Growing apart : Ghana’s growing regional inequality since the adoption of poverty reduction strategies and the HIPC initiative (2000 – 2013)

Abstract

The Poverty Reduction Strategy programmes were officially launched in 1999 and became the key component of many development programmes. Their aim was to address the high rates of poverty prevalent in many developing economies. They also promised to address regional inequalities within countries by reducing regional differences in poverty levels. This thesis presents an analysis of Ghana’s PRSP from 2000 to 2013 and the associated enhanced HIPC initiative. It argues that a problem caused by the programme’s neoliberal approach as well as its implementation has failed to reduce disparity between Ghana’s wealthier South and poorer North. The analysis is based on three main sets of data: regional distribution of the HIPC grant; regional composition of private sector development and export policies pursued under the PRSPs. The thesis demonstrates growing levels of poverty in the North when compared to the South due to the differences in economic structures between the two regions as the South was able to benefit from policies favouring export orientation and support for the formal private sector, while the North could not. This was aggravated by the inequitable distribution of the HIPC grants between the two regions.