IMPROVING THE POLICY PROCESS: GHANA TRIES TO BUILD SUPPORT FOR CABINET DECISION-MAKING, 2003 – 2008 SYNOPSIS From the 1960s to the early 1990s, Ghana’s Cabinet-level policy management system deteriorated as multiple coups d’état produced abrupt changes in government. Many competent civil servants either left or were pushed out. Ministries submitted policy documents to the Cabinet that lacked essential information ministers required to evaluate the wisdom and feasibility of proposals. Ministries rarely cooperated with each other. But beginning in 2003, a newly formed policy unit in the presidency partnered with the Canadian International Development Agency to strengthen Ghana’s policy management system. The unit helped coordinate policy planning between ministries and reported on implementation to the president. The Cabinet Secretariat introduced standardized formats to guide ministries in policy development and ensure that proposals contained all essential information. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service and the University of Ghana Business School worked together to train hundreds of civil servants in the practical skills of researching, writing, and communicating policies. By 2008, the new system was in place and the policy management process had improved, but sustaining the reforms through the tumultuous government transition that followed the country’s 2008 elections posed additional challenges. Looking back on the effort, Samuel Somuah, who helped lead the Ghana Central Governance Project, underscored the importance of an effective policy management system by saying, “If there’s one project every African country needs, or every developing country needs, it’s this project.” Jonathan Friedman drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Accra, Ghana, during April 2013. Case published October 2013. INTRODUCTION President John Kufuor and project manager of the Ghana’s 2000 election marked the first Ghana Central Governance Project, a government transfer of power between civilian leaders in the effort to strengthen Ghana’s policy management country’s history. “The previous government was system. in power 18 years, and this new government came But beneath the surface of that good news in with strong democratic credentials,” said were challenges, Somuah said. “Because of the Samuel Somuah, special adviser on information history of military governments, we did not have a and communications technology (ICT) to system where we had really good people with very ISS is program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs: successfulsocieties.princeton.edu. ISS invites readers to share feedback and information on how these cases are being used: [email protected]. © 2013, Trustees of Princeton University. This case study is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Jonathan Friedman Innovations for Successful Societies good policy-making skills who could take an issue THE CHALLENGE and come up with a framework for tackling it.” Ghana’s 1992 constitution and 1993 civil Kufuor’s election was an important step in service law had elevated the role of policy making the consolidation of Ghana’s new democracy. in Ghana’s central government. The constitution Jerry Rawlings, who came to power through a empowered regional and local governments to coup d’état in 1981, had initiated and won take the lead in delivering services, leaving the multiparty elections in 1992 and 1996 before central government to focus on formulating stepping aside in 2000, when he reached the policies, managing finances, and supervising constitutional term limit. Kufuor’s victory over implementation. The civil service law outlined the Rawlings’s vice president and chosen successor, institutional arrangement to support those John Atta Mills, marked for Ghana the first functions. It set up directorates in all central transfer of power between civilian leaders and the ministries for policy planning, monitoring, and first time one political party had ceded control to evaluation to formulate and supervise policies, another. alongside research and statistics, finance and Kufuor took office with high aspirations. He administration, and human resources units. delineated an ambitious agenda built on five However, Ghana’s policy makers found that policy priorities that would drive his it was hard to develop sound policies, because administration: good governance, modernization ministries could not recruit enough analysts with of agriculture, private sector participation, the right skills; neither did the government issue infrastructure development, and enhanced social sufficient guidance to ministries or share services, including health and education. information effectively. Circumstances forced a sixth priority: To execute their crucial and complex macroeconomic stabilization. Ghana was in the mandates, the ministerial policy units needed midst of an economic crisis in which the creative analysts with sharp minds. But it was Ghanaian currency nearly halved in value relative difficult to find and retain the right people. The to the US dollar. The government’s deficit had problem was not lack of talent, said Kwaku reached unsustainable levels the year before Appiah-Adu, head of a presidential policy unit set Kufuor took office.1 up in 2002, but the relative attractiveness of other Although Ghana faced significant challenges, government units. Some civil servants sought international goodwill in the wake of the election positions in human resources directorates because and support for Kufuor’s macroeconomic of the power they could wield in making decisions stabilization plan presented equally significant about recruitment, transfers, and promotions. opportunities. Located between the West African Similarly, finance units were attractive because of countries of Ivory Coast and Togo, Ghana was the opportunities to influence procurement roughly the size of the US state of Oregon, with a contracts. By contrast, “Policy units were population of 25 million and an economy and perceived as brain work with relatively limited workforce that relied heavily on agriculture. benefits,” Appiah-Adu said. Some of the larger To achieve his goals, Kufuor needed a ministries had high-performing policy units, he management system that could transform his said, but most did not. priorities into well-designed, collaborative, Officials in the ministry policy units also practical, and effective policies. lacked rules and procedures to direct their roles 2 © 2013, Trustees of Princeton University Terms of use and citation format appear at the end of this document and at successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/about/terms-conditions. Jonathan Friedman Innovations for Successful Societies in the policy formulation process. Previous prime weakness and another example of a administrations had developed a few guidelines, coordination failure. but not enough people knew about them. As a Information systems and communications result, policy proposals often lacked essential systems further aggravated the coordination and information, which made it difficult for the implementation challenges: Many government Cabinet to make informed decisions. Frank officials did not have Internet access. There was Mpare, a longtime civil servant who became no corporate e-mail system at the office of the Cabinet secretary in 2005, said Ghana needed a president. And employees had to use personal e- comprehensive manual for Cabinet documents. mail accounts or rely on couriers and the postal He was not alone in that view. service, said Somuah, the ICT adviser at the Bridget Katsriku, head of the Public Services presidency. “The government didn’t have an Commission, a government agency that official Web site,” he said. supervised agencies’ structures and personnel Judy Cavanagh, a Canadian project manager requirements, also said policies were not and former civil servant with experience in a adequately researched and often lacked clear Canadian cabinet office, added, “IT [information descriptions of problems, policy options, impact technology] systems were basic—no assessments, and implementation plans. She intraconnection, no secure e-mail system, nothing offered an example from her time as the top civil on document management, no tracking, no ability servant, or chief director, at the Ministry of to track from beginning to end of decision Employment and Social Welfare, which was the making. Everything was manual.” ministry in charge of the promotion of In many countries, a cabinet secretariat or a employment plans and capacity-building presidential policy unit facilitated consultation and programs. The Cabinet had approved a proposal coordination across government, ensured that to train and offer seed money to promising young policies were well designed and included impact entrepreneurs but did not consider the financial assessments and action plans, monitored implications of the plan. Her ministry “didn’t do implementation, and reported progress to the the analysis to see if we had the money,” she said. Cabinet. No such system existed in Ghana. In the As a result, entrepreneurs “brought business plans 1990s, the existing presidential unit monitored and we had trainings, but we couldn’t offer ministries’ activities, but lacked the broad money.” mandate required to manage the policy system Lack of coordination was especially from start to finish. troublesome. Ministries tended to develop policy Without significant changes in human