Ghana and her development partners would begin discussions on the 2012 Consultative Group Annual Partnership Meeting and Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Annual Review meeting in Accra on Monday.

The three-day meeting scheduled for June 18-21 June is on the theme “Leveraging Partnership in a Transitional Middle Income Country for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development” and it is expected to dialogue on major development and the strategic orientation of external assistance to the country.

For the first time, the meeting would be held back-to-back with the Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Annual Review to facilitate cross-fertilization, enhance alignment of MDBS to the national budget calendar and further minimize transaction costs.

“Within this forum, stakeholders will dialogue on the scale of external resources needed to support the national development aspirations of the country,” a statement from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said in Accra on Friday.

Officials from government institutions, diplomatic missions in Ghana, the private sector, civil society and NGOs will during the meeting engage on mutual partnership deliberations.

Since 2010, there has been an active on-going dialogue with regard to the role, nature and volume of official development assistance within the context of managing the transition to middle income.

With the current focus on Ghana as a middle income country and the added benefits of the emerging oil and gas industry, both government and development partners realize the need to review and re-define the overall strategy of Ghana’s partnership arrangements in relation to development priorities.

The MDBS Annual Review will precede the meeting with a holistic assessment of progress in the national development plan and the 2011 indicators of the MDBS policy matrix.

In addition, the Review will seek to assess the underlying principles related to macroeconomic performance, sound budgeting and public financial management, human rights and good governance in Ghana.

This is in line with the Framework Memorandum of the MDBS instrument to ensure continued provision of general budget support to Ghana.

The outcome of the Annual Review will determine the amount of un-earmarked aid resources for the national budget for 2013.

The Consultative Group/Annual Partnership Meeting will cover key priority areas in the development agenda including infrastructure, private sector development, the MDGs and equity, as well as capacity development.

It will discuss current and emerging issues as well as the nature of partnerships which could be instrumental in supporting government to achieve its objectives in these four thematic areas.

It is expected that government and development partners will agree to enter into a compact with the objective of improving the effective and strategic use of external resources at the end of the meeting.**