ABSTRACT
Against the backdrop of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank claims that Ghana is a case of foreign aid success, in Chapter 3, we explain the conundrum of Ghana’s fast economic growth in recent years against its heavy dependence on foreign aid and its large amount of foreign debt. We examine the extent to which foreign aid and donor policies have affected the process and implementation of political and economic development reform in Ghana. We acknowledge that the IMF and the World Bank-induced market reform have resulted in aggregating economic progress. We show in this chapter that, in general, foreign aid in Ghana has not been as effectively utilized for national economic development as the market reform advocates claim. Instead, we argue that foreign aid has, to some extent, played a negative role by impeding needed political reform in Ghana. Analytically, politics of foreign assistance, Ghanaian domestic politics and political institutions, and aid policies by donors have impacted the effective management and utilization of aid resources in the country.
