Ghana and the EU share close political, cultural and economic relations. With Ghana’s seat at the UN Security Council (2022-2023) and Chairmanship of ECOWAS (2020-2022), the EU is joining forces with Ghana to assert their shared values and positive agenda at global level, particularly in the area of regional security.
As an example of these strong ties, Ghana is the only country in the West African region, together with Cote d’Ivoire, with whom we have an Economic Partnership Agreement. Another example is the Voluntary Partnership Agreement signed in 2009 and which aims to address illegal logging, improve forest governance and promote trade in legal timber products. The EU also supports the economic, social and environmental sustainability of cocoa production in Ghana through the EU Sustainable Cocoa Initiative.
Our Team Europe priorities
The EU has been working to support Ghana towards sustainable and inclusive development, in line with the Global Gateway Strategy.
The EU operates together with its Member States, their agencies and the European Investment Bank (‘Team Europe’). Team Europe focuses on the Smart, Green and Digital Recovery in Ghana, an initiative based on three pillars:
- Sustainable inclusive growth – aims at supporting Ghana’s transition to a green economy model, ensure energy efficiency, digitalisation, equip young people with the skills demanded by the private sector and aiming to unlock investments in sustainable and circular businesses.
- Sustainable cities and urban governance – aims at supporting sustainable urban planning, mobility and infrastructure, as well as resource mobilisation and accountability.
- Agribusiness and cocoa value chain – aims at transforming selected value chains into a means for creating jobs, increasing food security, spurring primary and secondary processing and expanding export opportunities. The support to the cocoa sector is a prominent component.
In the period 2021-24, Team Europe support to the initiative is indicatively worth €850 million (including grants and loans).
Our EU programmes
Within Team Europe, the EU, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank, adopted a Joint Programming document for the period 2021-2027. The document supports the priorities and objectives identified by the Government of Ghana in the Long-Term National Development Plan (LTNDP) 2018-2057, and the first Medium-Term National Development Agenda (MTNDA) 2018–2021.
In terms of EU bilateral allocation, the Multi-Annual Indicative Programme (MIP) for Ghana under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI-Global Europe) consists in €203 million for the period 2021-2024. The three priority areas for the MIP in Ghana focus on
Green growth for jobs – aims at supporting Ghana in its transition to a digital, green and circular economy. It will target (i) support to a greener and digitalised private sector; (ii) agribusiness and sustainable cocoa; (iii) TVET, higher education and research and (iv) energy transition with a focus on renewables and energy efficiency. This priority is in line with Ghana’s National Green Job Strategy and the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy, which aims for a socially inclusive transition.
Smart and sustainable cities – this priority focuses on improving the resilience, greening and social inclusiveness of secondary cities and regional capitals in Ghana. In line with the Global Gateway Strategy, it will support green urban development initiatives, governance improvement, service delivery and the use of digital technologies to achieve these goals. Efforts to mobilise resources through direct collaboration with EU cities and programmes such as Copernicus are of special interest.
Under Good Governance and Security, we will support actions to engage with CSOs, promote gender equality and efforts to improve taxation policy and practice. Other actions will target migration and the improvement of public services through digitalisation.
The EU has dedicated programmes for the development of the northern regions and we already provide support towards productive investments for sustainable agriculture, enhancing access to energy, addressing inter-communal violence, strengthening conflict prevention, and promoting socio-economic development of cross-border regions. For example, the EU is contributing with a minimum of €167 million to support major food and fruit crops (transformation of the shea, soybean, beekeeping, vegetables value chains) and investments, including in infrastructure, for sustainable agriculture development in the North of Ghana.
The EU is also supporting Ghana’s energy transition and efficiency by, among others, increasing electricity trade up to 150-200MW along the Ghana-Burkina Faso 330KV interconnection line and with the digitalisation of the distribution network around the city of Tamale in the North.
Our bilateral cooperation is complemented by EU regional Global Gateway programmes in the areas of security, green transition (including energy), sustainable growth and agriculture. For example, Ghana will benefit from the EU-Africa strategic corridors to enhance transport infrastructure.
Ghana also benefits from the Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa (MAV+). The Initiative was launched by the EU at the G-20 Global Health Summit in Rome in response to the call made by African leaders, including President Akufo-Addo, to boost vaccine production in Africa. Ghana has since joined the MAV+ initiative as a frontrunner alongside Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa. For example, the EU joined the DEK Vaccines Ltd.