Ghana And The Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) In The Fourth Republic: An Assessment

Abstract

The Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) were formed in 1945 after the end of World War II, in response to the damages that the war had on the economies of European nations. These institutions later extended their activities to sub-Saharan African countries. Ghana, being the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence in March 1957, officially became a member of both institutions in that same year. As a result, since the 1980s, Ghana has implemented several programs with the IMF and World Bank including the Structural Adjustment Programms (SAPs) in 1983, Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) in 1989; the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2002; the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) in 2009; the Three-Year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in 2015. Also, in 2020, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMF allocated about one billion dollars to Ghana to tackle the threats the pandemic posed for the Ghanaian economy. All these have led to a situation where public policy formation in Ghana is dominated by neoliberal ideas and philosophies, which raises concerns about how the interactions between Ghana and the BWIs have evolved in the Fourth Republic. In this study, the qualitative research design was used. The analysis of the study was based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from participants through in-depth interviews whereas the secondary data was collected from existing literature on Ghana’s relations with the IMF and World Bank. The findings of the study reveal that the nature of Ghana’s relationship with the BWIs constitutes a dependency relationship, and that public policy formation in Ghana to a large extent is rooted in neoliberal thinking as a result of these institutions. Again, the results indicate that the driving forces of Ghana’s engagements with the IMF and World Bank are economic factors and history. Additionally, the study uncovered that Ghana’s relationship with the BWIs has largely not witnessed any significant transformation and that any attempt by the country to wean itself from these institutions is highly impossible. To add to the above, the findings of the study prove that Ghana’s interactions with the IMF and World Bank have both positive and negative implications.