Most sub-Saharan African countries are endowed with natural resources such as minerals, natural gas and petroleum but often lag behind other continents in human development outcomes, remaining dependent on varying degrees of foreign aid to finance social programmes. There is some debate that resource-rich countries that are also democracies are more likely to produce political institutions that promote linkages between resource revenues and human development outcomes.  However, the evidence interrogating these linkages on the African continent has not been explored fully.

To raise the country's tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and help balance its budget, the Government of Ghana has since 2021 introduced more than ten new taxes. Among these policies, the Electronic Transactions Levy (e-levy), which imposed a tax on mobile money (momo) transactions over a GHS100 daily threshold, has been the most contentious. The E-levy controversy provides an opportunity to contribute to ongoing discussions about the prospects of leveraging crisis-induced solidarity to boost revenue mobilisation.

In the last decades, China has emerged as Africa's biggest bilateral trading partner, one of the top five foreign direct investors and a significant contributor of development finance. Chinese demand for African natural resources and agricultural commodities has had an important impact on the performance of African economies over the past decade and Chinese investments in the infrastructure sector roads, power, ports, harbours and new airports have opened up opportunities for African producers and merchants.

The onset of Covid-19 has tested the shock responsiveness of social protection programmes around the world. In this seminar, we examine Ghana’s Covid-19 responses using five criteria of Shock Responsive Social Protection – vertical expansion, horizontal expansion, piggybacking, shadow alignment, and refocusing.

Inclusive education has been accepted widely as a useful approach to promote the participation of all children in regular schools located in their communities. The policy has been embraced by many countries that have reformed their education system and are committed to preparing teachers to support the teaching of all children in regular classrooms. However, many countries, including Ghana, have struggled to fully implement inclusive education. Consequently, there is currently a search for the best way through which countries could implement inclusive education.