Development Partners yesterday announced that about 350 million dollars would be given to the Government’s 2008 general budget to support Ghana’s aim of reaching the Millennium Development Goals and becoming a middle-income country by 2015.

Since 2003, Development Partners have contributed around 300 million dollars a year to the general budget in the form of loans and grants. This ‘Multi-Donor Budget Support’ amounts to between nine per cent and 13 per cent of the total government budget. While these contributions have been fairly stable since 2003, revenue from domestic sources – such as taxes – has increased significantly.

A statement by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning signed by Ms Cecilia Akwetey, Head, Public Relations said the funding was aimed to help government increase spending in areas that would help to reduce poverty and promote growth in the country, such as health, education, developing the private sector and reforming government systems.

“Money is released based on a track record of good performance in these areas”. Each year, Government and Development Partners agree on a set of targets for reforms and results in areas such as energy, agriculture, private sector, education, health, water and sanitation, good governance and public financial management systems as outlined in Ghana’s Growth and Poverty reduction Strategy Two.

The amount of support Development Partners give depends on how well these results are achieved.

Other factors include the macro-economic performance of the country, commitment of Government to reducing poverty and the progress on reforms of the systems for managing public finances.

“On these counts, Ghana scored well, with about 97 per cent of available funding being approved for release into the 2008 budget”, the statement said.

Contributing Development Partners include the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and the World Bank. Japan is contributing for the first time in 2008.