Swiss President in Ghana and were part of a town hall debate with the German President on crucial local and international development issues. IMANI was one of seven globally respected think tanks that were invited by the Italian government to discuss pressing global issues that were to define Italy’s Presidency of the G7 league of most industrialised and wealthy nations in Rome.

IMANI was one of two African think tanks chosen by the Geneva Network to present research on pathways to sustaining national health insurance schemes around the world. Our work on political manifestos was globally acknowledged as we were the only African think tank named among SIX finalists-of Six global think tanks that competed for the prestigious Templeton Freedom Award- the grand award went to a Mexican think tank. We won a consolation prize of $25,000. We assessed Liberia's readiness for economic transformation after the departure of its outgoing President, Johnson Sirleaf.

The continental political union, the Africa Union, sent their policy and research chiefs to Ghana to seek collaboration with IMANI, so together, we can focus research and advocacy on pressing issues facing African countries. We emphasized the need for the Africa Union to pay attention to low fee private schools in respective countries to complement public education. We were invited to regularly brief International Heads of Cooperation, Missions and Ambassadors in Ghana on emerging economic and political issues in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Sudan.

We were asked to serve on trade, efficient justice delivery, business reform committees set up by the Ghanaian government. We were invited by the Finance Minister of Ghana for pre-budget discussions and the leadership of Ghana’s Parliament invited us to brief some 200 Parliamentarians in a post-budget seminar that preceded Parliament’s own debate. We contributed to shaping national debates on education.

One of IMANI's first tasks in 2018 is to formally dialogue with Ghanaian education officials on the subject of low fee private schools to be considered in the Education Sector Plan for the next five years. We need to effectively advance the needs of those who need to be educated by ensuring that those who can afford minimum fees are allowed. This will reduce the financial burden on the state. We will be conducting Economic Audits on Ghana’s performance on varied economic indices and will assess our State-Owned Enterprises with emphasis on disclosure, procurement, expenditure, and revenue mobilization. We believe such an exercise will help government provide prospective investors with information on performance trends of SOEs to assist in making informed decisions when it comes to executing public-private deals.

We certainly have done our bit for country and we were humbled when our work is acknowledged at home. Our own President, Nana Akufo-Addo surprisingly shared the following at a function to celebrate my Lawyer, Ace Anan Ankomah’s golden earthly birthday. “I saw Franklin Cudjoe as I was coming in. And I heard the statement, ‘Now, the most important man in Ghana.’ And I had a feeling he was going to say ‘Franklin Cudjoe.’ Only to hear that it was me that he was talking about. Because he [Franklin Cudjoe] is certainly the most important man in Ghana.”- President Akufo-Addo. 25/11/2017

Let me leave you with 28 of IMANI’s 2017 researched reports on varied issues authored by our team in our four centres- centre for the study of energy and natural resources, centre for social policy, centre for science, technology and innovation and the centre for political and economic affairs. Most of these 28 reports were printed and sent to all of Ghana’s 275 members of parliament, relevant ministries, the office of the president and shared with Ghanaians through the media. You can read any of them by visiting IMANI website www. Imaniafrica .org.

We thank our donors for supporting our work. If you would like to donate to our work, please send me an email @ [email protected] . We would be accepting off-site interns from around the world in 2018. If you know any promising African, Arab, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, Australian an American student or young professional in any part of the world that would like to be affiliated with IMANI by undertaking rigorously reviewed research and published work, please send me an email at [email protected] .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
IMANI’s 2017 Picks
1. IMANI Report: Reforming the National Health Insurance; Pathways toSustainable Healthcare Financing

2. IMANI Report: Privatisation of the Electricity Company of GhanaFuturistically Useful; Comparative Lessons from India and Uganda Suggest

3. IMANI’s ‘Efficiency Report on Operations at Ghana’s Tema Sea Port; MoreNeeds Doing

4. IMANI Report: Charity Begins At Home: Fighting Waste And CorruptionStarts At The Presidency

5. IMANI Alert: The AMERI Power Deal Just Got Murkier. Former and PresentGovernment Officials Must Renegotiate to Save Ghana Millions

6. IMANI Alert: What the President’s State of the Nation’s Address shouldaddress

7. IMANI Brief: Still, Prudent Spending Key to Meeting Ghana’s 2017 BudgetGoals

8. IMANI Quarterly Brief on Ghana’s 2017 Budget Performance

9. IMANI’s 2017 Pre-budget Litmus Test for Government

10. Ghana’s new administration will be exactly 54 days old when it presents its maiden budget on March 2, 2017. Below are random questions put together

11. To Deal with Special Development Ministry’s Advertised Planned Financial Waste, Tame the Runaway Office of Government Machinery Horse Before It Destroys the Stable

12. IMANI’s Preliminary Assessment of Key Sectors In Ghana’s 2018Budget

13. Options to Deal with Gas Explosions inGhana: IMANI’s Proposition on the Gas Cylinder Exchange Programme

14. IMANI Press Release: Analysis of KeyPolitical Promises Ahead of Presidential Elections in Liberia

15. IMANI Report: Maximising Gains FromGhana’s Trade Partnerships

16. IMANI Telecom Series: Why you arepaying so much for broadband Internet and what should be done about it

17. The Case of Ghana’s Disappearing Banks:A Test Of Regulatory Maturity

18. IMANI: Update on Efficiency inGhanaian Ports – A Discussion with Stakeholders & Vice President Bawumia’sCommendable Efforts

19. IMANI: Ideas For Making Government’sGas Cylinder Exchange Programme Work In Ghana

20. IMANI Telecoms Series: Ghana’sTelecommunication Licensing Regime Stifling Innovation and InternetAffordability – What Should Be Done

21. The IDP Rising Schools Programme- Howa non-state actor is filling the public finance gap to deliver equitable andquality basic education in Ghana

22. IMANI Report: The Highs and Lows ofGovernment’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ Campaign & Recommendations

23. Welcome Speech by IMANI President inHonour of President Doris Leuthard of Switzerland

24. Speech by Swiss President at IMANI-Swiss Embassy in Ghana Panel Discussion on ‘’ Governance in an age of Social Media’’

25. Facilitating Trade in Ghana: More WorkNeeded to Improve Revenue Performance

26. IMANI Education Series: Low-FeePrivate Schools could help achieve goal of ‘Basic Education for All’ in Africa

27. IMANI’s Documentary “The First 100Days: Promises, the Budget, the Story so far”

28. IMANI’s 8 Broad Questions For Ghana’sNew Finance and Senior Ministers To Be Vetted By Parliament Today