President John Dramani Mahama has emphasized the strategic role of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) in coordinating Ghana's engagement with global philanthropic institutions. This is to ensure that grants and other development support are aligned with national priorities. The President made these remarks during a courtesy call by Alex Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), in New York.
The engagement provided an opportunity for President Mahama to reaffirm the expanded mandate assigned to MiDA in 2025. Under this mandate, MiDA serves as the Government's focal point for coordinating philanthropic, grant, and humanitarian partnerships. This move aims to provide a coordinated platform for Ghana to engage global foundations, philanthropic organisations, and other grant-making institutions.
President Mahama explained that Ghana needed a more coordinated approach to development assistance. This approach would involve international partners working with the country to identify priority areas rather than supporting isolated interventions across multiple sectors. He stressed the importance of partnerships that are aligned with national development needs.
The President highlighted that MiDA's role is to help ensure that support reaches the right areas and delivers maximum impact. This is particularly important because many philanthropic interventions cut across several sectors and can otherwise become caught up in institutional and bureaucratic processes. MiDA's existing institutional capacity and experience in managing complex, multi-sector development programmes informed the decision to expand its mandate.
President Mahama outlined a broader philosophy underpinning Ghana's engagement with global philanthropy. He said that while philanthropic organisations often have particular areas of interest, an uncoordinated approach could spread resources across too many areas without achieving sufficient impact. Ghana's approach should instead be based on dialogue with partners to identify the country's priorities and build partnerships around them.
The President also stressed that greater African self-reliance must go hand in hand with stronger governance, accountability, transparency, and prudent management of domestic resources. He said this should not mean isolating Africa from international partners, but rather developing partnerships in which both sides work towards clearly identified development priorities.
President Mahama and Mr Soros discussed opportunities for further cooperation, including through the G20 platform, financing reforms, and areas relating to regional security and development. The meeting comes as Ghana continues to engage major global foundations and philanthropic institutions around the country's development priorities, citing collaboration involving institutions such as Gavi and the Global Fund.
Key points
- MiDA serves as Ghana's gateway to global philanthropy, coordinating engagement with global philanthropic institutions.
- The expanded mandate of MiDA aims to align development resources with national priorities and manage them with accountability.
- President Mahama emphasises the importance of partnerships that are aligned with national development needs.
