Ghana finds funds with strings attached

Ghana's government does not prioritise academic research

Ahead of a major OECD report on the effectiveness of development aid, the BBC's Will Ross, in Ghana, examines how millions of dollars in aid meant to benefit Ghanaian universities - is instead paying for Western researchers.

You might have thought that a donation of aid to carry out academic research would always be welcome.

But there is a growing feeling of resentment in countries like Ghana.

Some academics point out that when a rich western country donates funds for a research project in Africa, a significant quantity of the money is swallowed up by organisations and academics in the west and never actually reaches the country it was intended for - even though the total amount is counted as aid.

Ghana will continue to depend on aid to pay some of its teachers and to fund a significant proportion of its academic research. That research will often be of the donor's choosing, rather than what Ghana needs

Yao Graham is the head of the Third World Network, a pan-African research and advocacy organisation based in Accra.

He says while there are benefits to be gained from collaboration between academics in the richer and poorer countries, the relationship is often unhealthy.

"What it leads to effectively is that African scholars end up working as glorified research assistants to their peers from the north. And yesterday's researchers pop up with a budget to lead research because they are closer to the donor pot."

Salaries 'very poor'

At Ghana's Legon University, students are preparing for their end of year exams.

Like many on the African continent, this once prestigious university is struggling - partly because of problems with funding.

Dzodzi Tsikata is a senior research fellow at the university's Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research.

She says for many years successive governments in Ghana have paid little attention to the funding of academic research, which means people have no choice but to look outside Ghana for the funding.

"Salaries here are very poor but as a researcher you are judged by how much research you have done. You are judged by how much research funding you have attracted - before you become a professor they need to see you have attracted serious funding.

"So the need to progress in your career is a part of how come people accept certain relationships."

Wrong research

But the fact that aid for an academic grant is often conditional on the involvement of a foreign institution doesn't only affect the individuals working on the project.

It often means the subject of the research is often determined by people in the richer countries and Ms Tsikata is convinced that what Ghanaian researchers should be focusing on is often overlooked.

She gives the example of land tenure which is a serious problem in Ghana.

But research funded by the likes of the World Bank does not address the priorities for Ghanaians.

"You might buy land but usually you are buying trouble as the land may have been sold to three other people," Ms Tsikata says.

"More and more women are facing insecurities [regarding] their land interests. So those are the things that concern Ghanaians most. So if the slant is to look after the interest of foreign investors, our problems are not researched."

Election year

And if a country's priorities are not researched properly, the knock on effects are great.

So Mr Graham says the key is better access to resources for Ghana's researchers.

"If we don't improve the access of African researchers and scholars to resources then building the knowledge-base for teaching and for policy-making and ultimately inputting into development policy choices is constrained."

One way in which to break the cycle of how research is funded would be for the government here in Ghana to dig deep into its pockets to provide better resources.

But there is an election this year and research will once again be overlooked as an area in need of serious investment as other priorities take centre stage.

Ghana will continue to depend on aid to pay some of its teachers and to fund a significant proportion of its academic research.

That research will often be of the donor's choosing, rather than what Ghana needs.