SAGA Progress Report

SAGA
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SAGA Progress Report
October, 2002

II. RESEARCH
1. Ghana

The SAGA-Ghana discussions have only recently started, owing in part to impending personnel changes in the USAID mission and to the absence abroad of key personnel in the SISERA partner institution, ISSER. However, the new mission economist is now in place, and the key counterpart is now back in ISSER. A series of meetings will take place in Accra during the week of October 7-12, to discuss and sharpen an overall research plan proposed by ISSER. From these meetings, there should emerge an outline of the research plan after which the specifics of funding can be discussed.

The October meetings will not, however, take place in a vacuum. Cornell and ISSER have already co-hosted two workshops that predate SAGA. The second of these, in particular, focused on research needs in light of key policy issues in poverty reduction. An overview of that conference is attached (see Attachment 1). On this basis, ISSER has prepared a preliminary document on its SAGA involvement.

The key research themes highlighted in these preliminary consultations and workshops involve addressing the following issues:

While the perception abounds that poverty in Ghana is worsening, survey data suggests that it may be declining. It is important that proper studies are carried into understanding the disconnect between perception and survey results. This would require more careful studies of regional variations of poverty and their causes and how these may be more accurately linked to public expenditure programs and private agents’ responses.
The role of credible institutions in governance was highlighted as extremely important for development. This involves sound regular national economic management that takes poverty reduction as its main goal at the top of a number of compatible objectives. Noting that credible institutions evolve only over time, and encompass a broad range of factors, including culture, research has to be undertaken to ascertain the most appropriate ways, within a feasible time frame, of making Ghana’s institutions more responsive to its development needs, especially within the context of a rapidly globalizing world.
It is established that development is the outcome of institutional system changes that respond to the demands of private agents through innovation and technology development. Human capital development is paramount to this process, as is the platform for the organizations of private agents to interact and be coordinated by functioning markets that work closely with the state. The state is the coordinator of the institutional environment. Research into science and technology and other relevant areas must assist the problem of enhancing the innovativeness of Ghanaian institutional organizations.
While it is acknowledged that the decentralization of key governance structures is crucial for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of public services, it is important to study the strengths and limitations of such decentralization in order to develop the appropriate scope and structures.
Social policy in Ghana is implicit and has only evolved as a spin-off from economic policy reform. It is important that relevant social policy studies are carried out to develop a proper orientation for social policy goals that complement economic policy goals in a more meaningful way, keeping in mind the overall goal of a stable economy and improving standards of living for a growing population.

ISSER intends to collaborate with SAGA researchers to address a number of the areas identified above. Three possible themes already emerge as likely candidates for ISSER's research program: (1) monitoring of public expenditure programs in the context of decentralization in Ghana; (2) poverty reduction in an economy with pervasive micro and macro level vulnerability; and (3) the disconnect between the poverty reduction shown by household surveys, and the popular and strongly held perception that poverty has increased. The final decisions, however, will have to await the October meetings.

In terms of methods, ISSER and Cornell University researchers have stressed the importance of employing a mix of approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative methods, including triangulation, sequential mixing, and simultaneous mixing. These are of considerable interest to ISSER which is generally known in Ghana as the premier institution for undertaking field research in the social sciences. ISSER boasts of a good crop of researchers from a number of social science disciplines who have learned over the years to work in a multi-disciplinary manner, relying on both quantitative and qualitative techniques. These include economists, agricultural economists, sociologists, demographers, political scientists, planners, and statisticians.

Institutional linkages

ISSER is quite well placed to collaborate with SAGA to undertake studies in Ghana as outlined under the SAGA research themes. It proposes to make available a team of researchers led by Professor Ernest Aryeetey, an economist, and made up of other economists, agricultural economists, sociologists, political scientists and demographers to the project. Through excellent relations with other faculty members at the University of Ghana, ISSER is well placed to invite other social scientists from other departments of the university to complement its own research staff in this undertaking. In similar fashion, researchers in other Ghanaian institutions would be invited to team up with ISSER and other SAGA researchers in order to enhance the character of the teams that undertake various studies. ISSER expects such a broad-based team to lead to research outcomes that are of high quality and also make it easier to "sell" to a larger Ghanaian public.

Activities anticipated over the next six months

Over the next six months, ISSER will formalize its research program and submit components to different, appropriate, donors, including SAGA-SISERA. SAGA-Cornell will help in the overall proposal, with seed-financing for it and with financing for key components.

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