Following the Paris Declaration in 2005, the 2008 Accra Agenda and broad implementation of Managing for Development Results (MfDR) concepts, developing countries and development partners (DPs) are moving their cooperation from investment projects to budget support. Budget support as a share of official Development Aid (ODA) has thus increased in most developing countries. This is particularly true for the case of Ghana. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was one of the first partners to provide budget support to the agricultural sector of Ghana starting in 2004. CIDA’s financial support has averaged $20 million per year between 2004 and 2011.
The first budget support ($85 million) covered the period 2004-08 followed by $20 million in a bridging year. The second budget support, totals $110 million, is currently being implemented and covers 2009-13. As with all budget support initiatives, CIDA is working in close cooperation with other donors and the Government of Ghana (GoG) to strengthen aid effectiveness. Given its substantial investment in the agricultural sector, CIDA wanted to assess its current and past support to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). This was the main purpose of this project.