“The State is too personalized” – CDD-Ghana

Frederick Asiamah

In the recent past, we in Ghana have seen the presidency make some landmark decisions. In some instances, those decisions raised eyebrows. Those that immediately come to mind are President Kufour’s withdrawal of government appointees to certain district assemblies on the morning of the confirmation of chief executives for fear that they would scuttle the process. President Mills also undertook blanket dissolution of all boards of state-owned enterprises and sub-vented agencies.

Perhaps, these are reasons why Mr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Head of Programmes, CDD-Ghana, believes the president has too many powers. Thus he concludes that the degree of power that the President wields is a major reform issue.

To him, the state is too personalized and things need to change. He argues that the state is run on neo-patrimonial basis and this puts a lot of power in the hands of the presidency. This is risky because it is open to abuse.

He recommends therefore that the state needs to be run on rules, accepted values and principles.

The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit research-based and policy-oriented think tank in Accra, Ghana. Founded in 1998, the Center’s mission is to promote democracy, good governance and the development of liberal economic environment in Ghana in particular and Africa in general.

It adopts major strategies including research and publication on issues relating to democracy, good  governance and liberal economic reform; the monitoring, analyzing and documentation of the progress of democratic development in Ghana and Africa; and the promotion of transparency, accountability and integrity in the exercise of administrative and political discretion, and in the allocation and use of public resources.

Apart from that, it engages in the promotion of access to information and data relating to matters of public interest; the provision of training to and networking with key public and civic institutions of democratic governance; the defense of operational autonomy and helping strengthen the oversight capabilities of public and private watch-dog institutions; the education of the public about their rights and responsibilities under democratic and constitutional rule; and the promotion of peace-building and democratic conflict management in Ghana and the West Africasub region.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The CDD-Ghana has a track record in good governance and democracy. “We pride ourselves in doing high quality research work” and “every activity is based on empirical research work,” Mr. Asante stated.

On the other hand, not having adequate human resource that can break down technical work into the simplest of languages to aid understanding by ordinary people constitutes a weakness on the part of the Centre. Also, the Centre’s funding mechanism is not constant. Another weakness is that demand for more good governance work outstrips the Centre’s supply.

High demand and more clamour to understand good governance provide huge opportunity for the Centre to expand its frontiers.

The kinds of threats confronting CDD-Ghana relate more to the way people comprehend the Centre’s “specialty and focus.” According to Asante, people’s “pace of understanding the complexity of democracy” is on the low side. In other words, people do not usually appreciate the value of the type of work the Centre does. But financial instability also constitutes a threat.

Stakeholders/Partners

Rather than continually reinventing the wheel, the CDD encourages cooperation and dissemination of information between it and various partners, thereby improving efforts to promote democracy and development.

“Every targeted audience can be stakeholders,” says Asante. Besides, partners are both state and non-state actors. The partners include institutions like the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the National Commission for Civic Education, Electoral Commission, the National Labour Commission, the National Media Commission, Parliament, the Action on Disability and Development, the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)-Ghana, the Ghana Integrity Initiative, and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition.

Besides, a variety of international organizations have also worked closely with CDD-Ghana, including private, public and non-governmental organizations. These include the Ford Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the Danish, Canadian and U.S. International Development Agencies, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the World Bank, and the Economic Commission for Africa.

Funding

“Almost everybody you can think of is a sponsor; all the major sponsoring agencies,” Asante says. Among others, these often sponsor research and training workshops. Since 2005, the Centre has received core funding from the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-RAP). Current support is worth $200,000 for 18 months and runs out early 2010.

Programming

The CDD-Ghana runs programmes based on eight thematic areas namely: Elections, Anti-corruption, Conflict and peace building, Local Government and Decentralisation, Transitional Justice, Legislature, Environmental Governance, and Human rights.

Specific activities the Centre has carried out include the initiation of a “Public Works Monitoring” project in 2000 to examined public works in selected districts of Ghana. The project was aimed at enhancing public awareness and civil society involvement in the execution of donor and public-funded projects managed by local government authorities, thereby increasing transparency, accountability, and project success. 

With funding from the Open Society Initiative of West Africa, the Center conducted a baseline survey of public opinion on the government’s program for national reconciliation in Ghana. The study was undertaken in collaboration with the Civil Society Coalition on National Reconciliation and with technical assistance from the International Center for Transitional Justice. Findings were published and widely distributed in order to prompt discussion at the 2001 International Conference on Reconciliation.

Elsewhere, a nationwide survey on public perceptions of “Corruption in the Delivery of Education and Health Care Services in Ghana,” whose findings were presented at the “First National Integrity Workshop” in 1998, helped enhance public awareness of the canker of corruption, stimulated demand for actions to combat it, and provided suggestions for corrective action. CDD-Ghana was also instrumental in the formation of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition. It has also championed the reform of the asset declaration law.

The Center has also carried out research on peace building and conflict management in Ghana and West Africa, including the role of civil organizations, political leaders, and the military. The Center implemented a thirty-month program of research, workshops, publication and network building on national and sub-regional peace building and democratic conflict management. A key component of the program, a thorough review of the ECOMOG experience, helped expand the involvement of civil society and non-state actors in national and sub-regional security arrangements in Ghana and West Africa, and inspired the formation of a Ghana Network of Peace-Building Organizations (GHANEPO).

In the area of human rights, Asante said the Centre works to promote the welfare of vulnerable groups including highlighting disability and prisoner rights.

In addition, the CDD-Ghana has also been building attitudes of leadership in young people. A major step in this direction was the hosting of the African youth leadership conference recently in Ghana.

On elections, Asante says the CDD-Ghana has, together with the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), consistently observed elections in Ghana and made recommendations for improving the system. “There are a lot of achievements down the road that we can talk about.”

Publications

The CDD-Ghana has a wide range of publications on varying subject areas. Early publications include diagnostic research on most of the institutions of governance. According to Asante, “One of our most produced publications is the quarterly Democratic Governance.”

Another important one is the Critical Perspectives, an occasional paper series which has been running since 1999. In 2008, the Centre also published the book titled Ghana – Governance in the Fourth Republic. There have been many briefing papers, research papers, and election observation reports.