Publication: Poverty Reduction in Ghana: Progress and Challenges
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2015-10
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2015-10-07
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Ghana over the past two decades has enjoyed steady and robust growth, mainly through a modification in its economic structure: as the economy gradually shifted out of agriculture and into services, the country experienced noticeable advances in productivity. Agriculture's share of value added to GDP has declined at a faster rate since 2005, whereas the share of services has remained virtually unchanged. Employment has adjusted in line with the changes in the structure of the economy, with a progressive shift from the country side to urban areas. Educational attinmenst have improved, more people moved into cities and improved their household income, and the number of families living in poverty has noticeably decreased. Going forward, to realize its full potential Ghana must continue the stabilization program undertaken in 2014, with a sustained commitment to fiscal discipline. Additional priorities are to continue developing workers' skills, support further structural transformation, and expand the safety nets and income opportunities for large share of the population still living in poverty.
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“Molini, Vasco; Paci, Pierella. 2015. Poverty Reduction in Ghana: Progress and Challenges. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22732 License: CC By 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Poverty Reduction in Ghana—Progress and Challenges(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10)Ghana over the past two decades has enjoyed steady and robust growth, mainly through a modification in its economic structure: as the economy gradually shifted out of agriculture and into services, the country experienced noticeable advances in productivity. Agriculture's share of value added to GDP has declined at a faster rate since 2005, whereas the share of services has remained virtually unchanged. Employment has adjusted in line with the changes in the structure of the economy, with a progressive shift from the country side to urban areas. 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Although the study does not address causality, coincidence of these phenomena in this large sample of heterogeneous countries and periods suggests that, in the short run, the sectoral productivity and employment pattern of growth may have important implications for poverty alleviation. Therefore, policies for reducing poverty should not overlook the sectoral productivity and employment implications of different growth policies.Publication Making Work Pay in Madagascar : Employment, Growth, and Poverty Reduction(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008)There is little doubt that economic growth contributes significantly to poverty reduction; however, countries clearly differ in the degree to which income growth translates into reduced levels of poverty. 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Chapter five also reviews the relationships between productivity and earnings by looking at the linkages between changes in aggregate and sectoral labor productivity data (macro) and changes in individual earnings as gathered from the household surveys (micro). Chapter six examines the origins and determining factors of household earnings and employment and assesses their impact on poverty and poverty reduction. Chapter seven analyzes the individual and household characteristics that are associated with having either 'good' jobs or 'bad' jobs and reviews the question of whether there may be barriers preventing the movement of workers from bad to good labor market segments. Finally, chapter eight describes the main conclusions of this report and provides suggestions for future work based on these conclusions.
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