Located in West Africa, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence in 1957. Its political and economic history has been chequered but the prospects of political stability and steady economic growth appear good.

With over 22 million inhabitants, Ghana is a low-income country well-endowed with natural resources and relies on agriculture for employment and domestic income and on gold, timber and cocoa for its exports. Ghana has recently discovered significant off-shore oil reserves and production will start progressively towards the end of 2010. The poverty level has been dramatically decreasing and Ghana is likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) 1, halving extreme poverty, well before 2015. Ghana would be the first sub-Saharan country to achieve this goal. However, further efforts are needed to address the MDGs related to child and maternal mortality, and to access to sanitation.

Ghana has achieved great progress in the area of governance and human rights. Ghana was the first country to complete, in 2005, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process, a governance initiative of the African Union aiming at improving governance in line with agreed standards. In December 2008 Ghana conducted presidential and parliamentary elections that international observers including the EU Election Observation Mission described as open, transparent and highly competitive. Ghana thus reaffirmed its political maturity and its commitment to peace and democracy.  

Key issues in EU-Ghana relations

Under the 10th European Development Fund (2008–13), the EC and Ghana signed a Country Strategy Paper (CSP) with a budget of € 367 million. The CSP was prepared in the context of a Joint Assistance Strategy involving the majority of Ghana's development partners with the aim of improving the alignment of development assistance with the government's Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II).

The EU’s cooperation with Ghana focuses on three main areas: transport connectivity and regional integration (€ 76 million), governance (€ 95 million) and general budget support (€ 175 million). Following the global food and economic crises in 2008 and 2009, the EU has granted additional budget support of € 50 million. Under the CSP, support to the transport sector aims at lowering transportation costs and improving access to markets and social services in rural areas, while at the same time, establishing Ghana as a transport hub in the region and thus enhancing regional cooperation and trade. In governance, the aim is to establish more effective, transparent and accountable decentralised local government systems, to engage civil society in national dialogue and decision making and to strengthen the practice of democracy.

As to the general budget support, in July 2009 the EC and Ghana signed a Millennium Development Goals Contract (MDG-C) providing for long term, predictable budget support in exchange for a greater focus on results, notably in the area of Millennium Development Goals and public finance management. 

The remaining part of the envelope (€ 21 million) is reserved for trade facilitation, migration issues, environment and technical cooperation.

Ghana is the first country to have signed, in 2009, a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU under the forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) initiative. The aim of the VPA is to improve forest governance and to ensure the legality and the certified origin of timber exports to Europe.

As an exporter of diamonds, Ghana has been part of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) since 2003. The Kimberly Process is a joint initiative of the government, industry and civil society aiming at ensuring that exports of rough diamonds are "conflict-free" certified. Ghana has achieved remarkable progress under this initiative.

As one of the few non-LDC countries in West Africa, Ghana initialled an interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU in December 2007. The objective of this interim agreement is to safeguard market access to the EU and avoid trade disruptions. Hence, since the 1st January 2008 Ghana has been granted full duty and quota free access to the EU market. The negotiation of a regional Economic Partnership between the EU and the West Africa region are ongoing.