Chinese and European Development Programs Research Proposal

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The analysis provided is thorough and bias at the same time. However, Armstrong provides a valuable background and policy analysis.

In terms of the relations between Ghana and its major donors, China and the EU, Giles Mohan writes a comprehensive overview of the relations Ghana has with China and the potential political and economic interests that may drive China to indeed become a crucial donor for Ghana. More precisely, the author connects the new found Chinese desire to invest in the African country to the new found oil reserves in Ghana. Furthermore, he contents that given the past nature of the relations between China and the rest of the world (such as the EU for instance), the presence of China in Ghana is also geopolitically related and not necessarily humanitarian and development related. The perspective is valuable because the author points out potential political linkages between the resources found in Ghana and the sudden desire of China to invest in Africa.

In order to understand the evolution and future of EU -- Ghana relations an important analysis is to be made on the current EU development policies. The European Commission "European Union development policy in support of inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Increasing the impact of EU development policy" is one of the most recent documents that offers a clear image of where the development policies of EU are heading in what regards sustainable development. Taking the Millennium Development Goals as a guideline in creating developmental assistance the EU, 2010 saw the adoption of an important document that affirms 2015 will be the year when a collective target of devoting 0,7% of the Union's GNI will go to the Official Development Assistance. (European Commission, 2010) This initiative will offer not only more funds for countries in need, but also a higher responsibility for recipient countries that will move from a donor-beneficiary relation towards a partnership in development one. The report will be used briefly to sum up the key areas where the EU aims at investing this funds and what are the steps of the EU's development policy modernization to address the world's changes in financial, political and basic economic challenges.

Extensive material on the EU-Ghana relation can be found in the official documents signed between the two entities. A very strong and efficient development agenda has been put in place in the last decade with strong results as the Country Strategy Paper and National Indicative Programme (NIP) for the period 2008-2013 shows as well as the 2004 Mid Review on Ghana points out. It is important to use these 2 documents of the European Union, DG Development as they show the current status of EU funds allocation in Ghana.

The 2004 Mid Review offers a comprehensive analysis of the state of implementation of the EC cooperation for the 2002-2007 financial packages. The 9th Country Strategy Paper and NIP for Ghana, signed in 2002, offered an overall allocation of over 310 million Euro for the 2002-2007 period focusing on rural development, transport infrastructure and macro-economic support, similar to the 8th Program.

The 2004 report shows, in general terms, that "good progress has been observed in the area of macro-economic performance, favored by high world market prices for key export commodities (gold, cocoa), prudent policies and coordinated donor support." (European Commission, 2004,-page 2).

The focal points that the EU, in conjunction with its Ghanese, took into analysis and funding offered rather good results at the 2004 report: rural development showed satisfactory results overall, significant progress was made in the macro-economic issues yet poor transport infrastructure evolution was noticed. The report offers valuable insights also in the results on the social and educational matters of Ghanese rural and urban communities. It is important to have a clearer image so more data is necessary for this assessment with a significant correlation-based statistical analysis on rural development, transport infrastructure and on the other hand social effects of these.

The Country Strategy Paper for the 2008-2013 periods is an invaluable document for the analysis of European Union's impact on Ghana's development. According to the CSP's Overview of Cooperation and Political Dialogue "the Commission's strategy was appropriately designed to contribute to government's objectives of sustainable growth and poverty reduction (…) budget support interventions contributed to improving the country's macroeconomic situation (European Commission, 2007, p26). What the Report shows is that important setbacks are to be seen in the administrative sector of spending the funds allocated by the EU effectively and correctly.

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Although it might be considered subjective, the CSP chapter on evaluating the EU's presence in Ghana, shows also the serious flaws in its implementation: a low pro-poor spending, transport infrastructure and the socio-political sphere with a clear emphasis on poverty reduction, gender issues, as well as environmental issues. It is important to understand when using such documents that due to the complexity of the report and the fact that in many African countries it is almost impossible to have a clear image of funding effects, some of the areas in sight still miss important indicators. As the Report shows, "it has been difficult to assess the exact contribution of EC interventions in the absence of reliable baseline studies" (European Commission, 2007, p26) Such studies are crucial to understanding the real effect of such funding mechanisms and, as development is a long-term process, it will take some time until these will be finalized.

The political and economic areas of Ghana have obviously been influenced by the involvement of the European Union in the last decades. The 2 reports that will be used in detailed form present an important image of the level of these involvements and some effects in the social and economical areas of Ghana, with somehow little perceived effects on the political arena. Effects of democratization as a result of EU intervention are still hard to asses having in view the complexity of such a correlation. One important critical analysis is to be found in Gordon Crawford's "The European Union and Democracy Promotion in Africa: The Case of Ghana" (Crawford, 2004) where the author argues that, up to 2004, the level of effect on the political scene was low and implementing democratization processes was weak. As the aforementioned recent report of the EU shows, this is still the case in many aspects of the public administration sector. Whether this is a fault of the EU or the Ghanese authorities, it is difficult to asses at this point.

Other valuable resources for analysis and background are Boafo-Arthur and Essuman-Johnson "Ghana, Some Foreign Aid issues" as well as D. Moyo, "Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa."

Methodology:

As the thesis aims to demonstrate the real-life data on the current development of the country, the United Nations Development Programme's 2010 human development index is used as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of one or another development program. Moreover, the official internet resources developing the statistics for Ghana are used to process information from previous years and decades which in turn enables a comparative analysis for development. In this sense for instance, given the fact that the international development strategy for Africa is known since the late 1970s, it is important to assess the way in which the impact of this initiative is reflected in the fluctuation of the HDI (Human Development Index). As an example, the index has slowly improved since the 80s, from 0.363 to 0.431 in 2000 to 0.467 in 2010. This improvement, by applying the cause-effect analysis method, can be viewed as a direct effect of international aid, including China and the EU, or, on the other hand, as a natural development of the economic cycle. However, by providing input from research, scholars, and primary sources (development reports), this development will be proven to have been a natural consequence of international assistance for development.

The GNI Coefficient is used to assess the sustainability of the development process and its inequality. In this sense, by comparison, the research points out that there is indeed a gap between the economic growth that is statistically visible and the social impact it has on the population. Better said, "despite favorable economic conditions job creation has not matched economic growth, particularly in rural areas" (UNDP Ghana, 2010). Similar analysis is made for other areas of the social and economic development with precise attention provided to sectors where Ghana has benefited from Chinese and European assistance such as constructions in industrial areas.

Expected Results:

The research will eventually assess who benefits the most from the finances from the Chinese and European current development programs in Ghana: people, or policymakers. However, it is difficult to assess with precision such a result given the fact….....

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