ABSTRACT

The European Union’s (EU) engagement with Ghana has featured changing shades of aid, trade, and development policies shaped by internal developments in the EU, as well as the international context. From being an important trading partner and aid donor, the EU has increasingly asserted itself as a shaper of global development norms and promoter of these norms in the developing world. Within the European political system, a consensus formed around a more political approach to development focusing on democratic governance with human rights and the rule of law. EU’s new approach emphasizes the principles of “ownership” and “partnership,” and focuses on new aid modalities, as well as revision of EU’s conditionality instrument. Hence, from its traditional project approach which was criticized for lack of ownership, the EU has switched to a program-based approach aimed at supporting recipient countries’ strategies and programs by channeling aid through the state budgets of these countries. The stocktaking of political and economic reforms in Ghana lies in understanding political and administrative constraints and opportunities not only in the recipient country, but also regarding the donor actors. This chapter aims to focus on the challenges that the EU faces as a donor, development and foreign policy actor and how these challenges impact its relations with Ghana, and all of Africa.